According to a statement posted on the ministry’s website, Canberra is complaining about anti-dumping duties on railway wheels, wind turbines and Chinese-made stainless steel sinks.
The move is presumably in response to the fact that Australia also filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization last week about additional Chinese duties on Australian wine.
Sino-Australian relations have become increasingly strained in recent years. In 2018, Canberra excluded Chinese telecom giant Huawei from building the 5G mobile network on national security grounds, although the Chinese company has repeatedly denied national security claims originally made by the US side. Anger in the relationship intensified after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged an investigation last year to uncover the origins of the coronavirus. The Chinese leadership responded by imposing economic sanctions, banning the import of a range of Australian products, including wine, charcoal, and beef.
China’s National Development and Reform Commission said in early May that Beijing had indefinitely suspended high-level economic ties with Canberra. The Australian side announced in April that it had terminated the Australian One-Region Initiative, One-Way Global Economic and Infrastructure Initiative agreements with Australia.
(MTI)
