10 Sep 2021
Candour, at last, on China – but then what?
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has made explicit Australia’s challenge. The next step is ensuring business knows the plan.
-
-
3 Sep 2021
Australia’s essential need: not seaborne trade but seaborne supply
“Sea control” is not about dominating waters but only to the extent necessary to ensure the movement needed. -
26 Aug 2021
Economic diplomacy: After Kabul, Australia looks to India
Australia has a lower war-to-aid ratio, but the US is more transparent about its failure against the Taliban. -
9 Aug 2021
Australia and India: A time to refocus on trade talks
Tony Abbott’s visit to India shows conditions are ripe to advance a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. -
27 Jul 2021
When the chips are down: Biden’s semiconductor war
Export controls on US semiconductor tech into China didn’t stop with Trump. -
1 Jul 2021
Sweet and sour: Taiwan’s pork and pineapple battles
Nationalist consumer sentiment has become a decisive factor in Taiwan’s food bans with the US and China. -
24 Jun 2021
Australia sweeps the table in the UK trade deal
Tariff elimination on this scale through a free trade agreement is almost unprecedented. -
17 Jun 2021
Economic diplomacy: Trade deals for a fast-growing family
New ties with Britain to “right a historic wrong” but visa schemes for regional workers could generate another headache. -
4 May 2021
Australia keeps calm while China carries on
In the face of sustained coercion, Canberra has rejected the urge to seek economic revenge against Beijing. -
30 Apr 2021
Taiwan: Renewing a southbound vision
Increasing economic ties with Southeast Asia has been a success for Tsai Ing-wen. She should look beyond to India, too. -
22 Apr 2021
Economic diplomacy: Supply chains, ASEAN wanes, and Japan’s coal dump
Will government have to pick a winner for 6G networks to show the US and Japan as “global leaders in innovation”? -
15 Apr 2021
Will the Five Eyes stare down China’s economic coercion?
Trade figures suggest promises to “have Australia’s back” are yet to be matched by economic solidarity. -
8 Apr 2021
The big bark but small bite of China’s trade coercion
Targeted sanctions on Australian exports have affected billions in trade, but the real damage has been limited. -
2 Apr 2021
With Xinjiang cotton, Beijing is taking on the world
The latest “us-versus-them” drama shows China sees little chance of mending ties with the West, for now at least. -
25 Feb 2021
Why Aussie exporters won’t be toasting China or the US
Wine exporters suffer a sour drop. Could a clever sales pitch deliver a new special vintage? -
3 Feb 2021
A “beggar-thy-neighbour” approach keeps seafarers stranded
Some countries have banned crew rotations. Some have tight limits. A few are open. So a crisis continues. -
1 Dec 2020
What RCEP can tell us about geopolitics in Asia
China-US rivalry tends to overshadow assessments. But this major accomplishment came with ASEAN at the centre. -
17 Nov 2020
RCEP revives the art of the deal
A regional agreement might actually be a small step towards something even greater. -
13 Nov 2020
Biden’s clean energy plan versus China’s green tech dominance
The US might be able to construct a clean-energy supply chain without relying on China, but it won’t be easy. -
26 Oct 2020
Crew-change crisis risks supply chains – and lives
Some 400,000 seafarers are currently stuck on ships, past the end of their contracts, unable to go home. -
7 Oct 2020
Global trade policy at a lull, but for how long?
With economies and trade meetings cut down by Covid‑19, and political uncertainty in the air, we’re at a standstill. -
8 Sep 2020
Australia, all is not lost despite China’s trade tantrums
Stopping trade means China loses too, and Beijing must know the world is watching. -
1 Sep 2020
China sours on Australia’s wine
Why might Beijing have chosen to use anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations as informal economic sanctions? -
26 Aug 2020
A post-pandemic trade revival
The shadow trade minister sets out a four-point plan for Australia to turn an unparalleled crisis into an opportunity. -
28 Jul 2020
Managing Chinese economic risks means more than diversification
How does Australia confront the possibility of Beijing’s economic coercion? -
24 Jul 2020
The world can still prosper from free trade
Trade negotiators must think that theirs is an unhappy lot. But they keep trying – as they should. -
8 Jul 2020
Costly cargo: The plight of seafarers in a pandemic
Is enough being done to look after international crews aboard “flags of convenience” ships and to maintain global trade? -
7 Jul 2020
China eyes African prospects to iron out trade tension with Australia
Investing in largely untapped iron ore sources in Africa might be Beijing’s answer to diversifying import sources. -
6 Jul 2020
Indonesia: Still caught between trade and protectionism
There is little evidence Jokowi sees trade deals as a way to drive liberalising domestic economic reforms at home. -
4 Jun 2020
Economic diplomacy: Asian investment, super tension & the WTO hot seat
World trade could be set to fall as much as 30% this year. Who is going to be in charge of fixing the problem? -
22 May 2020
Getting back to harvest: The way forward after China’s barley tariff
Australian growers are effectively banned from a huge market. But details of the decision show how it may be reversed. -
21 May 2020
Economic diplomacy: Mood shift afoot
Stung by the barley and meat export disputes with China, easy talk about diversifying export markets now gets real. -
13 May 2020
In beef over barley, Chinese economic coercion cuts against the grain
Beijing has become adept at punishing countries with legally “dressed up” informal economic sanctions. -
28 Apr 2020
New Zealand: Running the marathon
Having started well, there’s a lot to happen yet. And so far this race is not a team event, internationally. -
23 Apr 2020
Statesman Turnbull steps up: Secret letters, taming Trump, due credit
Business with Donald, shared history with Xi and a Pacific ploy are revealing of the former PM’s foreign ambition. -
21 Apr 2020
The facts about global trade in face masks, ventilators and test kits
Policies that injure global trade in medical products would hurt the US and Western democratic allies more than most. -
13 Mar 2020
Democrats on trade, and North Korea: “No hot dish for the dictator”
From free trade to one of Asia’s most intractable challenges, a Democratic president needs to navigate Trump’s legacy. -
28 Jan 2020
The US is elbowing Australia and allies in a race for the China market
Australia needs to be very wary of how Donald Trump’s “unbelievable deal” will play out. -
19 Dec 2019
US-China trade deal, phase one done: Now what?
The detail in the present truce in the US-China trade war carries some bad news for Australia. -
18 Dec 2019
Chart of the week: Global trade through a US-China lens
Two thirds of the world trade more goods with China than with the US. -
18 Nov 2019
Trade war: From a phase one deal to perpetual peace
How to reconcile deeper ideological differences underlying the US-China conflicts is a far greater challenge. -
14 Nov 2019
Chart of the week: Australia’s “fear and greed” with China
In just two decades, Australia’s relationship with China has evolved dramatically, illustrated by exports. -
7 Nov 2019
Economic diplomacy: RCEP and ASEAN’s new way, plus voting ADB-style
What was Factory Asia has made a subtle shift to a consumer-driven Market Asia under the “world’s biggest trade deal”. -
6 Nov 2019
India’s RCEP exit a setback, but not a disaster
With an India–China deadlock out of the way, the path is clear to finalise the historic regional trade agreement. -
18 Oct 2019
Are free trade deals expanding a digital divide?
E-commerce is a big feature of regional trade talks, but developing countries should be wary of the pitfalls. -
14 Oct 2019
US-China trade talks: No deal yet, but a breakthrough of sorts
Donald Trump has begun talking about “phases”, suggesting he has a more realistic expectation of what it is possible. -
30 Sep 2019
India’s RCEP reticence
Eliminating various tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade must be balanced against domestic needs. -
2 Sep 2019
A light amid the gloom of the US-China trade war
Everything leaks in Washington, except the 150-page summary of the trade talks – and that’s a good sign of seriousness. -
6 Aug 2019
Coordinating with America to pressure China on trade
Beijing should pay legitimate intellectual property charges yet the system is an imperfect way to reward innovation. -
1 Aug 2019
Economic diplomacy: Guns versus butter, trade wars, and feeding PNG
Could trade talks with China be split from broader diplomacy in order to escape a security dilemma?