Last week, the Australian Senate passed a bill [https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=s1307] – Customs Amendment (Banning Goods Produced By Forced Labour) Bill 2021 – that would ban imports of goods made with forced labor. There are significant hurdles to the bill

In an Australian parliamentary session this week, Senator Sarah Henderson raised concerns about the Newcastle, Australia port, which is 50% owned by a Chinese state-owned company, imposing restrictions on coal exports. This has been a recurring issue that has arisen several times in recent months, in the context of

It has been widely reported in the media that Australia-China trade relations have deteriorated in recent months. Some aspects of this issue have been discussed in WTO committees and other bodies. At the May 3 meeting of the WTO’s Working Party on State-Trading Enterprises, for which the

The Australian Foreign Investment Review Board recently released its annual report [https://firb.gov.au/sites/firb.gov.au/files/2021-06/FIRB2019-20AnnualReport.pdf] for 2019-2020, documenting the foreign investment transactions it considered during that period. The report offers data and explanations related to investment coming into Australia

On July 27, the UK think tank Policy Exchange hosted an event [ https://policyexchange.org.uk/pxevents/strategic-trade/] on "Strategic Trade" with former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott (currently an adviser to the UK Board of Trade [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Trade]) giving the

Following up on this discussion [https://www.chinatrademonitor.com/kurt-campbell-on-u-s-china-issues/] of the Australia-China relationship during a conversation with Kurt Campbell, there were two recent statements by Australian/Chinese government officials at press conferences that are worth noting on this issue.  There is no

On July 6, the Asia Society Institute hosted a conversation with Kurt Campbell [https://asiasociety.org/new-york/events/conversation-kurt-campbell-white-house-coordinator-indo-pacific] , who currently serves as Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs on the National Security Council. The conversation was