Does Australia Need China??

Over 83 billion in exports per year, going to be tough to replace this

Australia delusional in expecting normal trade amid tensions with China - Global Times

Interested on tour thoughts

 

Yes, we do.

 

Hubby works for a multinational industrial company. My basic understanding from what he tells me - Verrry basic.

China buys Australia iron ore because it's the cheapest in the world. So they will have to pay more for their iron ore from elsewhere. They will also have to bid against others for it. Iron-ore price goes up. China eventually comes back to Australia for iron ore. Australia sells it to them under a new contract.

 

Yes we need each other.
Trade is a good thing as we produce abundance of it.
Want house price to boom to the moon or not?

 

Not disagreeing with you, but seem that they are putting money in tech now (look at 5 their 5 year plan). So less building apartment in the future. You husband may be in for a bit of a rough ride soon.

 

We are not alone
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp...seek-wider-trade-options-20200521-p54v2o.html

 

Replace the word China with any country - that you have too much trade is going to end up in similar situation.
If anyone here think it won't happen, you need your head examine.

 

agree
This was evident recently with reliance on China for drugs. US now moving to manufacture own drugs
Coronavirus Spurs U.S. Efforts to End China’s Chokehold on Drugs

Somehow we need to change the current balance

 

If anything this pandemic has taught us, over reliance on any one country is crippling. Especially in the medical and food area.

We need to divest from China.

 

Agreed
Short term pain long term gain,
We need to find more trading partners and diversify our exports to have more market power.

 

It's all just political posturing at the moment. Demand for everything in China has collapsed at the moment. China doesnt need that much beef, iron ore or barley at the moment, hence the noise.

For a vibrant economy we need them for sure, but since all the raw materials and food are mined and produced here, we wont go hungry even if they banned all our exports.

 

Let’s rephrase the question.
If we didn’t have China would we still be a first world luck country? Ofcourse we could be.

Look I’m sure this won’t be the case but maybe it’s an opportunity to use our amazing country and abundance of land in other ways instead of relying on digging it up and selling it to China.

In such uncertain times we don’t want to rock the boat too much. We should not roll over to China but also let’s not go all chips in against them. Do what we can to keep the peace but start planning for shifting away from our reliance on our resources. It’s not a click of the fingers it’s a long process but we need to start somewhere.

 

OH and if ever there was an event to show our past and future governments how critical a National Broadbean Network with fiber to the premises is.......I mean come on!!!!

The future is in technology! Our Internet is 20 years in the past.

 

“Need” implies a binary response.... its a far more complex issue.

The trade relationship has benefits on both sides however the implications for Australia are far more profound due to the trade concentration on our side In more than one sector. It’s a classic David and Goliath battle that has a lot of downside for Australian industry and the economy.

Let’s Just hope our Politicians can do what they are elected to do and not allow this to escalate further..... Its not the end of the world but it can and probably will, hurt us substantially.

 

I liked things a lot better when Japan was our biggest trading partner.....they played a lot nicer than China, just saying.......

 

China buys Australian iron ore because we produce 50% of world output. It's not like they can easily source it anywhere else. After Brazil with a market share of ~25% there is no other major player in the world in that space and unlike us the Brazilians are having difficulty with output because of the virus. Also, the cost of iron ore is determined by the market based spot price.

 

Australia sells it resources too cheap.

We should value add to our raw materials (ie iron ore + LNG/Coal = steel production) then export at a higher cost. Or rare minerals etc.

Additionally the Govt could put annual limits on the iron ore export quantities. The reduced supply would increase the value per tonne and give the Australia a better export value. I believe we undersell our resources and we the Australian people lose out accordingly.

 

Yes, but We still need to export goods

 

Kind of like what OPEC members can do with oil. Doubt it's that simple and I do wonder if Australia doing this would be in breach of free trade practices though?

 

Short term vision - Yes
Long term vision - No (like as what @albanga mentioned)

Im more interested in the reality of weather China needs Australia (never realised how significant we were in the world in relation to China)