Trade
Candour, at last, on China – but then what?
The most important foreign policy speech by a cabinet minister so far this year was delivered last Monday. That Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was the speaker was a little surprising…
Australia’s essential need: not seaborne trade but seaborne supply
Tom Shugart’s Lowy Institute analysis of the rising maritime capabilities of China’s armed forces presents a bleak prospect for the imbalance between China’s growing offensive…
Economic diplomacy: After Kabul, Australia looks to India
Suitcase intelligence
Bob Carr recalls in his Diary of a Foreign Minister how a senior Australian intelligence official told him bluntly in 2013 that the war against the…
Australia and India: A time to refocus on trade talks
Australia’s former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has just completed a packed visit to India from 2–6 August as Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s special trade envoy.
Abbott should…
When the chips are down: Biden’s semiconductor war
Export control policy in the semiconductor sector – an industry that supplies the world’s computer, smartphone, appliances and medical equipment industry with electronic chips –…
Sweet and sour: Taiwan’s pork and pineapple battles
In August, Taiwan will hold a referendum on whether to reinstate a ban on US pork containing the additive ractopamine. This could introduce a sour taste into otherwise positive…
Australia sweeps the table in the UK trade deal
Australian trade negotiators often enter talks with difficult demands and a comparatively weak hand. Agriculture, where they seek concessions from the other side, is politically…
Economic diplomacy: Trade deals for a fast-growing family
Worker vs worker vs student
Almost five million Kiwis have always been at least cousins. And Scott Morrison’s distinctive contribution to regional security has been his embrace…
Australia keeps calm while China carries on
Now that the Morrison government has cancelled Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement with China, Australia is bracing for retaliation from Beijing, probably by way of further trade…
Taiwan: Renewing a southbound vision
For all the talk of cross-Strait military tensions – which are real – in the economic realm, Taiwan’s fortunes have been bound to those of China. Recognising the need to…