WTO
Foreign policy China-style: beyond protocol and alcohol
There are phases in international relations when diplomacy between some countries is unfortunately reduced to protocol and alcohol. Such phases are never entirely intentional. No…
Economic diplomacy: Arming up for war and trade
Guns AND butter
It took a Second World War general-turned-president in Dwight Eisenhower to provide one of the most evocative articulations of the classic government spending…
Indonesia’s uncertain climb up the nickel value chain
Indonesia has historically had limited success with industrial policy. That may now be changing, with recent interventionist policies targeting the nickel sector suggesting…
How will China’s punitive trade restrictions against Australia end?
Recent reports of an imminent meeting between Australia’s and China’s trade ministers have raised hopes of progress toward the removal of the trade restrictions that China imposed…
Economic diplomacy: From pollie crises to polycrisis
Words of the year are already flowing freely with teal taking the prize at the Macquarie Dictionary to reflect the challenge being posed to Australia’s major political parties by…
Trade policy agenda facing new drivers
There can be little doubt that the conduct of Australian trade policy will become more complex and challenging for the foreseeable future.
Two trends are salient. First, with the…
Economic diplomacy: Free trade vs economic resilience
Santa clauses
The value of global goods trade during the biggest pandemic in a century last year dropped about a third less than it did during the biggest financial crisis in a…
Markets and resilience in the face of economic coercion
Australia’s stern statement at a World Trade Organisation review of China’s trade policy last month emphasised that Beijing’s trade disruptive measures may be targeted at…
WTO dispute settlement: why Australia bothers
I have three propositions about Australia’s participation in World Trade Organisation dispute settlement to put to Interpreter readers.Proposition one: the WTO dispute settlement…
Economic diplomacy: Little Australia spends slowly in the Pacific
Baby BRIs
It is now almost three years since Prime Minister Scott Morrison muscled up to China’s infrastructure building Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with $3 billion in varied…