CHINA will lift sanctions on the lucrative trade in Australian lobster (pic), Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, heralding the end of a years-long politically charged spat between the two countries.
After meeting Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Laos, Albanese said yesterday that both had agreed to a “timetable to resume full lobster trade by the end of this year”.
Since 2017, Beijing has slapped levies on almost US$15bil worth of Australian exports, from wine to lobsters to timber.
After years of efforts to improve relations, the lobster trade – worth almost US$500mil (RM2.1bil) a year – is one of the last Australian exports to remain under Chinese sanctions.
China denied a raft of punitive tariffs were politically motivated.
But the measures coincided with an Australian crackdown on Chinese influence operations, a decision to block Huawei from running Australia’s 5G network, and Canberra’s barbed call for an investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The decision comes as Beijing faces deepening trade wars with Europe and the United States, which have slapped punitive tariffs on China’s electric vehicle exports, semiconductors, solar panels and a range of other goods. — AFP
