Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers has called on China to ease all sanctions on Australian goods, amid reports that Beijing is about to end the coal ban. Speaking at the G20 financial summit in Bali, Chalmers called for a change in China.
“It should extend to the restrictions imposed on some of our exports also in the interest of our employers and our exporters here in Australia,” he said.
The Russian director of the Department of Financial Stability of the Bank of Russia, Elizaveta Danilova, on the left, and the Russian deputy finance minister, Timur Maksimov, on the right, attend the meeting of finance ministers and governors of the Central Bank of Russia. G20 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. (AP)
Experts say that lifting the coal ban will be about helping to heal China’s economy, not its relationship with Australia.
“I think if we misread it and see it as a kind of olive branch in Canberra, we are making a fundamental mistake,” said Chris Richardson of Deloitte Access Economics.
Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from 20 major economies, including Australia, met in Indonesia, but crucial talks on the global cost-of-living crisis ended in a stalemate.
Discussions were overshadowed by divisions over the war in Ukraine.
“This rage is burning in the international community, mainly because of the human cost of this illegal, immoral and unjustified invasion of Ukraine,” Chalmers said.
It is also due to the huge economic cost, experts say.
“It’s the biggest bad news for the world economy, for the Australian economy,” said Michael Shoebridge of the Institute for Strategic Policy in Australia.
“It has raised fuel prices, it has raised food prices.”
Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers, left, talks to Singapore Finance Minister Lawrence Wong during his bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Nusa Dua, Bali. (AP)
Richardson said no one could argue that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine was not the main cause of the inflationary spiral.
Attendees did not get a joint statement with the Moscow present.
“It’s kind of like having a neighborhood watch meeting about burglaries that happen in your suburb,” Richardson said.
“You have the thief there, so he won’t accept you calling the police.”