China Australia Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

While China has been upholding free trade and multilateralism and sustaining trade with partners including Australia, despite the growing complexity in bilateral relations and logistical difficulties in the post pandemic era, Australia has been abusing trade remedies to suppress Chinese products, breaching the principles of the market economy and the bilateral free trade agreement, analysts said.

According to recent official remarks by the Chinese foreign affairs authorities, Australia has launched over a hundred anti-dumping and countervailing investigations against Chinese products, while the number of Chinese anti-dumping and countervailing investigations against Australian products is in the single digits.

"So far Australia has launched as many as 106 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations against Chinese products, while China only initiated four investigations against Australian goods," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference on November 6.

Against the backdrop of the spread of the pandemic, Australia's measures run counter to the Chinese call for unity against the epidemic and caution in the use of trade remedies.

Earlier this year, Australia launched anti-dumping probes against Chinese aluminum, steel and office paper, data from the Australian Anti-Dumping Commission showed. 
 
The probe against Chinese aluminum micro-extrusions began in February, followed closely by a probe into steel pipes and tubes in March and another probe on copy paper in April.

Analysts said these probes launched at the request of Australian manufacturing companies are more often a reflection of Australian manufacturers' status as high-cost producers, rather than Chinese companies’ deliberate aim to dump goods into the Australian market.

Meanwhile, China's tariffs on Australian products dumped into the Chinese market, such as barley and wine, are intended to safeguard the livelihood of domestic industries and maintain market order. 
 
Industry representatives told the Global Times that a massive influx of cheap Australian barley has threatened to impact domestic barley growers, hurting farmers' enthusiasm to grow the crop.

"Australian wine and barley do cause difficulties for the production and operation of domestic companies because their export prices are below the fair market value, thus taking over the domestic market and creating competition with domestic producers,” Ning Tuanhui, a research assistant with the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

China initiated anti-dumping and countervailing investigations against barley imports from Australia in accordance with Chinese laws and WTO rules in May, which was the only trade remedy investigation against the country since the establishment of the diplomatic ties with Australia, Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said on May 25.

Over the same period, Australia has launched 100 trade remedy investigations against China and three targeting China so far this year, said Zhong.

"Australia has been launching countermeasures on trade, anti-dumping and countervailing investigations against China – its largest trading partner – in such a high magnitude by politicizing trade with China, while China only takes it as an ordinary trade issue. This reflects the big difference in mindset between the two countries regarding free trade,” said Ning.

In stark contrast with Australia’s stance toward China, China has not yet brought any anti-dumping cases against Australia at the WTO.

However, experts said that China reserves the right to lodge a complaint at the WTO against some Australian products.

"After all, if you intentionally dig into the cases, then you might find that there are dumping issues in almost every case,” Tu Xinquan, president of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

While Australia escalates the confrontation with China with more trade remedies motivated by political purposes, Yu Lei, a chief research fellow at the Research Center for Pacific Island Countries at Liaocheng University, said China should also step up related studies and work on measures to prevent China's exports to Australia from falling victim to the abuse of trade remedy measures. 

"Australia imports a wide range of goods from China, but it only exports a few categories of commodities to China," Yu said. "This means China's exports to Australia are more at risk from anti-dumping probes."
 
Yu said Chinese companies are losing over $100 billion each year due to trade remedy measures initiated by foreign governments in the global market. 

In addition to trade, Australia, as a growing active member of the Five Eye Alliance, has imposed many restrictions against Chinese companies and goods in the name of the so-called national security issue, creating a very unfriendly atmosphere for bilateral business cooperation.

China lodged a complaint with the WTO over Australia's ban on Huawei participating in the country’s 5G network construction, according to a report by the Sydney Morning Herald on April 14, 2019.