China has threatened a huge tariff on Australian Barley and a shut off of Australian meat and dairy exports simply because Australia asked what we all want to know. Where did the virus come from and what was done wrong.
Economic blackmail IS still blackmail. Criminals do blackmail.
So I have a modest suggestion for Australia. There’s this nice sized country being threatend with “food shortages” by thd E.U. “negotiators”(who impress me as another group of thugs…). So I suggert Australia open highly visible negotiations for free trade with the UK. Do it now. Let both groups of thugs and blackmailers know you have choices…
Right now, the Grand Solar Minimum has made weather more volatile again, and made agricultural production more more risky. China needs your food (it can not feed itself without imports). You with net food production have the dominate position.
So just start talking up national security risks of foreign contol of your food production and drop the “nationalization” word. Go on TV talking with the UK aboug setting up food trade. Ask, publicly, about having UK Drug makers setting up Australian operations to replace Chinese imports.
This does two important things. It gives China and the EU a well deserved slap. It strengthens both Australia and the U.K.
If you are really lucky, China will get very pissed and pull their Chinese Spy Students out and stop buying up your country.
FWIW: I’d include coal trade if the UK were not being infested with Gang Green CO2 paranoia.
For added spice:
Make it illegal for State Owned Enterprises to own companies or land in your country. This ought to be done in any case.
Why? “Economies of scale” extends strongly into financial economies of running every company. Banks even more so. National central banks most of all. A Central Bank can make unlimited money at zero interest costs. Your companies must pay for loans. Big prime borrowers at a fraction percent more than banks, little companies at several percent more. This fundamentally gives a huge advantage to big companies, AND an effectively superior advantage to State Owned Enterprises over all others, as they can get unlimited money at zero cost, since they are funded by the National Central Bank.
The short hand I use for this is “Fattest Wallet Wins”, and the National Central Bank has the fattest wallet of all.
By definition, the State Owned Enterprise can crush any private competor companies. You can have “free & fair competition” or you can have State Owned Enterprises, but you can’t have both in the same market. At least not for long.
Musings from the Chiefio 
I thought Oz (and most of the UK Commonwealth nations) already had reciprocal trade agreements with the UK? Oh well, I am sure Oz is not in any danger of NOT selling its food.
And the statement about “criminals blackmail” is true. If China had nothing to hide, they would simply deny it and move on, not retaliate. China is the short term big winner with this Virus, as that was their plan. Cripple the world economy to help theirs.
But they also burned a lot of bridges by first hoarding PPE, then trying to sell donated PPE back to the donators, then selling defective PPE. And finally, weaponizing their products in the crises.
Some, like Merkel, will quickly forget. But the UK Commonwealth and the US will not. And that is going to hurt them in the long run. Apple is already talking about moving their production to India. And they are merely the first to announce it. China was playing checkers with Chess Grand Masters.
We in Australian are up to our eyeballs in debt to China, relying on it for 30% of our trade. It’s influence is huge as a product of that relationship. You are right to highlight its land ‘ownership’, but its influence in universities is massive too.
I am prepared to believe that the Wuhan Virus was an accidental release, but the CCP was quick to jump on it and make it the most of the opportunities it presented.
My only hope is that the accident forced its hand early, before the belt and road initiative was complete, and it is now exposed as the World domination power grab that underlies it. I have heard that African nations are getting wise to the second rate aid that has been supplied. So too are nations who received second rate PPE.
It would be fascinating if there was a Worldwide consortium of countries who decided to collectively punish them for their perfidy.
@Phil Jourdan:
As I remember it, the UK and other Commonwealth Nations had loads of trade prior to the UK joining the EU. Litteral boatloads of Australian Lamb, for example. Under the EU rules, that was outside the protectionist EU border, so subject to pain and suffering to get it in.
UK food trade shortly moved to more France / Itlay oriented and Australian Lamb increasingly went to the USA and China.
Over the decades since, even more Australian / New Zealand goods (coal, wine, wool, wood, etc.) was sold into Asia and the UK got ever more close links into other EU Member states.
So what I’m suggesting is that now that the UK is already exited from the EU (just trying to negotiate a trade deal with it…) they ought to re-kindle their historic Commonwealth trading volumes, and that Australia / N.Z. ought to be encouraging more trade with the UK and less with China (since China has shown itself to be a predatory party and not an honest partner… IMHO).
@Andysaurus:
Well, one could always just cancel the debt as reparations for the Wuhan Virus damages… but best to move some of that 30% of trade to other destinations first ;-)
BTW, wouldn’t mind at all a bit more Australian Beer, Wine and Lamb headed this way ;-) My feet are present resting on a sheep fleece I picked up in Australia when I was there. About 40 years now I’ve had this foot warmer under my desk – on and off… Maybe time for a new one of them, too.
“Because we luvs our vegemite” we only export 2% of what we make. So nice on toast, mmm.
At this moment, 5.26pm, Melbourne time,wouldn’t mind a vegemite. toast hors d’oeuvre with the glass of Carlton Draft beer I’m sippin’ while I enjoy this post, E.M. )
@beththeserf, I gave up beer when I gave up carbs. Te biggest of big deals because as a blacksmith I brewed some good stuff (see earlier conversations with E.M.) Now I have to make do with Shiraz. Fortunately, Like James Bond’s M, I have a taste for rough red and it is incredibly cheap here (I live in Qld., but I believe GetWinesDirect is based in Victoria). I have a subsidised electricity supply because of stupid government belief in Man Made Global warming paying me to provide space for solar power. So I Air conditioned one of the bedrooms left over when the kids left home and filled it with wine. My plan is to put in more than I drink so that it gets relatively older and older.
E.M. I have been stocking up my freezer to weather the oncoming meat shortage and now it probably means the price will drop for us in the short term. I don’t care. I am supporting the local meat industry. I didn’t notice India in the considerations. It is a bit corrupt, but not as bad as many other countries, having inherited property rights, legal system and values from the Poms, like us (and you). You’re right, commonwealth trade is a pretty good bet. They’re smart too. I worked with a lot in the IT industry before I retired and there were some fabulous problem solvers in my teams. Good work ethic and great to have a drink with.
EM I agree completely. CCP thuggery has to be responded to in kind . But I think a ban on all exports of Australian ( mostly organic ) milk would be useful. It’s exported to China for baby formula. That would put pressure on the CCP where it hurts. Maybe Vietnam would like some instead or South Korea or Taiwan ? Or even the Philippines with it’s high birth rate.
Re Lamb, not much is exported to China. It’s mostly beef which the Chinese buy as they don’t like the strong taste of lamb. Lamb exports are mostly to the Middle East where they have the taste for it..
andysaurus, I rarely drink beer myself, usually on hot summer days. Just felt like it today. ) Avoid most carbs except potatoes. Good luck with yr winery.
E.M. Thx for the edit.
Mutton is better than lamb if you are making a curry. If any of you have the courage try vegimite or marmite with peanut butter on toast. Peanut butter and marmite are made for each other.
Going back to the second world war, I had always wondered why the allies had bombed the shit out of Germany. It seemed so gratuitous so over the top. Years later I realised that it was done in retaliation not for WW2 but for WW1. During the first world war Germany had not one shot fired on their soil not one shell fired not one building destroyed. This enabled them to take the position that war has little cost. The same applies to China today. Make them suffer so that they know that their duplicitous behaviour has costs.
So today back on the water legally. Two Pollock pan sise no mackerel yet but salad and pollock mmmmm. Upped my Vit D sunshine the pollock con salada will do the rest. Better than winning the Loto
@EM – ah yes, you jostled some old gray cells and I seem to recall that the UK gave up a lot to get into the EU ,and the commonwealth was part of that. That was the 3rd Reich’s plan after all. And they succeeded (under Herr Merkel), except for (once again) the UK.
Now I understand why Outback has featured Lamb chops! Very tasty!
@Andysaurus.
I work for a wine connoisseur in the old Dominion. He has a great disdain for wines from this colony. But has a great affinity for Oz wines! It is a great sacrifice to give up Beer, but take solace in your excellent wines! ;-).
We in Oz have very warm feelings for the mother country. I lived 6 years in UK and formed many friendships. We should be returning from a UK holiday right now but COVID-16 buggered that. Of course we will do deals with the UK for our beef. We cannot sell that to India who regard cows as sacred. Our wine, of course, is very flavoursome and requires an acquired taste. I’m sure you can develop that.
@Paul O’Keeffe:
IMHO not much of an “acquired taste” needed! We have Australian wines on our store shelves and they are among my favourites! (Yes, a guy living in the middle of California Wine Country drinking Australian wine…) Your Bordaux Style reds are a deep rich red, but not really much different from any other deep rich red. A bit of bottle age and it is as good as the best from California or France. Cabernet is Cabernet, after all…
Now New Zealand Reds were a bit of a surprise. Due to their cooler climate you don’t get those deep rich very high alcohol and tannin grapes. The wine ends up softer and with thinner flavors. Still quite nice, but more for drinking now and less for “a few years in the cellar”.
Then the Australian whites are also quite good. Though, IMHO, the New Zealand climate makes it easier to make a propper German Style than the climate in Australia (that lends more to Chablis styles, though the Pinot Grigio is my preferred…)
So IMHO all one need do to “acqure a taste” for Australian wines is open the bottle and pour!
I prefer Australian reds to most of what California produces…
We are blessed with a wide range of climates and terroirs here in Oz and so can grow a wide range of grape varieties and thus good wine.
The one which we do not do well is Malbec. We do not have the combination of altitude ( above 800 meters ) and rain shadow needed. This means that we cannot grow Malbec vines in a very cool low humidity location with irrigation as in Mendoza in Argentina.
Re Beef, I do not think we will have much trouble selling beef elsewhere in the world. The UK and the USA and even Russia are growing markets. And no doubt with Brexit happening the EU restrictions of Oz beef & lamb sales to the UK will evaporate.
The economic impact of the virus pandemic in China is huge. And threaten’s the CCP’s grip on dictatorial power
Why ?
Because massive unemployment is growing fast. Global demand for it’s manufactured exports has slumped enormously. This is being compounded by the shift of supply chains away from China for many manufactured goods.
That means that Chinese manufacturing generally is in a major slump.The other major driver for past employment growth has been in services. But customers are nervous about catching the disease & so very scarce.
So if we here in Oz are honest, the Chinese market for our barley, meat, wine, seafood, dairy products etc has fallen off a cliff and will take years to recover. Best our farmers realise this and seek other markets.
The UK, the USA, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea & Canada come to mind. But other countries which are benefiting from the movement of assembly plants away from China should also be in the mix. India, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines are likely improved customers for Australia’s farm commodities.
A new less globalised, but still inter-connected world, is being born.
Link : The South China Morning Post
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3083513/coronavirus-china-faces-historic-test-pandemic-stokes-fears?utm_medium=web&utm_source=series&utm_campaign=grim-outlook-chinese-unemployment&utm_content=20200522
Yes, It appears that the very carefully built house of cards that is the Chinese economy is starting to collapse. They seemed to forget that the Western world that they dream of dominating is both their customers and employers. Without a healthy Western economy to feed on they will return to their dark ages of subsistence living again. Sweatshop to the world doesn’t work if the world is not buying your stuff. Cheating and lying to your customers does not work for long.
The present CCP system was designed around providing more and more jobs for a restive population to keep them working rather then revolting. It appears that the party is over for the party…pg
@PG – exactly
Yes, and this has been reason one to take the China virus seriously. They did not destroy their own economy in some bizzare hope to do greater harm to the ROW, or to the US specifically.
I guess, in theory, one could rationalize that, as they were badly losing the trade war, they were so desperate to remove P Trump they thought inflicting great harm on the US would be cause to remove the Orange storm. An insane and desperate action if true.
I think it more likely that the virus was far worse then revealed, and they had to take the measures they did.
As to their lies and reluctance to reveal what they new, well that just their nature, and they hoped to sell themselves as hero’s, but snakes are not heros, and they are exposed.