7/26/2023

China’s trade war on Australia was harmless so stop grovelling. Really?



Tuesday, 25 July 2023

As with most things Albo, he said one thing to get elected then did another in power.

During the Chinese economic coercion push against Australia before and after COVID, Albo consistently defended Beijing against Canberra.

However, a few months before the election he backflipped and said “China had changed”.

The moment he got elected he backflipped again and began Labor’s great grovel to Beijing to restore trade relations.

The kowtowing has been so daft and humiliating that it has been noticed as far away as Washington with some bewilderment.

Today we can add further texture to the great grovel with the release of a Productivity Commission report that shows how harmless the trade war was to the Australian economy:

Australian exports proved to be mostly resilient against these trade measures. For example, barley and coal exporters were successful in finding other markets. The value of beef and wheat exports to China did not experience significant falls – likely due to the partial nature of the measure, which was limited to certain abattoirs and shipments.

On the other hand, there were falls in exports of Australian lobsters and wine, affecting producers whose exports were concentrated on the Chinese market. That said, after initially increasing exports to their original markets, wine exporters developed new markets. In the case of products with limited perishability, like wine, the costs to exporters might be from deferred sales, rather than not being able to sell the good at all. And some exporters may have even enjoyed an increase in the value of stock that ages well. While these measures do not appear to have imposed substantial costs on the Australian economy as a whole, some businesses paid a heavy price.

…The effect of China’s trade measures on some Australian exporters could have had broader implications on the Australian and world economy after businesses, consumers, governments, workers and capital owners adjusted to changes in the trade environment. The Productivity Commission modelled the economy-wide effects of the trade measures. This section presents the results of this modelling.

The results indicate how trade adjusts to the disruptions and that although some industries might have incurred significant costs as they adjusted, economy-wide and global effects tend to be limited. Although the actual restrictions took many different forms (table C.1), they are modelled here as a tax imposed on Australian exports of the relevant goods to China; the tax is calibrated to increase the tax-inclusive export price to the point of making the export prohibitive. The model is designed to illustrate how Australian and global production and trade reorganised to adapt to the disruption.

The impact on growth was not a rounding error, as we said amid the wall-to-wall hysteria in the iMSM at the time.

Given China’s near-complete powerlessness, why is Albo face down licking Beijing’s boots instead of taking heed of the warning and building Australian economic resilience for the next round of Chinese warfare?

Anonymous

China punishing little assholes

China's retaliation will always be calculated to inflict maximum damage to any country that tries to sabotage its investments. It is not retaliation plucked out of thin air on the spur of the moment. It is pivotal, calibrated and closely discussed before being implemented. India's day of reckoning will come.

China's latest retaliation is against Lithuania. China is cutting off and removing its China Railway operations in Lithuania. This will hit Lithuania's economy very seriously. Lithuania had been antagonising China endlessly, with its stance on Taiwan, the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

The power that China holds comes from its ability to control its enormous production capacity, established production infrastructure, market size and control of essential commodities. It does not come about by chance. China had been working on accumulating resources, investing in essential infrastructures, building up relations with resource rich countries around the world, particularly in Africa.

Other countries may attempt to isolate China, de-risking if you want to call it, but the cost of doing so, like setting up similar infrastructures for production themselves, or under alliances is not going to work. The hold that China has on so many things is beyond the ability of any country to replicate. In terms of size in supply and demand, China holds the key.  

Anonymous

Ukraine grain deal - American lie exposed

 According to Dr. Oualaalou of Geopolitical Trends, a geopolitical analyst and researcher, there is more to it than Russia not renewing the grain deal. It was to mirror what happened under the Minsk Agreement, where the West completely obfuscate the interest of the other parties, namely Russia and Donbass, and only used the agreement to further its own interest like just buying time for Ukraine to upgrade its military capabilities and nothing about following the said Minsk Agreement to the letter.

Under the Grain Deal, according to Dr. Oualaalou, Ukraine and Russia were both allowed to ship grain and fertiliser through the Black Sea. But the West, upended the deal by refusing the Russians to ship their grain and fertiliser under the same deal, quoting the ongoing sanctions imposed on Russia as not allowing for that.

This is as good as telling the Russians that they follow only one side of the agreement, while denying the Russians what had been agreed upon all along. This was never revealed in the MSM and official Western circles when talking about why Russia refused to renew the grain deal. The same way they never talked about the terms in the Minsk Agreement that forbid Nato's expansion into Ukraine and atrocities committed against Russian speaking people in Eastern Ukraine. They just interpreted agreements in their own way, using their 'Rules Based Order' horseshit.

The Ukrainians are now trying to ship grains out through Odesa and Danube River ports, but Russia is now targeting them with hypersonic missiles. Moreover, Russia is aware that Western ships on the pretext of shipping grains, are suspected of carrying weapons to attack targets in Crimea, eg the Kerch Bridge. Putin is not unaware of that.

It now looks like the USA is pushing Nato into direct conflict with Russia, with Poland now creating mischief in the North West. Was Putin's intention to relocate Wagner to Belarus anything to do with countering that? By having Romanian ships trying to load grains at Danube River ports, and with Russia targeting the infrastructures, it looks like the USA is pushing Nato in desperation to escalate the war and getting Nato directly involved now. 

Anonymous

7/25/2023

From Africanisation of America to Islamisation of Europe - Bizarre works of the white men 's self destruction

Dutch government collapses over migrants

No where better to invest or plain stupidity to invest in India? Or a deliberate scam to rob their employers in collaboration with the cheats?

 India thinks that China has no where else to invest its surpluses. The BRI alone is bigger than what India can offer in areas of investment by China, but of course that is a State sponsored investment, with private participation. And by a stroke of good luck, India is not in the BRI. Nor the RCEP, that would afford India another organisation to sabotage.

India's membership in BRICS and SCO has to be scrutinised in the face of its apparent intent to sabotage its agenda. It did not escape notice that some are already pointing out that Modi's action in SCO had a lot to do with his visit to Washington recently. That could be food for thought, as to the sudden change in his drastic move to cripple the SCO.

Xiaomi's predicament in India had been criticised in China as well by some, who probably knew this was going to happen long ago. The Taiwanese, Wistron and Foxconn, are probably more astute and pulling out when they saw what is happening with their investments. Foxconn was expecting subsidies that never materilised. They were actually lured to India by following Apple as supporting players, but it did not turn out well. If Xiaomi still insists on remaining in India, it really deserves to be screwed.

Apple will have to remain in India as it has to tow the USA line by 'de-risking' its operations in China, and cannot extricate itself from India. Actually it was reported that India only accounts for 10% of Apple's production, while 90% still remains in China. India's long term share was supposed to rise to 25% of Apple's production target, with China the other 75%. By and large, Apple still has to rely on China's downstream supply chains, with integral parts still needed to be shipped to India for its assembly line. That will add in cost, which negates the savings in lower wages paid to Indian workers. Moreover, the level of skill of Indian workers is still not on par with Chinese workers.

India's wet dream of overtaking China to be the 'factory of the world' is, I think, completely in tatters by its actions against Xiaomi, Wistron and Foxconn and its stance of stifling progress envisaged by members of BRICS and SCO. Members of those two alliances will think twice about bringing India into their progressive outlook going forward, not to talk about investing in India to benefit the country. 

Anonymous