China will lift a ban on the lucrative trade in Australian lobster, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday, ending a broader, multi-billion dollar trade war.
Beijing has banned or slapped retaliatory tariffs on almost $15 billion worth of Australian exports, from wine to timber, during years of soured ties with Canberra.
The lobster trade, worth $500,000 a year, is the last major Australian export to remain under sanction and its removal was the subject of months of Australian diplomatic efforts.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese finally declared victory after a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Laos, saying Beijing had agreed to a “timetable to resume full lobster trade by the end of this year”.
China introduced a defacto ban on live rock lobster in 2020 while denying the move — and a raft of other punitive tariffs — were linked to the worst crisis in relations in decades.
Beijing was enraged by Australia’s crackdown on Chinese foreign influence operations, the decision to block tech giant Huawei from running Australia’s 5G network, and a call for an investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thursday’s about-face comes as Beijing eyed deepening trade wars with Europe and the United States.
Brussels and Washington have slapped punitive tariffs on China’s electric vehicle exports, semiconductors, solar panels and a range of other goods.
Spiky spat
Thursday’s announcement is a notable political win for Albanese as he seeks reelection in early 2025. Many lobster producers come from Western Australia, a key battleground state.
The centre-left leader has spent much of his two-plus years in office trying to insulate the vital trade relationship with China, Australia’s biggest trade partner, from geopolitical headwinds.
Australia is part of a loose US-led alliance that has aggressively pushed back against China’s bid for primacy in the Pacific region.
Kyri Toumazos of the South Australian Northern Zone Rock Lobster Fishermen’s Association told AFP he was “relieved” that the ban would be lifted.
“For us, that Chinese market has really been our core market for a long time, so we can start re-engaging with it. The demand is there, and it will continue to be there,” he said.
An estimated 97.7 percent of Australia’s rock lobster exports were sold to China, more than 1,600 tonnes a year, before the ban.
Some Australian producers have since found new markets in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Many more skirted sanctions by creating a “grey market” of exports to China via Hong Kong, Hanoi and other Asian cities.
The volume of exports to Hong Kong alone shot up more than 6,100 percent after the ban, according to researchers at the University of Technology Sydney.
The abruptness of China’s ban and a realisation of over-reliance on China has left many Australian producers wary.
But the size of China’s market may make a return irresistible.
Andrew Lawrie of South Australia’s Sky Seafoods once sold 95 percent of his lobster to China.
When the ban came he shifted focus to the domestic market, but efforts to replace China were in vain: “You can’t because of the volume,” he told AFP.
Lawrie said a return to the Chinese market was “definitely risky” but the volume of sales and the elevated prices in China made it worthwhile.
The sanctions are expected to be lifted in time for Chinese New Year, when delicacies such as rock lobster are in hot demand.