Australia's economic ties with leading trading partner China soured in 2018, when it became the first country to publicly ban Chinese Huawei from its 5G network, and deteriorated after Canberra called for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. p>
Open diplomatic repression has since followed, including raids on Chinese journalists' homes in Australia, the evacuation of some Australian journalists from China, and a series of trade measures China has imposed on Australian exports.
China is by far Australia's largest export market, with a 2019 value of $ 104 billion according to the IMF, so a prolonged severance of trade ties could hurt Australia's economy.
Australia's billions of dollars in beef, barley and coal have been hit hardest by recent measures, and China has been able to easily find alternative supplies.
Iron ore - Australia's main export and a critical ingredient for China's huge steel sector - has so far escaped the crossfire, as has Australian LNG.
We remind you of the chronology of events in the commodity markets, which were affected by the growing tensions between countries:
In February 2019, China's northern port of Dalian bans imports of Australian coal and limits total coal imports from all sources to 12 million tonnes by the end of 2019.
In May 2020, China will impose anti-dumping and anti-subsidizing duties on Australian barley at 80.5% effective May 19, with duties expected to last for five years. It also stops imports of beef from four of Australia's largest meat processors.
In August 2020, China, the main export market for Australian wines, is launching anti-dumping and anti-subsidy checks on some Australian wines.
In September 2020, China is suspending barley imports from Australia's largest grain exporter CBH Grain following pest detection and demanding stricter checks on Australian wheat and barley. Australia is the largest supplier of barley to China, exporting between AU $ 1.5 billion and AU $ 2 billion annually, accounting for over half of its exports.
Australia is investigating reports in October 2020 that China has verbally instructed buyers to avoid Australian commodity shipments.
