With the Australian-Sino relations on tenterhooks, the OZ Trade Minister Dan Tehan said that his government is legally preparing itself before asking the World Trade Organization (WTO) to resolve its wine-tariff trade dispute with Beijing, per South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Key takeaways
The WTO action was “under active consideration” and Australia would be “making a decision very shortly.”
“You’ve got to make sure that you’ve got the very best legal argument and the very best legal case to do that, so we want to make sure we’ve done everything we can to show the strength of our case.”
“Want to reach ‘end game’ in free trade agreement talks with the European Union this year.”
It’s worth noting that China in March imposed tariffs of up to 218% on Australian wine for five years, formalizing curbs that had been in place for months amid an increasingly fraught relationship with Canberra.
Market reaction
AUD/USD is side-lined just below 0.7700, biding time ahead of the critical FOMC event after Tuesday’s fall.