We have rejected China's BRI (AKA as preferred customer/client status) so as soon as China establishes alternative Met Coal, IO & Bauxite supplies from its BRI partners (China friendly partners) China will give us the flick. Rio is in bed with The Chinese in Africa commissioning one of the richest IO deposits in the world and China's BRI is building the Infrastructure to rail the IO to port. Also China is sinking 100s of $Billions into Brazil (a BRI member) & Russia (a BRI-No Limits partner) to source IO, Met Coals, Aluminium, copper etc etc.
We have made our bed by declaring China as our #1 Enemy; so we have made our bed and we have to lie in it going forward>
Are our great friends , the USA & Europe going to buy our raw materials .. NO because they have enough of their own...in the case of the USA it is self sufficient & in the case of the EC, shipping distance is too far and its tariff barriers are uneconomical to penetrate . With a hope and a prayer, we'll have to rely on 3rd world country India to dig us out economically out of the shit pit of our own making.
Solution: (a) set up SEZs specifically for downstream processing of at least some of our raw materials (b) manufacture finished/semi finished commodities (particularly for the auto industry) (c) exclusively export these commodities to our FTA partners other than China (d) trade diversification will wean us off China dependance and strengthen our AUD
PS : If we can spend $400 Billion on Nuke Suns to physically defend ourselves then surely we can spend quarter of that to firewall ourselves economically against China.
This war should be a "Come to Jesus" moment for us and sharpen our perception of the impossible bind we are in: China our #1 economic partner & our # 1 enemy....how silly is that?
So the sane and sensible position for us to take now is to advocate a prompt settlement of this war and concentrate on aligning our trade with our political alliances
