Our objective should be to develop alternative markeys for our exports and , where necceaasry, porcess our raw commodities 9whether they be minerals, energy of food) in such a way that we increase our trade surpluses & GDP to benefit all Aussies.
But of course, lie alcoholics, we have to recognise and admit our mistakes in digging it up and shipping it up with absolute minimum of Aussie valye adding and then allowing up to 40% of our exports to go to an ideologically hostile China.
Of course , like America, our Government doesn't have an economic plan for the country let alone an industrial but instead it has outsources that to "The Market"which in our case is dominated by foreign multinationals.
Instead we elect successive Governments whose economic plan is to get re-elected and then stay in power with whatever it takes.
So, IMO, the Government is only half right in keeping China bashing to a minimum. But, again IMO, the Government ought to be taking action to remedy the China trade debacle by planning/provisioning the downstream processing of our iron ore into steel on a mega scale with bauxite & ag products to follow.
We need our "Made in Aus 2030" plan now, not when China bankrupts us later. Last year we ran a 460 billion trade surplus with China. That is being whittled down to half that this year with the rest to come in 2021, IMO.
China's main grieviences with Aus are political/ideological and they are materially expressing that via trade barriers so we have 2 options: (a) cop it sweet & change our foreign policy for the sake of retaining China trade (b) devise/execute an industrial/trade plan which averts our economic dependance on China.
In order to maintain trade surpluses, we have to downstream add value to our raw exports starting with iron ore/steel and add other minerals & food later.We can do that by overcomming our 2 chief industrial weaknesses which are high labour input costs & red tape by manufacturing in SEZ utilising the cheapest globally available guest labour and exclusively exporting the products.
And to those who would object to this as slave labour could i comment: -we have been using foreign backpackers in farming, hospitality & food industry for over 20 years thus keeping wags equal to or below the minimum wage -we but diesel distilled in Saudi Arabia that has been mainly produced by "guest labour" in SEZs -we buy services and petrol produces in Singapore using "guest labour" -we buy cheap clothes 7 shoes made in SE Asia sweat shops -we buy cheap Chinese electronics & white goods made in Chinese SEZs.
We can be very sanctimoneous about it and, over time , become SE Asia's 3rd World or we can get on with it and get out there and compete and stop crying foul.
We have refused to join China's BRI and threw a spanner in China's "Made in China 2025" by rejecting Huawei so rather than crib, we simply have to get on with industrial plan B. We can benefit readewise by downstream processing say 10% of our iron ore exports and at the same time cruel China rather than sitting on our hands and doing nothing leaving China in the driving seat!
