Albanese calls for China to end trade sanctions on Australia

AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said China's sanctions on Australian goods, including coal, should be lifted immediately.

"There is no justification for these sanctions on Australian products and they all should be lifted," Albanese said in a Sunday (Jul 24) interview with Kieran Gilbert on Sky News. "It's in China's interests to lift all of the sanctions against Australia, and it's in Australia's interest for that to happen as well."

Albanese said he wants to cooperate with China "where we can" and said he would stand up for Australia's interests "where we must".

Chinese officials are proposing to end an almost 2-year ban on Australian coal amid supply concerns over Russian energy, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month.

China - which used to be a major consumer of Australia's coal - implemented an unofficial ban in late 2020 as hostilities between Canberra and Beijing escalated. Earlier curbs were imposed on a string of other Australian products, including lobster, wine and beef. BLOOMBERG