Trade war
Looks like Oz has to choose whether to export its coal and gas to China or USA.
Of course next January it will be fully re-integrated into empire 2.0 so won't need to bother with foreigners
One of Huawei’s flagship projects in Australia has been called off because, as the state government put it, “trade restrictions imposed by the US government create a force majeure event that cannot be overcome.” The Public Transport Authority of Western Australia, which wants to spend AU$136m (US$82m, £66.5m) to replace its …
The USA could give dick crappola about Australian coal as the LARGEST exporter of coal to the USA is the Westshore Terminals Facility (aka Delta Superport) near Vancouver. It DWARFS all other coal exports from anywhere else to the USA at 33 million tonnes per year!
AND YES I know Newcastle exports more overall coal at 161 million tonnes per year with it being the absolute largest coal port in the world BUT they export mainly to Asia / India / China while Deltaport exports MORE to the USA.
In terms of Natural Gas, the Shale Rock in the Dakotas and the Canadian Prairies strata MORE THAN makes up for ANY loss of gas exports from Australia.
SO NO !!!! The USA couldn't give a hoots toot about exports from Australia.
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>SO NO !!!! The USA couldn't give a hoots toot about exports from Australia.
Rather my point old bean
But since exports to China have given Australia their miraculous 20 years without a recession economic record while close links to the USA merely gave them an opportunity to partake of Vietnam
They might have to decide which side of the prawn is on the barbie, or whatever they say down under
The US has a quarter of the planet's proven coal reserves. It's the Saudi Arabia of coal. And it is currently awash with cheap natural gas. I don't think Australia is going to export much of either to the US. I'm having trouble thinking of anything that Australia could export to the US. Decent beer maybe. That's about it.
Blaming US sanctions may just be a convenient excuse.
There are now daily articles in the Aussie media (only today in The Age) about Aus companies that are fronts for the PLA and the CCP which have been buying up medical and other supplies en masse long before China admitted to the epidemic. Showing that they lied about when this started becoming critical, but also contributing to the shortage of some things like face masks here.
It will be interesting whether there will be a reckoning when this is all over, putting a severe damper on Winnie the Pooh's global ambitions or whether it's back to business as usual.
Looking it up, I see The Age is owned by Nine, a remarkably stupid name rebranded from Australian Consolidated Press, a dull but worthy name which was a Packer outfit. Australia no less than we, cherishes it's Newspaper Barons.
What an unutterably meaningless decision, worthy of Advertising and Public Relations parasites everywhere.
You mean much like evil Australian companies are "buying up" medical supplies en-masse from China right now? It's called supply and demand in a global economy. China needed it back then, we need it now. I wonder what other countries personal protective equipment (PPE) has been shipped to over the last few months, and if it's receiving equally bad press. Given the state of Australia's media landscape the moment, I doubt it.
Given we produce toilet paper locally in Australia, we had the means and capacity to stop a shortage of it, but the shelves are still completely empty many weeks after it became a thing. I suppose that's all Beijing's fault as well in your eyes?
It really surprises me, the lack of critical thinking some people have.
A black swan event is something that you with your knowledge before it appeared could not expect. Europeans had only ever seen white swans before they arrived in Australia, and it was therefore a complete surprise.
Coronavirus were known, there had been both SARS and MERS. Pandemics are quite well know, there are even fils and various public health authorities have considered them.
For more and better written thoughts on the subject, look here: https://www.johnkay.com/2020/03/15/coronavirus-a-black-swan/
I am not a Aussie legal eagle, but I do know that their law is based upon common law.
Common law has no concept of 'Force Majeure' - which is a French/Gaullic idea.
You can have Force Majeure in a contract - dont get me wrong - but it has to be explicit in a UK (and I assume Aussie) contract. Problem there is how ca you be explicit with the unexpected?
Force majeure is one of those things that is also in international law. There's generally a clause in a big contract which lists some of the sorts of events which will frustrate the contract and render it incapable of performance. War, natural disaster, frustration by the acts of a third party or international agreement. It's exactly the sort of small print which has currently voided almost every travel insurance policy and means it's a lot tougher to get airlines to reply the cost of flights cancelled because borders are closed. Force majeure == overriding events completely outside either party's control.
I used to write these clauses for major international deals. They are very long, and have numbers of sub clauses (in case one sub clause is struck out - the others still are valid). About 10% of written contract and longer in negotiation time is for Force Majeure; especially in common law countries; sometimes this will shift the law of contract to a convenient Civil Law country law to be sure we got it workable, even though all parties were not in that jurisdiction.
Could someone please explain to me how Australia is subject to US trade restrictions ?
They are aware that they are an independent country, are they not ?
Because even if the Australian government is hinged on the White House's every word, it's still Australian law that counts, no ?
Yeah I did read the article but I was always taught that if you don't understand something, then to ask.
You are the typical twat that ensures some people are put off asking because they are scared of being scorned or looked down on., and supercilious put-downs are there for one thing only - to make small-minded idiots like yourself feel superior. In the meantime, I will continue to remain open minded and curious and to ask questions even if the asnwer is obvious to people like you.
Have a nice weekend - the view must be stunning for that ivory tower!
"There are US manufactured parts which are not allowed to be shipped to Huawei to be integrated into the end product."
The result of THAT is a lot of US companies which are hurting badly and seriously looking at moving their production facilities along with HQs out of the USA.
China's the single biggest customer for most of them. In many cases it's 60-70% of their production.
If you fear security then the government should demand access to code & hardware for analysis. ASIO (or military + security company) to analyse the code & hardware for security risks or intentional backdoors. Verify the compiled files of the company with what was compiled by ASIO so no changes can be secret after initial approval. Can we charge the supplier for part of the costs involved (eg. 1% or $5 per device)? Would other suppliers be subject to the same rules?
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