Prime Minister Scott Morrison is backing the Trump administration's plan to hold out for a sweeping trade agreement with China rather than accept a partial deal, in a crucial calculation that Australia will gain from a bigger and more lasting settlement.
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Mr Morrison is lending weight to US President Donald Trump in his attempt to return the negotiations with China to the terms reached late last year, before an escalating tariff war ruined the deal.
In an important break with leaders in Europe who believe Mr Trump should accommodate China, the Australian position supports a firmer line to treat the rising superpower as a developed nation.
Mr Morrison emerged from meetings with Mr Trump in the US capital to signal he had argued for an outcome sooner rather than later but agreed with the President that only a "sustainable outcome" was worth signing.
"It's got to be a durable outcome; it's going to deal with the real issues that are there in their relationship," he said in Washington.
"And I'm quite confident that's what the President is seeking to achieve."
Australia will continue to gain favoured treatment from Mr Trump on exports including steel and aluminium after Mr Morrison held meetings with the President at the White House on Friday.
Mr Morrison said "we're in good shape" on the key exports.
The outcome is one result from a state visit in which Mr Trump bestowed high praise on Mr Morrison and hosted a state dinner for the Prime Minister and his wife, Jenny, at the White House.
The tariff war between the US and China has hurt trade, cut world growth and added to consumer prices in a trend that is also slowing the Australian economy.
But Mr Trump cooled hopes of a swift end to the conflict by saying he did not believe he needed to settle the trade dispute before the US presidential election campaign in 2020.
Mr Morrison signalled he accepted that argument and did not assume a deal could be reached too swiftly.
Concerns over Australian relations with China have grown over the past year but Mr Morrison dismissed suggestions he should visit Beijing as soon as possible and noted there was no invitation to do so.
"Well, of course we would go if there was an invitation to attend, but it's not something that is overly vexing us because we have this partnership," he said in Washington one day after his meetings with Mr Trump.
"We continue to work closely with China. And we continue to work closely with our partners throughout the Indo-Pacific but also of course with our great ally here in the United States. So it is not an issue that's troubling me at all."
Mr Morrison has not held a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at summits over the past year including the G20 gatherings in Argentina and Osaka, but he met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Singapore at the East Asia Summit last year.
While Mr Morrison has avoided Mr Trump's sharp rhetoric about the "threat" from China to the world, he has emphasised the need for China to accept stronger protection for intellectual property as one example of the solutions needed in a substantial deal.
Australia also formalised an agreement with the US during the talks at the White House so the two countries would co-operate on rare-earth minerals, a move that could guard against China's dominance of materials used in electronics.
Mr Morrison did not accept the proposition that the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Chile in November would be the "last chance saloon" for an agreement between the US and China.
A key factor in the negotiations is Mr Trump's fear China gains more than $500 billion a year from its trade surplus with the US and that this wealth has been used to build up the Chinese military.
Mr Morrison emphasised the different outlook in Washington compared with Canberra after years of trade deficits between the US and China.
"We have a surplus, they have a deficit, and they have a very different economic experience of their relationship," he said.
"For Australia it has been an important source of trade growth and economic growth."
Mr Morrison added, however that Australia would also push for strict rules to protect intellectual property, technology transfer, or how foreign investment operates.
The Prime Minister has mentioned intellectual property whenever he speaks on global trade, signalling Australia's interest in stronger measures when companies complain of being forced to sign away intellectual property to trade in China.
A more reliable intellectual property regime is seen as one of the significant positive outcomes from an agreement between the US and China.
- SMH/The Age
