Australia Treasurer visits Beijing, discusses trade, investment and recent stimulus

By Lewis Jackson

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia and China agreed to cooperate further on investment, trade and decarbonisation, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Friday during a rare visit to Beijing where he praised the recent stimulus packages announced by China.

Chalmers said he met Zheng Shanjie, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's state planning agency, for over three hours on Thursday and discussed the raft of stimulus measures announced this week.

"We are very pleased to see the Chinese authorities announce or signal the sorts of steps that we have been hearing about this week publicly and also in our private discussions with our counterparts," Chalmers told a news conference in Beijing, the first visit by an Australian treasurer for seven years.

Australia's vast iron ore exports, most of which are sold to China and sensitive to changes in demand in the world's second-biggest economy, are an important source of government revenue.

Chalmers said the two men also discussed trade, investment and closer collaboration on decarbonisation, including green steel.

In a statement, the NDRC said discussions ranged over both countries' growth prospects, policy formulation and investment policies, with both committing to a transparent and efficient investment framework.

Ties between the nations soured in 2017 after Australia accused China of meddling in its politics. An Australian call in 2020 for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 further infuriated China, which responded with blocks on various Australian imports.

China has since lifted almost all trade curbs after an outreach from Australia's Labor government that won power in 2022.

(Reporting by Lewis Jackson in Sydney and Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Clarence Fernandez)