Clive Palmer: Australia must tariff iron ore to China

Via the AFR:

China has slapped a ban on Australia’s biggest grain exporter – a co-operative with about 4000 farmer members – after claims customs authorities found pests in a shipment of barley.

China customs suspended barley imports from CBH, based in Western Australia and run by former BHP iron ore boss Jimmy Wilson, on Tuesday.

The ban, which comes on top of huge tariffs on Australian barley imports imposed in May, was publicised on a official WeChat account.

Clive Palmer last night floated an idea first proposed by LVO in May (here and here), Australia should tariff iron ore to China every time it raises the trade war stakes, via SkyNews:

If China tried to source dirt elsewhere then the price would skyrocket.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.