Australian Prime Minister says China’s coal ban would breach WTO rules

Australia’s Prime Minister said Tuesday that China would be in breach of World Trade Organization rules as well as a bilateral free trade agreement if it banned Australian coal.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was responding to a report in the Chinese state-owned Global Times newspaper that the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission had given power plants approval to import coal without restrictions except for Australian coal.

Morrison said he was treating the report as “media speculation” because the Chinese government had yet to clarify its position.

“If that were the case, then that would obviously be in breach of WTO rules,” Morrison told reporters. “It would be obviously in breach of our on free trade agreement and so we would hope that’s certainly not the case.”