(Bloomberg) -- Australia’s Trade Minister Simon Birmingham says he is “deeply troubled” by reports that China has formally banned imports of Australian coal, in the latest sign the dispute between the nations is worsening.

More than 50 ships carrying Australian coal have been stranded off China after ports were verbally told in October not to offload such shipments. China’s National Development and Reform Commission on Saturday appeared to formalize those curbs after giving power plants approval to import coal without restrictions, except from Australia, under efforts to tame price gains, the Global Times reported.

Read more: China Coal Futures Slide After NDRC Caps Price and Opens Imports

If true that would “indicate discriminatory trade practices,” Birmingham said. “The risk profile of trading with China has grown significantly during the course of this year,” he said in an interview Tuesday with Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Australia’s coal producers tumbled in Sydney trading. Whitehaven Coal Ltd. fell 8.9% as of 10:45 a.m. local time, Yancoal Australia Ltd. fell 12.5% and New Hope Corp Ltd. declined 11.8%.

Ties between China and Australia have been fraught since 2018 when Canberra barred Huawei Technologies Co. from building its 5G network on national security grounds, and worsened this year after Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government called for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus. Beijing accuses Canberra of being a puppet of the U.S. and of meddling in its internal affairs.

China has hit Australian barley and wine with crippling tariffs and told traders to stop buying commodities including copper, sugar, timber and lobster.

It’s a marked reversal in the once cordial relationship that saw Australia host a state visit by President Xi Jinping in 2014 and sign a comprehensive free-trade agreement a year later.

The government is concerned that China’s actions don’t appear to be consistent with “the letter or the spirit” of that trade agreement, Birmingham said. Australia is very close to mounting a case against the barley tariffs at the World Trade Organization and is considering the avenues open to it for coal, he said.

nemo wrote: ↑Tue Dec 15, 2020 4:25 pm I can promise you one thing, Aussies will live in a tin shed before they knuckle under and kowtow to these cunts.

Maybe Australia should go back to taking orders from the United Kingdom?

nemo wrote: ↑Tue Dec 15, 2020 5:10 pm

Maybe Australia should go back to taking orders from the United Kingdom?

The Empire is dead and buried.
Maybe you will need to eat Humble Pie if you want to eat at all, now you have divorced the Spanish tunnels that provide all your fresh veg.
I predict a return in popularity of the Victory Garden with Swedes and Turnips as the main menu item now all the Cod is gone.

Send your food orders to Oz and NZ.