A QUEENSLAND trade delegation to China, led by Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, has renewed for three years the ‘Sister State’ arrangement with Shanghai.
Ms Trad joined vice mayor of Shanghai, Xu Kunlin, to sign the twelfth iteration of the Queensland-Shanghai Memorandum of Agreed Cooperation.
“This is a perfect time to reaffirm our very close relationship with this important Chinese municipality while Queensland Chinese communities, and Chinese communities around the world, celebrate the harvest during the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival,” Ms Trad said.
Ms Trad talked of closer trade ties, as well as strong links in education, science, technology and the arts.
“When Trade and Investment Queensland opened its first trade office in China in 1996, Shanghai was an obvious choice,” Ms Trad said.
“Through that foundational office, we have welcomed a continuous stream of investment from Chinese companies in our State’s resource, transport, agribusiness and manufacturing sectors.”
The Deputy Premier is in Shanghai as part of a three-day trade mission to China. Her visit comes at a time of some tension between Australia and China.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is currently in the US, where he has argued China is no longer a developing country and should face stronger trade obligations, a similar line to that employed by the Trump Administration. “As nations progress and develop then the obligations and how the rules apply to them, also shift,” Mr Morrison was quoted as saying by the ABC.
