SYDNEY/BEIJING (Reuters) -&nbsp;Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday he will travel to&nbsp;China&nbsp;from Nov. 4 to 7 to meet with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in a bid to stabilise relations with the country's biggest trading partner.
The announcement of the trip to Beijing and Shanghai, the first by an&nbsp;Australian leader to&nbsp;China&nbsp;since 2016, came after a breakthrough on Saturday in resolving a dispute with&nbsp;China&nbsp;over its&nbsp;wine&nbsp;tariffs that have battered the industry.
China's Commerce Ministry said on Sunday the two sides had reached a consensus to settle the WTO&nbsp;wine&nbsp;dispute as well as a dispute over&nbsp;Australian duties on Chinese&nbsp;wind&nbsp;towers.
Patching up relations with&nbsp;China, which had deteriorated over several years due to&nbsp;disputes&nbsp;over telecoms firm Huawei, espionage and COVID, has been a top priority for Albanese since he took office in 2022.
"It is important that we stabilise our relationship with&nbsp;China," Albanese said.
On the&nbsp;visit, the leaders will discuss cooperation in areas such as economic links, climate change and "links between our people", he said in a statmement.
"I look forward to further engaging with President Xi and Premier Li in&nbsp;Australia's national interest," he said.
Speaking in Canberra, Albanese said&nbsp;Australia&nbsp;late on Saturday had reached a deal with&nbsp;China&nbsp;to move forward to solve its World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute over&nbsp;wine, potentially clearing the way for the resumption of imports worth $800 million a year before the duties were imposed in 2021.
"We have agreed on the issue of&nbsp;wine&nbsp;for there to be a review of&nbsp;China's position on&nbsp;wine&nbsp;tariffs to be conducted over the next months," Albanese told reporters.
"We will suspend our action before the WTO, but we're very confident that this will result in once again&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;wine, a great product, being able to go to&nbsp;China&nbsp;free of the tariffs."
Albanese did not mention duties on&nbsp;wind&nbsp;towers in his comments. However, on Oct. 16,&nbsp;Australia's Anti-Dumping Commission recommended lifting anti-dumping measures on Chinese&nbsp;wind&nbsp;towers. No final decision has been made yet.
"China&nbsp;and&nbsp;Australia&nbsp;are important trading partners of each other, and we are willing to work with the&nbsp;Australian side to continue to meet each other halfway through dialogue and consultation,"&nbsp;China's Commerce ministry said in a statement.
The ministry added that&nbsp;China&nbsp;and&nbsp;Australia&nbsp;held "friendly consultations" on WTO&nbsp;disputes&nbsp;of mutual concern over various items, and was willing to "jointly promote the stable and healthy development of bilateral economic and trade relations."
The announcements are the latest in a diplomatic thaw that has already seen&nbsp;China&nbsp;lift restrictions on imports of&nbsp;Australian coal, timber and barley, which Beijing had targeted after Canberra called for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.
The duties of up to 218% on most&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;wines were imposed in March 2021, causing trade to collapse in what had been the most valuable export market for the country's&nbsp;winemakers.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney, Peter Hobson in Canberra, Bernard Orr and Ethan Wang in Beijing; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Sonali Paul)

you might like

Australia PM to visit China, with progress on wine, wind tower disputes