China ‘Indefinitely’ Suspends Economic Dialogue With Australia

• Strained relations between China and Australia took a turn for the worse Thursday after Beijing said it has “indefinitely” suspended all activity under a high-level economic dialogue with one of its largest sources of imports.
• It was not immediately clear what impact the announcement would have on trade between the two countries, which has already fallen amid retaliatory pressure from Beijing.
• The Australian dollar weakened against the U.S. dollar following the news, falling close to breaking 77 cents after trading near 77.47 cents Wednesday. Beijing’s economic planning agency, the National Reform and Development Commission, said in an English-language statement Thursday that some Australian officials recently launched unspecified measures “out of a Cold War mindset” to disrupt cooperation with China.
• The commission said that based on this attitude, it has decided to “indefinitely suspend all activities under the framework of the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue.”

(Source: CNBC)