Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean said on March 15 that neither Australia nor China should intervene in the iron ore talks between Chinese steelmakers and Australian miners. The minister's comments came after a news report which revealed that Chinese PM Wen Jiabao has been asked by some major Chinese steelmakers to take a role in the negotiations.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Crean assured that Australia would also keep away from the iron ore benchmark price talks, in which Australian iron ore miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto seek price hikes of up to 90 percent.
"We won't be getting involved," the Australian press quoted Mr. Crean as saying. "I've made the point to China and I repeat the point; we recognize China's market economy status. All we ask in return is that it act in accordance with market principles, not seek to get government involved," he added.
According to a China Securities Journal report on March 13, the vice president of the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) and the chiefs of more than 10 major Chinese mills, including Baosteel, Wuhan Iron & Steel, Anshan Iron & Steel and Hebei Iron & Steel, sent a joint letter to Wen, asking him to view the talks as "a matter of national importance."
"As for the [Chinese] steelmakers, in terms of them being dissatisfied with the way negotiations have been run in the past, the solution doesn't lie in getting the government to intervene," Crean said.