CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - China's premier has warned against protectionism, saying his country planned to close its $50 billion a year deficit with Australia by expanding the trading the relationship rather than retreating from it.
Premier Li Keqiang said in a speech in Australia's Parliament House on Thursday that globalization created "some problems," but that free trade is not to blame.
He says China "cannot close our doors" to solve its trade imbalance with Australia, which last year left the Chinese with a $50 billion deficit largely through industrial demand for iron ore and coal.
Li and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will on Friday detail an expansion of their two-year-old bilateral free trade pact in the areas of investment and services.