China Announces New Bans on Timber Imports from Australia’s States of New South Wales and Western Australia

The Reuters news agency is reporting that there is yet another sign that the relationship between Australia’s and China’s governments are continuing to rapidly deteriorate. On Wednesday (12/23) China announced that effective immediately it was suspending the imports of timber from Australia’s states of New South Wales and Western Australia. This after local Chinese Custom officials reported finding pests in timber cargo from those states. The addition of these two states join a list of previously banned timber imports from the states of Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.