By ENDA CURRAN   | The Wall Street Journal  | Thursday, April 4, 2013 | 翻譯： abcteddy

澳洲總理朱莉婭·吉拉德本周五將率澳洲史上最高級的政治代表團訪問中國。此行凸顯了澳大利亞這個資源豐沛的國家的經濟增長是多麼地依賴於中國這個迅速崛起的夥伴。

雙邊經貿對談將是她此次五天訪問的主旨。吉拉德女士預​​計將推動一項協議，使得澳元和人民幣可以相互間直接兌換，並希望籍此深化彼此間在國家經貿以及銀行方面的合作。

(澳總理吉拉德4月7日在海南博鰲會見中國國家主席習近平  圖片來自The Australian )

迅速工業化的中國現已是澳大利亞最大的貿易夥伴，中國對澳洲包括煤炭和鐵礦石等的原物料有著強勁的需求。兩者之間的這種密切的經濟關係在一定程度上使澳大利亞在歐洲動蕩以及微弱復甦中的美國經濟危機中能夠幸免于難。

澳大利亞約有20%的出口都是運往中國，在2011-2012財政年度雙方的商品和服務貿易額達到1280億澳元(折合1330億美元)。

此行是吉拉德女士在她擔任總理期間第二次訪問中國，她將分別會見新的中國國家主席習近平和總理李克強。陪同她出訪的有澳洲外交部長Bob Carr，貿易部長Craig Emerson和其他的高級內閣成員。

澳大利亞近年來一直在積極地推動中國成為一個自由的匯率體制，他們認為此舉對平衡全球經濟增長至關重要。最近兩國間將圍繞著旨在使人民幣與澳元直接互換的議題展開談判。

在全球貨幣當中，目前只有美元和日元可以與中國人民幣直接兌換。此項協議將降低澳中兩國進出口貿易的成本。

為使人民幣成為市場導向和全球化貨幣，北京正在逐步放開對人民幣的管制，2012年中國政府進行改革，開始允許人民幣對美元的匯率每天在更寬松的範圍內彈性浮動。

澳大利亞的企業緩慢地轉向人民幣，但這種情形可能正在改變。根據環球銀行金融電訊協會(SWIFT)指出，在去年底，澳洲本土企業在全球貿易貨幣支付中大幅增加了人民幣的使用。

在8月到11月期間，無論是客戶支付還是機構間的結轉賬，使用人民幣做為支付方式增加了三倍多。

與此同時，匯豐銀行本週表示，超過4成的澳洲中小企業(SME)準備在與中國進行貿易的時候直接使用人民幣元進行結算。中國則希望到2015年有約1/3的外貿結算使用人民幣完成。

“為了給中國客戶提供更大的付款靈活性，澳大利亞的中小型企業也開始以人民幣報價。” 澳洲匯豐銀行貿易主管Paul Edgar在一份給客戶的資料裡面如是說 。

為了推動越來越多的澳元與人民幣間的交易，澳大利亞儲備銀行與中國人民銀行之間已經共同設立了總額高達300億澳元的貨幣互換額度。

吉拉德此次中國行其實也為4月12日在悉尼舉行的另外一場澳中會議吹響了序曲。屆時，將由主辦方澳大利亞政府匯同澳洲國家中央銀行發言人，澳洲當地企業代表以及香港金融管理局高層共同參與。會議的目的是為了推動在今後的澳中貿易中更多地以人民幣來進行計價。

在澳大利亞,中國的匯率機制仍是一個棘手的話題。澳中的工會團體和一些國會議員曾批評北京對人民幣的嚴格管控，當時澳洲的出口商正經受著澳元走強的折磨。

在即將進行的澳中雙邊會談上，國家安全也成為會議的重要議題。因為澳洲經濟對中國愈發的依賴這一問題正牽動著美國這個鐵桿的盟友的敏感神經。

深化與亞洲國家的關係也是吉拉德政府的重要任務。2012年年底，澳洲制訂了一項“澳大利亞的亞洲世紀”的長期國策，準備雄心勃勃地推行包括漢語普通話在內的亞洲語言的教學活動，期望與中國發展良好的外交關係。

在吉拉德女士本次訪問五個月後將迎來澳洲全國的聯邦選舉，她所領導的中間偏左的工黨選情將會十分堪憂。而Tony Abbott所領導的中間偏右的國家自由聯盟則承諾如當選後將會推翻“疏歐擁亞”的國家外交政策。

2012年反對派領導人曾發起過一場辯論，把有中國支持的投資行為形容為“目的複雜”，並承諾將嚴格審議國外資金購買本國農地的行為。

(澳中經貿近年來持續增長 澳對華存在巨額的貿易順差   圖片來自華爾街日報 )

SYDNEY—Prime Minister Julia Gillard will lead the most senior Australian political delegation ever to visit China on Friday, underscoring the resource-rich nation's growing economic dependence on its fast-growing partner.

Talks on trade and cross-border finance are expected to dominate meetings during the five-day trip. Ms. Gillard is expected to push for a deal allowing for China's currency to be directly convertible into Australian dollars, and to seek deeper ties between the nation's banking and finance centers.

Rapidly industrializing China is already Australia's biggest trading partner, due mainly to its strong demand for raw materials, including coal and iron ore. The close economic relationship between the two has, to some extent, helped shield Australia from the turmoil in Europe and fragility of the U.S. recovery.

About 20% of Australia's exports are shipped to China, with two-way goods-and-services trade between the countries valued at 128 billion Australian dollars ($133 billion) for the 2011-2012 financial year.

In her second visit to the country as prime minister, Ms. Gillard will meet separately with new Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. She will be accompanied on the trip by Foreign Minister Bob Carr, Trade Minister Craig Emerson and other senior cabinet members.

Australia has been an advocate of China's moving to a freer exchange-rate regime, arguing that such a move is vital to the balancing of global growth. Recent talks between the nations have been aimed, in particular, at making the Australian dollar directly convertible with the yuan.

Among global currencies, only the U.S. dollar and Japanese yen are at present directly exchangeable with China's currency. A deal would lower costs for Australian importers and exporters doing business with China.

Beijing is slowly working to liberalize the yuan. In 2012, the government allowed the currency to move within a wider daily range against the U.S. dollar as part of broader overhauls to help make it a more market-oriented and globalized currency.

Australian businesses have been slow to embrace the yuan, but that may be changing. Local companies sharply increased their use of China's currency for global trade payments late last year, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a global payments system.

It said the value of yuan-denominated customer payments and institutional transfers sent or received by Australia more than tripled between August and November.

Meanwhile, HSBC said this week that more than 40% of Australian small- and medium-size businesses that traded with China had plans to settle their transactions in yuan, which is also known as the renminbi. China says it wants to have about a third of its foreign trade settled in yuan by 2015.

"Australian SMEs are also starting to quote in RMB as it provides their Chinese customers with greater payment flexibility," said Paul Edgar, head of business banking for HSBC Australia in a note to clients.

Already, a 30 billion Australian dollar currency swap line has been set up between the Reserve Bank of Australia and the People's Bank of China in an effort to support liquidity in Australian dollar/yuan trades.

The delegation's visit to Beijing comes ahead of an April 12 conference in Sydney that will be hosted by the Australian government with speakers from the nation's central bank, local businesses and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. The conference is aimed at promoting more yuan-denominated trade.

China's exchange-rate mechanism nonetheless remains a thorny topic in Australia. Trade-union groups and some lawmakers have criticized Beijing for tightly controlling the yuan at a time when Australian exporters are suffering from the effects of a strong Australian dollar.

Security is also high on the agenda in the coming talks. Australia's growing economic dependence on fast-growing China has proved sensitive given the nation's long-standing close alliance with the U.S.

"I don't view us as being in a position where the strong and growing relationship we have with China is somehow in contest, or in contrast, to the relationship we have with the United States," Ms. Gillard told reporters after a keynote speech at the Foreign Correspondents Association in Sydney on Thursday. "We do not believe in a containment policy in relation to China," she added.

Deepening ties with Asia has been a key plank of Ms. Gillard's administration. In late 2012, she unveiled a long-term policy document titled "Australia in the Asian Century" that highlighted ambitions to boost the teaching of Asian languages, including Mandarin Chinese, and to grow diplomatic relations with China.

Ms. Gillard's visit comes five months ahead of a federal election that her center-left Labor Party is widely tipped to lose. Tony Abbott, who leads the center-right National-Liberal coalition opposition has pledged to have "more Jakarta and less Geneva" in the country's foreign policy if he is elected as leader.

The opposition leader in 2012 sparked a debate after he described Chinese-backed investment in Australia as "complicated," and pledged to ramp up scrutiny of foreign buying of farm land.

(澳中雙邊會談   圖片來自The Australian )

原文地址：2013年4月5日美國華爾街日報網絡版

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