Customers walk out of an Optus telecommunications retail store in the central business district of Sydney, Australia on Oct 5, 2022. (MARK BAKER / FILE / AP)

LONDON – Tensions between Australia and China have dealt a blow to the Australian economy and businesses in the country are hopeful of better relations with China, a Financial Times opinion article has said.

Resentment towards former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his administration grew among business leaders who feared that the geopolitical brinkmanship had backfired, a Financial Times opinion article has said

Products like Australian wine, barley, lobsters, beef and coal were hit by tariffs, and the move was estimated to cost the economy about 20 billion Australian dollars ($13.62 billion) a year, the British newspaper's correspondent Nic Fildes wrote in late November.

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"It underlined Australia's economic dependence on its largest trading partner," Fildes added.

Resentment towards former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison and his administration grew among business leaders who feared that the geopolitical brinkmanship had backfired, the correspondent noted.

Chief executives would lament that national security concerns "threatened to overwhelm an economic partnership that had not only boosted Australia's terms of trade but was also a mainstay of domestic sectors including education and tourism," Fildes said.

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"For some Australian companies, the opportunity for growth in China has been too significant to wait for tensions to ease," he added.