Australia is highly dependent on its exports of natural resources. The nation is the world’s largest exporter of alumina, coal, iron ore, lead and zinc. This means Australia is vulnerable to any downturn in global markets and to import bans on its products.

China moved to restrict Australian agricultural imports of beef and barley after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison led a push for an international investigation into the Chinese origins of covid-19. And now it looks like China is going to restrict Australian coal imports.

Coal analysts noted on October 13 that most major Chinese steel mills had been informed of an upcoming clampdown on Australian coal. Some officials believe this move could be an effort to protect China’s domestic coal mining industry, but it could also be a deliberate attempt to weaken Australia’s economy. Relations between Australia and China have soured over allegations of Chinese interference in Australia’s domestic politics, cyber-espionage, and the detention of Australian citizens in China.

This escalating trade war between Australia and China is just the beginning of a prophesied trade war between the English-speaking nations and a Euro-Asian alliance.

In his booklet Isaiah’s End-Time Vision, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explains the Bible’s prophecies that the world economy will be dominated by three power blocs in the end time: Tyre, Tarshish and Kittim. Tyre, he explains, represents the commercial center of the modern-day European Union; Tarshish is modern-day Japan; Kittim is modern-day China. Isaiah 23:1-3 say that the merchants of Tarshish will mourn when Tyre is overthrown. This shows that Japan and China will be in a close partnership with a European superstate.

This economic alliance will besiege the end-time nations of Israel, which include Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. (Read The United States and Britain in Prophecy to understand the national identity of end-time Israel.)

“The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand …. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee” (Deuteronomy 28:49, 52).

This besiegement starts with Anglo-Saxon economies being battered by foreign competition and unfair trade practices. Then it escalates into a full-scale trade embargo against the English-speaking world as foreign powers seize control of vital shipping lanes. For more information on what the Bible specifically prophecies about this coming trade war, please read “Building Toward a World Catastrophe” and “Superpower Under Siege,” by Gerald Flurry.