What is the World Trade Organization? How will it help our trade with China?

After months of deteriorating trade relations and a series of official and unofficial bans on a range of goods, Australia has decided to take China to the independent umpire.

While 2020 has seen a number of commodities come under fire, the referral to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is specifically over tariffs China placed on Australian barley that effectively ended the trade.

Have no idea what this actually means? Here are five quick questions to fill you in:

Why has Australia gone to the WTO?

After World War II, countries around the world, including Australia and China, agreed to a set of trade rules that are now overseen by the WTO.

In May, China announced it was going to punish Australian barley growers with tariffs of 80 per cent…