(Bloomberg) -- China’s trade practices have deteriorated and U.S. tariffs are forcing China to heed American grievances, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a speech in Sydney.

Every country in the world would benefit if China followed global trade rules, Ross said in prepared remarks on Thursday.

“China has refused to change its behavior,” Ross said. “In fact, its global trade practices have only gotten worse.

“We do not love tariffs, in fact we would prefer not to use them, but after years of discussions and no action, tariffs are finally forcing China to pay attention to our concerns,” Ross said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jason Scott in Canberra at jscott14@bloomberg.net;Angus Whitley in Sydney at awhitley1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Angus Whitley, Jon Herskovitz

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