LAUNCESTON, Australia—China is paying a heavy toll for its efforts to punish Australia by banning or restricting certain commodity imports, while conversely Australia seems to have avoided any serious financial ramifications so far. Coal is the highest-profile Chinese target in the Australia row. Beijing effectively all but banned imports from Australia as part of its efforts to pressure Canberra on several issues, ranging from Australia’s call for an international investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic to the decision to block Huawei from Australia’s 5G network rollout. China’s imports of Australian coal have collapsed, with Refinitiv vessel-tracking and port data showing just 687,000 tons were discharged in December, down from the 2020 peak of 9.46 million tons in June. But the data also show that Australia’s overall exports haven’t really suffered, with December shipments of 33.82 million tons being the best month in 2020. While the cold snap across …