Australia aims for ‘zero tariffs’ after Trump backtrack
Kat Wong and Jacob Shteyman |
Australia wants absolutely no tariffs applied to its goods and Donald Trump’s policy retreat could provide an opportunity for political leaders to make their case.
The US president has wound back tariffs on imported goods from many countries to 10 per cent for 90 days, while raising the levy applied to China to 125 per cent.
Australia’s tariffs remain the same because it was already subject to a baseline 10 per cent levy.
The latest announcement does not appear to affect the 25 per cent tariffs already placed on all steel and aluminium imports, including those from Australia.
But it does open the door for Australia to reignite negotiations.
“The best deal is zero and that’s what we are continuing to put forward,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in far north Queensland on Thursday.
“The US administration changes its position on a regular basis, and on that fact, we need to make sure that Australia is considered in the way that we go forward.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Mr Trump’s latest backflip reflected his “volatility”, adding that if he becomes prime minister he will talk to the president about the US-Australia relationship and opportunities for expansion through sectors such as critical minerals.
“I will work with whoever the American president is, I will deal with whatever comes at our country and I’ll make the right decisions and the tough decisions that need to be made to keep us safe and to make sure that we’re a strong economy,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
More than 75 countries have made contact with the US to discuss the trade measures and the 90-day pause will allow Mr Trump to engage in “bespoke” negotiations with these nations, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said.
Some Australian external territories, including the Heard and McDonald Islands – which have no human inhabitants – and Norfolk Island have also been slapped with tariffs higher than 10 per cent.
“Some of the decisions in our region confounded people who were involved in the negotiations,” Mr Albanese said.
“That is why you have to be an adult, not dial it up to 11 at every opportunity, which is what Peter Dutton’s plan is on everything.”
China and the US have continued to apply escalating reciprocal tariffs and Beijing has asked Australia to “join hands” and respond together, according to reports in the Nine newspapers.
But Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said Australia was “not about to make common cause with China”.
With politicians continuing to campaign across the nation ahead of the May 3 election, Nationals leader David Littleproud is spruiking a $20 billion regional Australian future fund to fill gaps in infrastructure, childcare and health services.
The regional fund would be set up with $5 billion in funding sourced from Labor’s program for green energy and transmission line construction, which the coalition plans to scrap.
The remainder of the money would be gathered from budget windfalls from higher commodity prices – which often boosts government coffers – until it adds up to $20 billion.
The coalition has also pledged to set up a second fund, called the future generations fund, which would be used to pay down government debt.
With Mr Dutton keen to position himself as better-placed to negotiate with the US administration, Labor has accused the coalition of copying the president’s initiatives such as the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
In a debate with opposition counterpart Angus Taylor, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said coalition MPs had “hitched their wagon” to American-style slogans and policies.
Opposition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was recently named the coalition spokesperson for government efficiency.
Mr Taylor criticised the government for presiding over a budget that forecast $179 billion of deficits over the next five years and a return to a structural deficit.
AAP
