US President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs have been struck down, so the US Administration has found another way to tax imports from Australia. Photo: White House.
Anthony Albanese hasn’t minced his words over a new tariff the United States plans to impose on Australia, with the Prime Minister expressing an “ideological disagreement” between the two countries.
With Donald Trump’s across-the-board 10 per cent tariff regime recently struck down by the US Supreme Court, the President and his administration keep coming up with new ways to tax goods from other nations, including their allies.
Australia has been listed among 54 countries that have “failed to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor”, according to a US investigation.
That will result in a new 12.5 per cent tariff on exported goods from those nations.
“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable,” US trade representative Jamieson Greer said recently.
“This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an uneven playing field. We will no longer tolerate this disparity.”
Australia’s Trade Minister Don Farrell has already met with Mr Greer at the OECD gathering in Paris and told him the tariffs are unjustified.
But while the Federal Government continues to seek clarification on how it might actually play out for Australia, the PM has already clearly expressed his disappointment at the US decision.
“There is an ideological disagreement where the United States administration has broken with what was a decades-long understanding that tariffs are not positive for the country that is imposing them, that they increase the costs of goods and services in the country that is applying them to its consumers, and that free trade is in the interests of the global economy,” Mr Albanese said.
The Prime Minister said it was important to note that Australia is not being singled out. But the move was made without notice.
He said one of the things Australia asks for in international engagement is certainty, but there has been a “rolling series of decisions” with a common theme: that the US is a supporter of tariffs.
“We’ve put our position very clearly, which is that any tariff on Australian exports to the United States are unjustified; they’re inconsistent with our free trade agreement,” Mr Albanese said.
“With regard to the specifics that have been put forward by their trade representative, Australia has robust, comprehensive and world-leading legislation addressing forced labour and modern slavery.
“It’s been passed through the parliament with unanimous support. We continue to use every opportunity that we have to advocate that US tariffs imposed on Australia are unwarranted.
“And of course, our view is that tariffs are actually a penalty on consumers in the United States. We produce very good products here in Australia that are in demand in the United States.
“But importantly as well, the United States has a trade surplus with Australia that it’s enjoyed for decades. And we continue to advocate for Australia’s national interests.”
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor also said the US tariffs were unjustified.
“They’re wrong. There shouldn’t be tariffs like these imposed on Australia, and the United States shouldn’t do it,” Mr Taylor said.
“They are a great friend, and they shouldn’t do it to a friend. We fought with them in every war, every major war. They shouldn’t be imposing tariffs on us.
“It’s not what we want to see, and we’ll fight against rotten tariffs, and this is a tax on our exporters, and we don’t want to see it.”
Nationals leader Matt Canavan said he had read the report of the US investigation into nations’ approaches to slave labour and found an evidential basis to claim Australia does not impose strict regulations and standards.
“These tariffs that have been proposed by the US administration are being done so with just a smokescreen of a reason to do so,” Senator Canavan said.
“They’re in response to a Supreme Court decision which ruled invalid the previous Liberation Day tariffs and just weeks after that decision the Trump Administration launched an investigation on the potential for supply chains to be using forced labour.
“This report has just two paragraphs on Australia, and it’s more assertion than evidence.”
During Senate Estimates hearings on Thursday (4 June), Foreign Minister Penny Wong also criticised the proposed tariff.
“Australia continues to assert our view that we are not supportive of tariffs, and we continue to value open trade that has benefited both Australia and the United States,” Senator Wong said.
“It is the government’s position that we do not believe there is a basis for these additional trade measures, and that is what we will continue to robustly put.”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
