Selinger-Morris: So Peter, tell us what has happened, what sort of tariffs has Donald Trump slapped on us?
Hartcher: Today – this is the big one – Trump announced tariffs on every country that sells goods to the US with a baseline, as he put it, minimum tariff of 10 per cent and then ranging up into 50 and 60 per cent for other countries.
Australia didn’t want a 10 per cent tariff put on all its exports to the US, but together with Britain, we have the lowest tariff rates applied to us. All other countries have higher tariff rates. Even some of America’s most intimate allies … Israel, for example, has a 17 per cent tariff applied.
Now, the [Australian] prime minister hinted this morning, without saying it outright, but that means it’s actually improved Australia’s relative competitiveness into the US, exporting to the US, relative to all other countries, except for the Poms … So we’ve gotten off lightly – in some ways it’s even an advantage that Australia has managed to secure. But that will be a cold comfort to some of the exporting companies and industries who will suffer because they will have lost 10 per cent competitiveness, measured against American producers in America – which, of course, don’t have a tariff applied to them.
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