Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said new tariff threats imposed by the Trump administration are “unjustified”, as he defended Australia’s response to slavery amid criticism from the US.
The comments come after Australia and 53 other countries were threatened with tariffs of 12.5 per cent following an investigation by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer which found that Australia had “failed to establish and effectively enforce an enforced ban on labour”.
“Any tariffs on Australian exports to the US are illegal, inconsistent with our free trade agreement, and also on the specifics that have been provided by their trade representative: Australia has strong, comprehensive and world-leading legislation dealing with forced labor and modern slavery,” Albanese told ABC radio on Thursday morning.
“We continue to use every opportunity we have to argue that the US tariffs imposed on Australia are unjustified, and of course, our view is that the tariffs are a penalty for consumers in the US.”
Australia is currently subject to a 10 percent tariff from the United States, the lowest rate applied to foreign countries by the Trump administration. Government sources told the experts they were working to understand the application of the new 12.5 percent rate, but believed it would replace the existing rate.
Albanese pointed to the US-Australia trade surplus as further justification that tariffs should not be applied.
While much of the prime minister’s language was almost identical to Commerce Minister Don Farrell’s statement Wednesday night, Albanese went on to describe the two nations as having major differences in thinking about international trade.
“There is an ideological disagreement where the US administration has broken with decades of understanding that tariffs are not good for the country that imposes them.”
“They increase the cost of goods and services in the country that uses them for its consumers, and that free trade is in the interest of the global economy. It is in the interest of Australia. It is also in the interest of the United States.”
Countries including China, Vietnam, Japan, England and New Zealand have been affected by the 12.5 percent tax, and investigation use the same language for several countries.
A separate group of six economies – Canada, the European Union, Ecuador, Indonesia, Mexico and Pakistan – were hit with a minimum tariff of 10 percent because the investigation found that they were the only countries that “have not failed to impose a mandatory ban on importing labor”.
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Nick Newling is a federal politics reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect through X or email address.
