‘Why’d they get whacked’: Senator’s Aussie tariff spray
Australia has been at the centre of a fiery exchange in the US Senate on April 8 over US President Donald Trump’s decision to slap a 10 per cent tariff on Australian exports.
It came as Democratic Senator Mark Warner questioned US trade representative Jamieson Greer about why Australia – “an incredibly important national security partner” – had been “whacked” with a 10 per cent tariff.
“Ambassador, excuse me… we already have a free trade agreement,” Warner said during a Senate finance committee hearing, describing the move as “ridiculous and extraordinary”.
“We have a trade surplus. So getting the least bad – why did they get whacked with a tariff in the first place?
But US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer defended the decision, citing Australia’s biosecurity-related ban on imports of US beef and pork.
“Australia has the lowest rate available under the new program,” Greer said.
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“We’re addressing the $1.2 trillion deficit – the largest in human history – that President [Joe] Biden left us with. We should be running up the score in Australia.
“Despite the agreement, they ban our beef, they ban our pork.”
Australia has restricted entry of US beef due to mad cow disease concerns for more than two decades, stopping almost all shipments. Earlier in the hearing, Greer had called the restrictions “specious, fake science grounds”.
He also told senators that negotiations with countries seeking to lower the reciprocal tariffs announced by Trump last week would proceed country by country.
Greer, who is responsible for implementing tariffs, is the first official to face the US Congress since last week’s global tariff announcement.
He said Trump told him he was planning no tariff exemptions in the near term.
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Greer said he had engaged with about 50 countries so far and the “good news” was that most had not indicated they would increase retaliatory tariffs on the US.
But Warner was unmoved, accusing Greer of dodging the central issue and harming key alliances.
“The idea that we are going to whack friend and foe alike – and particularly friends – with this level [of tariffs] is both insulting the Australians, undermines our national security, and frankly makes us not a good partner going forward,” he said.
“The lack of trust from friends and allies based upon this ridiculous policy that goes into full effect at midnight tonight is extraordinary.”
Chalmers calls snap meeting
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has called a snap meeting of Australia’s top economic and financial regulators to talk through the impact of Trump’s tariffs.
The high-powered meeting will reportedly take place on Wednesday and include the heads of the central bank and the banking, business and consumer watchdogs, according to Nine media.
“It’s a confidence-building measure with the electorate to say, ‘look, we’re getting our best brains together to work out how we diversify our markets, how we adjust our economy, how we get ready for this’,” ex-ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos told Nine’s Today program.
“It’s the sort of thing you’d expect any government to do.”
The gathering of the heads of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission comes ahead of Chalmers’ election debate against his Coalition counterpart.
Perennial issues – the cost of living, energy bills and healthcare – have dominated the federal election campaign, that is until Trump lobbed his economic hand grenade into the contest.
