Albanese says ‘no one has got a better deal’ than Australia in Trump’s tariff regime
Anthony Albanese emphasises that “no one has got a better deal” than Australia, and diplomats and officials are continuing to engage with the administration:
We have made very strong representations. Ministers, our ambassador, people in the embassy, people at departmental level, we’ve used every asset at our disposal.
But what it does mean – it’s a bit like what I was saying yesterday. Steel and aluminium, there’s not more steel and aluminium being produced in the United States today than there was in February.
The PM says that his understanding is that these 10% tariffs will be across the board.
Australia and the United Kingdom were in negotiations, I’m not sure about other countries, but I know that we were and that was under consideration … So our understanding is that it applies across the board.
He says again the best response is to buy Australian, and Labor will continue to promote Australian products (like Bundaberg ginger beer which he says he had at the Bundaberg factory when he was up campaigning in Queensland earlier this week).
Key events
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The press pack following Anthony Albanese is jetting out of Melbourne after the prime minister’s early morning press conference to respond to Donald Trump’s tariff strike.
We’ll let you know as soon as we land at our next destination.
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has described tariffs imposed by the US on Australian exports as “entirely unjustifiable”. Speaking outside parliament this morning, she said:
They’re unjustifiable, particularly when you consider the impact they are going to have on working people, not just around Victoria or Australia, but around the globe. These sorts of measures only put more pressure on working people, on their families and on their jobs.
She says Victoria is the “food bowl of the nation” and was important to protect the state’s biosecurity:
We are known internationally for our clean green reputation for exporting to the world high quality produce. So I strongly support the prime minister’s emphasis on ensuring those biosecurity arrangements remain strong.
Allan also said she would continue to push local content requirements for Victorian transport projects and revealed she met with defence manufacturer Lockheed Martin last week to put the state’s businesses at the “front of the queue in the supply chain”.
The Red Meat Advisory Council (RMAC) says it’s “disappointed” of tariffs on red meat exports to the US, but noted there will be no ban on Australian red meat and that trade with the US will contine.
The council says the decision fails to recognise the industry’s contribution to US food supplies, but also pointed out how diverse the trade market is, particularly across Asia.
RMAC Chair, John McKillop, says producers can be “assured” the industry will continue to operate in a “strong global trading environment”.
It remains a disappointing decision from the US, in stark contrast to our 20-year partnership under the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement…
Last year, 2024, was a record year for Australian red meat exports, driven by strong global demand. Australian producers can be assured that we operate in a strong global trading environment with high demand for our red meat from over 100 markets.
Major markets include Greater China, Japan and Korea, worth $3.9bn, $2.6bn and $2.5bn respectively. The Middle East / North Africa Market is worth A$2B and offers demand growth opportunities.
‘We already made concessions’ on beef, says Littleproud
Littleproud spells out some more of that risk that has previously led to a ban on US beef into Australia.
Albanese said earlier it started back in 2003 due to mad cow disease.
Littleproud says the current risk is around the supply chains that go beyond US borders:
It’s their supply chain in the Americas, with particularly Canada and Mexico, that we can’t get certainty on, that gives us that confidence to allow that product to come in. But we already take frozen beef, we already made concessions.
Littleproud also says Australia should reengage with partners within the trans-pacific partnership (CPTPP).
Littleproud blames PM’s ‘disparaging comments’ on Trump for tariffs on Australia
The Nationals leader and shadow agriculture minister, David Littleproud, says there’s “deep disappointment” over the tariffs, and that there’s a need for a “relationship reset”.
He’s putting some of the blame on the prime minister and government for having made disparaging comments of Trump in the past.
What we need is a relationship reset. We’ve got a prime minister who can’t even get a phone call with the president. That’s because of the personal disparaging comments he made in the past. We need a reset to explain to President Trump, when you look at the tariffs he imposed on beef, he’s imposing that cost on his own people.
Littleproud adds, specifically on beef, that Australia already takes US frozen beef, and that Australia shouldn’t reduce biosecurity standards to allow other beef imports from the US.
Dutton says some ABC journalists are ‘good’ while others are ‘partisan players’
Dutton was also challenged on 2GB to name a journalist at the ABC who he thinks does “a good job”, as he leaves the door open to cutting the public broadcaster’s funding.
He initially skirts the question and says families and small businesses are struggling.
Nobody at the ABC gets $1 of pay without you being funded by Australian taxpayers. And as I’ve said before, if we find waste in the ABC then we won’t support that, and Australian households and businesses would expect nothing less.
Host Ben Fordham tries again – he mentions David Speers, Sarah Ferguson and Laura Tingle … Dutton answers that there are some “partisan players” within the organisation.
I think there are some good journalists at the ABC, but I think there are some who you know, who, frankly, are just partisan players. And people see that on their TV screens every night. And again, the ABC is using taxpayers money, so use it wisely.
US will not ban Australian beef, Guardian Australia understands
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Breaking: Guardian Australia understands US officials have confirmed to Australia’s embassy in Washington that there will be no ban on Australian beef.
Dutton says he’ll stand ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ with PM on fighting tariffs
Let’s go back to Peter Dutton’s earlier interview on 2GB radio. Dutton says he’ll stand “shoulder-to-shoulder” with the government on rejecting the tariffs.
But he’s again positioning his party as stronger in standing up to a Trump administration.
(Meanwhile, Albanese’s and Wong’s language this morning has been that Australia needs to react calmly and respond in a careful and calibrated way.)
Dutton tells 2GB:
I happy to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the prime minister to make sure that we send a very clear message to the Americans that we don’t find it acceptable at all, and we are a trusted, reliable trading partner with the United States.
But we need to have a capacity to stand up and to negotiate and to arrive at the best possible outcome for our country. And that’s, I think, in part, what this election is about.
Albanese says Labor has navigated through ‘turbulent economic waters’
ABC Radio Melbourne host Raf Epstein says Albanese has had a good first week on the campaign, but asks whether he had a bad last year (which he says press gallery journalists have been commenting).
Albanese says: “No.”
No … we have been a determined government. We’ve governed in what have been turbulent economic times.
We have seen countries around the world with double digit inflation, some of them with double digit unemployment. At the same time across the ditch, New Zealand is in recession. What we have managed to do is negotiate our way through those turbulent economic waters. Keep our eye on the horizon.
Tariffs won’t affect Aukus agreement, Albanese says
Anthony Albanese says the tariffs won’t have an impact on the Aukus agreement between the US, UK and Australia.
He and others have said there is still great support across the political divide in the US for Aukus (and the US Virginia Class submarines that Australia would purchase in the 2030s would happen during a future administration, post-Trump).
President Trump, who has said that he supports the Aukus arrangements, as do members of Congress, Senators across the political divide in the United States, both Democrat and Republican.
A listener asks why Australia doesn’t pull out of Aukus and go back to the French for a submarine deal? Albanese says the government won’t do that because it’s not in Australia’s interests.
We believe that Aukus is in the interests of defending our nation. We think it’s in Australia’s interest, and whilst we regard this [tariffs] as an act of self harm by the United States when it comes to their economy, what I’m not prepared to do is do anything that is in not in Australia’s interests.
PM says Norfolk Island hit with 29% tariff despite being an Australian territory
The PM is now on ABC Radio Melbourne, and is asked to clarify whether the action on beef is an all out ban or a tariff.
Albanese says his understanding is that it’s a tariff.
We’ve been advised by their trade people that it’s a 10% tariff.
I’ve indicated very clearly in the discussions that I’ve had with President Trump that we regard tariffs as not being in the interests of the United States.
It seems that while the government did expect these new tariffs, it was somewhat taken aback by other tariffs for Norfolk Island, which is an Australian territory.
Albanese says:
I think Norfolk Island somehow has been hit with 29% tariff rather than 10%. Last time I looked, Norfolk Island was a part of Australia.
Where does the 10% number come from?
Anthony Albanese says the 10% figure was a political decision and rather than an economic decision.
They have made a decision that there will be a 10% tariff minimum from every nation. That’s a political decision. This is not an economic decision.
He says the government is still seeking clarification on all the decisions, including on beef, which Albanese says has been discussed with the administration (though again he has stressed there will be no compromise on bio-security laws).
Back to his meeting with Greg Norman, Albanese won’t say what advice Norman gave him, but that Norman and others will support their efforts to engage in the US.
He’s [Norman is] someone with connections with the US administration, and we are engaging with Australians who have connections with the United States to advance our national interests.
Albanese says government using ‘every asset’ available in talks with US
Anthony Albanese’s provided a bit more detail on the conversations that the government has had with the US administration over the last few days before the announcement.
He said earlier that this decision from Donald Trump was expected, and discussions have been ongoing.
There’s been a series of written to and fro, if you like. There’s been negotiations with Mr [Howard] Ludnick [the commerce secretary] and with others in the United States as well. So this came as no surprise to us.
We had prepared for a period of time the response, a five point response that you will you announced this morning. We met as leaders last night, and again, had contact this morning with obviously, the relevant ministers, as well as our economic ministers.
Albanese won’t specifically say when his government was told Australia would be hit with tariffs, just that “we were very clear about where this was headed”.
He adds the government is using “every asset” available, and mentions his dinner with Greg Norman last night.
Farrell vows to get free trade agreement with EU: ‘The world has changed for Europe’
Don Farrell says he believes the EU will come back to Australia with a better deal because the world has changed today and the EU has been hit even harder than Australia on its exports.
The trade minister says beef was one of the sticking points between the two regions:
The agreement with the European Union did fall over, over beef imports into the EU. The world has changed. As of today, the world has changed for Europe.
Europe has now [been] set back to a much higher tariff into the United States. If they’re sensible, if they’re sensible, they will make us a better offer on the issues that made the agreement fall over last time, and we will get a free trade agreement with the with the EU, the largest economy in the world.
Albanese says ‘no one has got a better deal’ than Australia in Trump’s tariff regime
Anthony Albanese emphasises that “no one has got a better deal” than Australia, and diplomats and officials are continuing to engage with the administration:
We have made very strong representations. Ministers, our ambassador, people in the embassy, people at departmental level, we’ve used every asset at our disposal.
But what it does mean – it’s a bit like what I was saying yesterday. Steel and aluminium, there’s not more steel and aluminium being produced in the United States today than there was in February.
The PM says that his understanding is that these 10% tariffs will be across the board.
Australia and the United Kingdom were in negotiations, I’m not sure about other countries, but I know that we were and that was under consideration … So our understanding is that it applies across the board.
He says again the best response is to buy Australian, and Labor will continue to promote Australian products (like Bundaberg ginger beer which he says he had at the Bundaberg factory when he was up campaigning in Queensland earlier this week).
Farrell to meet with European counterparts to discuss FTA
The trade minister, Don Farrell, says Australia will continue to engage with the US administration to remove the “unfair” tariffs.
He reiterates the calm approach, saying it will be by negotiation, by “sitting down and explaining to people the issues at hand” that will best present Australia’s case.
Farrell has also revealed he’s meeting again with he’s European counterparts to re-discuss a free trade agreement with the EU (previous negotiations got stuck on issues like naming rights for products including feta and prosecco).
On that Monday afternoon, I’m talking with my European counterpart, we all know what happened the last time we had discussions with the Europeans, I think things have changed. And the opportunity to have further negotiations about a free trade agreement on better terms than have been previously offered now exists.
