Albanese enlists Greg Norman’s help in last-ditch effort to avoid Trump tariffs
The prime minister did not rule out taking the US to the World Trade Organisation, as it did with China when it banned Australian goods, saying on Wednesday he would not engage in “hypotheticals”.
“They’re daily, daily discussions are taking place,” Albanese said of his government’s talks with Washington on Wednesday.
“We are certainly prepared tomorrow for whatever outcome is determined and you’ll see that tomorrow.”
Australia does not impose tariffs on US imports, has a free trade agreement with the US and has tended to buy more than it has sold.
Kevin Rudd with Greg Norman at the Australia Day Awards Gala in Washington in January.
But tariffs formed the centrepiece of Trump’s economic agenda at the November election, and he has shown little appetite to spare long-term allies from the trade war he claims will lead to a huge amount of revenue paying down American government debt.
The Coalition has attacked Albanese for his inability to secure a follow-up call with Trump after two earlier conversations. Albanese said in 2017 that Trump “scares the shit out of me” and Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd has also disparaged the right-wing populist in previous years.
While Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has portrayed Albanese as too weak to deal with Trump, the domestic political debate over Australia’s relationship with the US has been complicated for Dutton.
Some Coalition MPs hailed the conservative “vibe shift” after Trump’s victory as an important signifier of future success for the Australian right. However, Trump’s erratic agenda has been unpopular in Australia, according to polling in this masthead, and Labor has begun to more overtly tie Dutton’s policies to Trump’s.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Tuesday that Dutton had “threatened cuts to school funding, which was right from the Doge [Elon Musk’s so-called department of government efficiency] playbook”.
“We also know that he wants to Americanise Medicare as well,” Chalmers added. “This is Doge-y Dutton, taking his cues and policies straight from the US.”
The Coalition has said Labor’s rhetoric was unhelpful to maintaining good relations with the US.
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