Patricia Karvelas has asked Ed Husic about Donald Trump’s latest reverse ferret on the tariffs, this time saying that while the number ‘won’t be zero’ the tariff on goods coming from China will be ‘substantially’ lower.

Q: Do you see that as promising or should we not hold our breath?

Husic:

I am very careful about not reading too much into an announcement made one day, then something else changes, we will get another announcement. I think you have to be able to deal with the actual, what decision is actually being made and put into effect, is important.

Australians do not want to have in particular announcement is made and then backtracked and then we are not going to a decision, sounds familiar and the Australian context, but effectively Peter Dutton has mimicked a lot of that in terms of taking plans, changing them and I don’t think that serves the public well so in the US context, it has caused obviously a lot of instability in terms of global trade, absolutely, that has played through, not just about the instability it has caused, the way it has translated, for example, predictions about what that I to growth here and overseas, the way it will inhibit trade, the way it has inhibited, has an economic impact, and by extension, jobs, is concerning and we need to be in a stronger footing. If there is headway, if, for example, what has been suggested materialises it will be good and keep it rolling but let’s wait and see.