What Australia exports to the United States
Greg Jericho has stopped swearing at the TV long enough to create this handy graph for you to see what is being talked about here:
Thu 3 Apr
Australia Institute Live: Day Six of the 2025 election campaign. As it happened.
This blog is now closed.
Key posts
The Day's News
So Australian beef may be banned from entering the US from midnight.
Albanese says he didn’t say he had information that wasn’t happening – just that they are still getting the details straight.
I said that beef was a part of the negotiation between Australia and the United States. In the written agreements that went between our two nations, it’s one of the things that was discussed. We’ll of course seek further clarity about all of the decisions that are made.
But the[Trump has made] is to impose across the board tariffs on all goods entering the United States.
Is Australian beef banned in the US?
Everyone is a bit unsure.
We are aware that beef has been an issue. That’s been, as I said to an earlier answer, this is one of the issues that we were negotiating over between Australia and the United States. That did not reach an agreement because the United States did not reach an agreement with any nation.
So did the government know beef was an issue?
He refers to his previous answer.
Asked if he has spoken to Australia’s US ambassador, Kevin Rudd, Albanese said he held the press conference first, but will speak with him:
I have spoken with Kevin Rudd on a daily basis over recent times. As have ministers. I make this point about Kevin Rudd – no-one can question Kevin Rudd’s work ethic, Kevin Rudd works relentlessly in Australia’s national interest and he’s developed very positive relationships with key people in the Trump administration.
What about the Australia-US relationship as a whole?
Albanese:
Our relationship with the United States is an important one for us. And our defence relationship with the United States is one that’s in our interests.
CAN ALBANESE GET DONALD TRUMP ON THE PHONE?! WILL SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE PHONES? PETER DUTTON SAYS ITS A FAILURE THERE HASN’T BEEN A THIRD PHONE CALL!!!!!!
Also are we sending in the Great White Shark?!
Albanese:
What I would like from Peter Dutton is to stand up for Australia and back Australia’s national interest. This isn’t a time for partisanship, I wouldn’t have thought.
But people will draw their own conclusions about this behaviour that you have just indicated.
That’s consistent with last time around on aluminium and steel.
Where Mr Dutton came out and was critical of Australia, not critical of the United States for imposing these tariffs.
Even though they were universal and across the board.
And Greg Norman is of course a great Australian. I had dinner with him last night. He is someone I got to know over the years. He’s my nominee on the Olympic board for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics. We are using every asset at our disposal. Ministers, people in departments, our embassy in Washington DC, our business community links, and our other links as well, to advance Australia’s national interest.
Seems like a few journalists have realised that the World Trade Organisation ain’t what she used to be.
Q: Given structural issues at the WTO, what confidence do you have any complaint that Australia makes will be progressed, and minister Farrell, you walked away from negotiations last time with the EU, will you walk away again if they don’t offer greater market access for our products?
Don Farrell:
These take some time. The WTO. We know that’s the case. Our free trade agreement with the United States does have dispute resolution mechanisms. We want this to be resolved in a way that avoids those contests. If I can be so bold as to answer on your behalf, we’ll always stand up for our national interest. The agreement with the EU wasn’t good enough. We walked away. If it’s good enough, we’ll sign up.
Here is what Matt Grudnoff had to say about the WTO yesterday:
Should Australia take the US to the World Trade Organization (WTO) if Trump imposes tariffs?
We would have a strong case, but it would also be pointless.
Why? Because the US has stripped the WTO’s ability to hear appeals. There are supposed to be 7 judges on the WTO’s appellate body. But the US has blocked all appointments since 2017. It now has no judges and can’t hear any appeals.
But even if the WTO was working perfectly, the only way WTO decisions can be enforced is with the consent of the countries involved.
If Australia won, Trump would have to agree to drop the tariffs because the WTO told him too. Can anyone really see that happening?
How did Australia learn about the tariffs and does this make pushing back against China’s strategic goals in the region harder?
Albanese:
There’s no doubt the response on a range of issues, be it action on climate change, as well as trade issues, will affect the strategic competition that is here in the region.
There’s no question that that will occur.
And countries will have their own assessments of that.
We’ve been expecting this decision. We put a position to the United States. The United States responded. We responded to them. There’s been a series of written to and ‘fro, if you like. There’s been negotiations with Mr Lutnick and with others in the United States as well.
So, this came as no surprise to us. We – we had prepared for a period of time the response, the 5-point response that you will – we 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.
Anthony Albanese repeats that Australia won’t be compromising on beef:
The beef issue was about mad cow disease, to give its colloquial name. And about also the fact that beef to Australia couldn’t be guaranteed whether it had also come from Canada or Mexico as well. It was those issues that we’re working through. Those issues have been worked through. There’s currently frozen beef that can come into Australia.
We certainly, in the discussions we’ve had with the United States put a position that was consistent with ensuring our biosecurity is looked after than we would give consideration. But that didn’t progress. And so, that is where we’re are at this point.
So we don’t know what is happening with beef just yet it seems, but it looks like pharmaceutical drugs and bullion (two of Australia’s biggest exports to the US) may have been carved out globally from these tariffs (Trump is a wrecker, but even he knows the US needs vaccines, drugs and gold to keep functioning at a bare minimum)
Albanese says the details are not entirely clear yet:
I have more to say about pharmaceuticals very soon, later this morning – to give you a bit of a tip off of where we’re headed next.
But, we regard this as being universal. Of course, we’ll await an assessment. To be fair to us, out of respect to you, we are standing up less than half an hour after President Donald Trump’s press conference. We’ll analyse the impact. But importantly, no country that imports to the United States will have less tariffs than Australia. That’s an important point of what has arisen out of today.
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