‘We have to stand up to him’: Trump tariffs could hit Australia

“It’ll be tougher to secure exemptions this time than the last time,” Sinodinos said.
“Trump sees this as a legacy issue and may decide not to have any exemptions – we have to be prepared to take him at face value.”
The fact Australia has a sweeping free trade agreement with the US and has a positive reputation in Washington will not necessarily spare the country from being hit with tariffs, Sinodinos warned.
“Mexico and Canada have learnt that having a free agreement with the US does not protect you,” he said.
“Australia is not the target but we will be caught up in all of this.”
Turnbull said: “Trump has always believed that the US is ripped off in unfair trade deals by other countries whether they be adversaries or allies.
“He does not believe in globalism, free trade or the international rules-based order.”
Turnbull said that Trump was more focused on boosting American manufacturing jobs than in his first term, when his priority was making trade fairer and more reciprocal for American interests.
This will make it important to not only rely on an argument about Australia’s trade deficit with the US, he said.
“Trump has always believed that free trade, especially with China, has resulted in America exporting jobs with American factories being replaced by foreign ones,” he said.
“So reindustrialisation is part of his agenda, and this term more emphatically than it was in his first.
“On that score we can argue that there are no American factories or jobs that moved to Australia.
“There are no Australian exports to the US which undermine American jobs.
“But this is an exercise in advocacy, and it will require our Prime Minister to make the case coherently to Trump and have the courage to stand up to him. ”
Turnbull said he had to make the case to Trump personally because most of his trade advisors were against granting Australia an exemption.
Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres said the government was not caught by surprise by Trump’s tariff moves.
“That’s long been apparent that President Trump would take a different approach on these questions,” he said.
“There had been changes in the approach in the United States over the course of the last three or four years – in Australia, we have been prepared for all of this.”
Canada is the largest supplier of potash to the US, a fertiliser used in agriculture. Tariffs on the crop enhancing product may strike discord in President Trump’s base, particularly among the country’s midwest farm belt which will be hit by higher prices.
Medical device manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Healthcare will also be stung by the tariffs. It told the stock exchange on Monday that its costs were likely to increase in the 2026 financial year as a result of them.
In the first half of this financial year, about 45 per cent of the company’s revenue came from the US and about 60 per cent of its products crossing the American border come out of its Mexican factories.
“The company is currently working through the complexities associated with the imposition of the tariffs,” it said.
Meanwhile, Australian technology start-ups are bracing themselves for potential economic fallout from the tariffs.
Anish Sinha, a former equities analyst at Goldman Sachs and co-founder of start-up UpCover, said many Australian start-ups were already struggling to raise capital amid a difficult macroeconomic environment.
“Trump’s sudden tariffs — such as what we saw with Canada and Mexico over the weekend — have much broader ramifications than just creating a trade war,” Sinha told this masthead.
Loading
“It could drive capital away from riskier assets, including those indexed or exposed to tech or AI.”
Mena Theodorou, co-founder at crypto exchange Coinstash, said that cryptocurrencies have already been rattled by the tariffs.
“Tariffs of this scale are generally seen as negative for risk assets like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
“In the past 24 hours, over $US188 billion has been wiped out from the crypto market, reflecting investor unease, and this volatility is now spilling into traditional market,” he said.