Australia’s trade minister remains confident tariffs imposed by the US will be removed, ahead of a likely meeting between Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump.
The two leaders could meet on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada next week, with the economic measures imposed by the US president around the world set to dominate discussions.
As Australia looks to negotiate for an exemption on tariffs, Trade Minister Don Farrrell was optimistic a deal could be reached.
“I certainly haven’t given up on the prospect of getting these tariffs removed, and every opportunity I get, I’ll continue to pursue that argument with the United States,” he told Sky News on Sunday.
“There is no justification for the United States to impose tariffs on Australia … we want all of the tariffs removed, not just some of them.”
Mr Trump recently signed off on doubling tariffs on exports on steel and aluminium from 25 to 50 per cent.
All other Australian exports to the US have been slapped with a 10 per cent tariff.
Senator Farrell met with US trade representative Jamieson Greer last week and said he pushed the case for all of the economic measures to be removed.
The minister was hopeful a similar approach that removed $20 billion worth of tariffs on Australian goods entering China could be used with America.
“We didn’t retaliate on that occasion, and bit by bit, we managed to get all of those tariffs that had been applied on Australia by China removed. I’d like to do the same with the United States,” he said.
“It’s only by open discussion, honest discussion with out allies in the United States that I think we can do that.”
As the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Australia to increase its defence spending by billions of dollars to 3.5 per cent of GDP, Senator Farrell said the federal government had already proved its commitment through the AUKUS submarine deal.
Australia is looking to up its total spent on defence to 2.3 per cent.
“We are committed to the defence of this country, we are committed to a significant uplift in the amount of spending,” Senator Farrell said.
“(AUKUS) is going to be a project that’s worth more than $360 billion, so I think we’ve talked the talk.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signalled on Friday negotiations on opening up access to US beef into Australia could be on the table as part of tariff negotiations.
However, he said biosecurity would not be compromised in order to reach an agreement.
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