Left-wing commentators were already foaming at the mouth about Donald Trump’s “America First” trade policies before his opponent even conceded defeat.
Patricia Karvelas, host of the taxpayer-funded ABC Radio National morning show, suggested his plan to impose 10 to 20 per cent import tariffs would destroy the prospects of Australian exporters.
“As the United States is Australia’s third largest bilateral trading partner, this could directly impact local industries,” he said.
“Tariffs are going to be a major feature of Trump’s trade agenda.”
This was Thursday morning Australian time, and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris was an hour away from admitting defeat, having lost the industrial states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to Trump’s Republican Party.
ABC’s orgy of doom-mongering over a possible Trump victory was in full force at Monday night’s Q&A session, as the panel of august experts struggled to comprehend the prospect of Democrats losing their hearts again working class.
Bruce Wolpe, an adviser to former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard who worked for US Democrats in Congress, suggested a Trump administration would be reluctant to grant exemptions to Australia.
“In bilateral matters, in terms of trade, it will be an early test on tariffs to determine whether Australia gets an exemption,” said the senior researcher at the US Studies Center.
But these ABC commentators downplayed some facts.
Left-wing commentators were already foaming at the mouth about Donald Trump’s “America First” trade policies even before his opponent conceded defeat.
Including the fact that the first Trump administration in 2018 gave Australia a exemption of 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent import taxes on aluminum.
They also failed to mention that the president-elect is primarily concerned about American trading partners selling them more goods and services than they buy.
In other words, he hates trade deficits where other countries dump cheap products on American consumers and threaten their local jobs.
Having won back the Midwestern states that backed Joe Biden in 2020, Trump has a mandate to punish countries that exploit his access to the world’s largest consumer market.
But in the case of Australia, the Americans have a trade surplus with us. So Australia is not selling cheap products to the United States.
That should put Australia in the Trump administration’s good books and give us a special advantage.
In 2023, Australia imported $65.1 billion worth of goods and services from the United States.
This occurred when Australia exported $33.6 billion worth of goods to the United States.
Patricia Karvelas, host of the taxpayer-funded ABC Radio National morning show, suggested Trump’s plan to impose import tariffs of 10 to 20 per cent would destroy the prospects of Australian exporters.
So the fact that Australia buys almost twice as many American goods and services as it exports to the United States means there is a good chance that a second Trump administration will grant us tariff exemptions again.
And it’s not just me who says it.
Alexander Downer, Australia’s longest-serving foreign minister, has also made this point in a column for The Australian.
“Tariffs will be imposed unless countries agree to liberalize their markets for American exporters,” he said.
‘They say commentators misinterpret Trump’s approach to tariffs. “They should be seen as a scope claim.”
Also working in Australia’s favor is the fact that we have had a Free Trade Agreement with the United States since 2005.
This removed tariffs on 99 percent of American goods and services exported to Australia and made it easier for Americans to export processed foods, fruits and vegetables, corn and soybeans to Australia.
Trump will also not be the first American president to impose punitive tariffs on nations seeking to flood the American market with cheap goods.
Ronald Reagan, a former Republican occupant of the White House, imposed tariffs of 100 percent on Japanese electronics and 45 percent on Japanese motorcycles as a favor to Harley-Davidson.
The California actor had harsher tariffs than Trump even proposes and was hailed as a champion of free trade during the 1980s.
Bruce Wolpe, an adviser to former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard who worked for Democrats in Congress, suggested a Trump administration would be reluctant to grant waivers to Australia.
In both cases, the Japanese made goods that competed directly with American manufacturers, and the Reagan administration simply wanted fairer treatment for American companies that wanted to export their products to the Japanese market.
Australia has not exported Holden Commodores and Monaros to the United States since 2009.
They were sold as Chevrolet SS and Pontiac G8 sedans, and Pontiac GTO coupes, for the US market.
Since car manufacturing ceased in Australia in 2017, Regardless, Australia poses no threat to American automakers. But we do export aluminum and steel to the United States.
Imposing tariffs on other nations that sell their goods to Americans means Australia would have less competition to sell its goods to the world’s largest economy.
The United States was Australia’s third largest trading partner in 2023 after China and Japan.
China, Australia’s biggest trading partner since 2007, has form when it comes to tariffs: imposing arbitrary 200 per cent import taxes on Australian wine, along with a series of trade sanctions on barley, timber, lobsters , coal and more.
That had absolutely nothing to do with protecting Chinese jobs or industry, but rather was a blatantly political tactic by communist dictator Xi Jinping to Punishing former Prime Minister Scott Morrison in 2020 for daring to call for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19.
The left claims to be champions of the working class, so their outrage at an American presidential candidate who advocates protectionism to give workers a future is baffling.
Almost as baffling as their ignorance of the unique trading relationship between Australia and the United States that will most likely save us from tariffs.
