Albanese turns to the US' trade surplus with Australia to avoid Trump's tariffs
As he prepared to jet off to South America, Anthony Albanese also said Australia could play a role as a "trusted" middle power in convincing the US and China to avoid a trade war.
Donald Trump won’t appear on any official agenda or communique coming out of the APEC or G20 summits over the next week. But as Anthony Albanese leaves on Wednesday for his trip to Peru and Brazil, he knows that Trump 2.0 will dominate the sideline conversations with his counterparts.
While the prime minister is resisting calls by the opposition to add a stop in Florida to meet with Trump during his trip, he is already formulating a plan to convince the president-elect not to impose tariffs of up to 20% on Australian imports. Albanese will highlight the fact that the US has a trade surplus with Australia — a similar point that former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull used to avoid Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium in 2017.
Speaking just before departing to South America, Albanese confirmed that he adopted the same strategy when he spoke to Trump on the phone last week.
“I pointed out the US has a trade surplus with us, so it’s in the US’ interest to trade fairly with Australia,” he told ABC Radio on Wednesday morning.
