'It’s not clear where that ends': Australia urged to hold the line in Trump tariff talks
A former senior Australian economic official is urging Australia to avoid 'tit for tat' negotiations with the Trump administration on trade.
Former Productivity Commission chair Michael Brennan has cautioned the federal government against “tit-for-tat” transactional negotiations with the Trump administration to avoid tariffs.
Brennan, who is now chief executive of non-partisan economic research firm e61 Institute, told Capital Brief the government should stick to pleading the case for exemptions on the basis of the strength of Australian-US relations and the trade surplus.
“As a general proposition, I think we want to make a case about the closeness of our relationship, the importance of the strategic partnership and that the US runs a trade surplus with Australia,” Brennan said, warning against “getting into a tit for tat” situation.
“Being retaliatory, transactional, ‘we’ll give you this if you give us that’ … it’s not clear where that ends,” he said.
