‘We Need to Approach It Sensibly’: Dutton on Trump Tariffs

Opposition leader Dutton Peter Dutton believes Australia needs to approach negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump “sensibly” amid the President’s “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariffs, which are impacting the entire globe.

Dutton, who is vying to be Australia’s next Prime Minister in the upcoming election on May 3, said he thinks part of the problem is that Albanese had been unable to secure a phone call or meeting with the President.

This comes after President Trump announced an executive order imposing a 10 percent tariff on all U.S. trading partners from April 5 at midnight.

While Australia faces the same 10 percent tariff as the United Kingdom, multiple nations including China, Japan, and the European Union are subject to much harsher reciprocal tariffs.

Although Trump praised the Australian people, he criticised the country’s agricultural trade policies, arguing that the United States must also protect its farmers.

“Well Australians are wonderful people, wonderful everything, but they ban American beef. Yet, we imported 3 billion dollars of Australian beef from them just last year alone,” he said.

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“They won’t take any of our beef, they don’t want it because they don’t want it to affect their farmers. And you know what? I don’t blame them. But we are doing the same thing right now starting midnight tonight I would say.”

Trump argues that global tariffs will ensure fair trade, protect American workers, and reduce the trade deficit by asking other countries to “follow the golden rule on trade: treat us like we treat you.”

However, Opposition leader Dutton told 2GB radio that Australia needs to “negotiate hard” with the U.S. administration on Australia’s behalf.

“The U.S. requires Australian beef. It’s not just that we are great producers and have found an export market—They can’t produce enough beef to satisfy domestic consumption,” Dutton said on 2GB.

“This is why I say we need to approach it sensibly, but we need to have a position here in Australia which is going to be taken seriously by the President and by the Americans.”

Dutton also expressed concerns about the Chinese Communist Party’s apparent support for the Albanese government, while Australia’s relationship with the U.S. remains “dysfunctional.”

“At the same time, the President of the Chinese Communist Party is praising Anthony Albanese as their preferred candidate for the next election. As the Prime Minister has rightly pointed out, we live in the most precarious period since 1945. The weakness that the Prime Minister inherently has and displays each day is just not going to stand our country in best stead,” Dutton said.

Despite these criticisms, Dutton expressed his willingness to work with Albanese in terms of sending a clear message to the U.S.

“I am happy to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Prime Minister to make sure we send a very clear message to the Americans that we don’t find [these tariffs] acceptable at all,” he said.

“We are a trusted, reliable trading partner with the United States, but we need to have the capacity to stand up, negotiate, and arrive at the best possible outcome for our country. I think that’s in part what this election is about.”

“We will continue to put our case for what we regard as a reciprocal arrangement for our products to be tariff-free, just as products into Australia from the United States are tariff-free,” Albanese told reporters.

“Importantly, the United States does enjoy a historical trade surplus with Australia.”

Albanese said his government had made very strong representations to the United States through various channels, including Ministers, the ambassador, the embassy, and departmental officials.

However, he described the tariffs as totally unwarranted and not the act of a true ally.

“President Trump referred to ’reciprocal tariffs.' A reciprocal tariff would be zero, not 10 percent,” Albanese said.

“The administration’s tariffs have no basis in logic and they go against the basis of our two nation’s partnership. This is not the act of a friend.”