ELLEN RANSLEY: Malcolm Turnbull’s fiery exchanges and Donald Trump critique won’t change US tariff threat
Malcolm Turnbull is back in the spotlight and under fire this week for supposedly spoiling any chance Australia had of gaining a last-minute exemption from Donald Trump’s tariffs — but that was always going to be a nigh on impossible task.
Fiery exchanges with ABC hosts aside, the former prime minister, who secured an exemption in 2018 the first Trump administration’s tariffs, has this week reiterated the crucial point he’s been making for some time: Trump 2.0 is a different beast.
Standing up to the “bully” and making the case that the decades-long trade surplus was in Washington’s interests may have worked for Turnbull then, but Trump is determined to be more ruthless in pursuing his agenda this time around.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Surrounded by “yes men” like pro-tariff trade adviser Peter Navarro — a vehement advocate for no exemptions — Trump has made no secret of his approach to global trade.
As Turnbull told 7.30 on Monday, “there has been an attempt to set (Prime Minister Anthony) Albanese up to fail on something he was most unlikely to succeed in”.
The Government itself had acknowledged securing a carve out would be difficult, responding to Trump’s agreement to give Canberra’s case “great consideration” with hesitation. Foreign Minister Penny Wong told senate estimates last month “we have an even bigger hill to climb” now than in 2018.
No matter how many times the Government steps through its reasonable argument — that the US has had a trade surplus with Australia since 1951, that we export around $33bn and import around $65bn, that there are no tariffs or quotas on US goods — Trump believes the tariffs “are going to be the greatest thing we’ve ever done as a country. It’s going to make our country rich again”.
Some in the Coalition have suggested Trade Minister Don Farrell should be in Washington right now, pleading for an eleventh-hour exemption for the tariffs due to take effect on Wednesday.
It’s not enough, the Opposition says, for Ambassador Kevin Rudd to have tried to convince Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in a weekend meeting. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should at least “pick up the phone and speak with the President”.
“I think that’s in the hands of the Prime Minister at the moment. Instead of squibbing it, the PM’s got to step up to the plate and start dealing with the realities and make sure that Australia is exempt from this tariff,” Dutton said on Tuesday.
Former ambassador to Washington Arthur Sinodinos told The Nightly Mr Farrell may have been granted an audience with Mr Lutnick if he had made the dash, but that would likely not have altered the decision.
The arguments the Government has been making — whether it be Anthony Albanese in his two phone calls with Mr Trump, Ms Wong and Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ meetings with their counterparts, or Farrell in his communication with Lutnick — are a rinse and repeat of what Mr Turnbull successfully put to Mr Trump seven years ago.
“They’re good arguments,” Mr Turnbull said on Monday.
“But, I think the situation has changed”.
Even if, as shadow foreign minister David Coleman says, Australia has an even stronger case to secure an exemption in 2025 than it did seven years ago, Trump has made up his mind.
As Mr Turnbull posits, the President probably regrets giving Australia an exemption last time around because it meant he had to grant other carve outs, and he’s determined to do things differently this time.
In Trump 2.0’s ruthless America-first pursuit, there is no room for leniency or respecting old friends. The Albanese Government was always fighting an uphill battle.
