Hope for tariff carve-out wanes as Trump strikes deals
Since pushing his tariff deadline to August 1, the US president has struck trade agreements with Japan, and on Monday, the European Union.
While the deals landed on tariffs lower than Mr Trump's initial threats, both were higher than the 10 per cent baseline levy imposed on Australian goods.
No US trading partner has managed to completely dodge tariffs on their items.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Trade Minister Don Farrell have maintained Australian products should not be hit with any tariffs, but the latest deals show an exemption could be off the table.
"Trump really does see tariffs as something that is good in themselves," University of Sydney US politics expert David Smith told AAP.
"Even though there were a lot of hopes at the beginning of this process that countries could negotiate their way out of tariffs altogether - that's not really happening."
Australia, like other nations, might instead have to pivot approaches and try to strategically position its industries within these deals.
For example, the US pharmaceutical sector has long taken issue with Australia's drug subsidy scheme and urged the president to act.
In early July, Mr Trump threatened a 200 per cent tariff on pharmaceuticals, which could be seen as a way for the US to chip away at the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in exchange for a trade deal.
Both of Australia's major parties have maintained the program is not up for negotiation.
Instead, the federal government revealed it would lift restrictions on certain US beef imports.
"Australia is thinking about other areas where we would be prepared to make concessions, because we were not going to be making concessions on (the PBS)," Associate Professor Smith said.
Mr Albanese has maintained his government is engaging in Australia's national interest.
While the government said its decision to lift restrictions followed a decade-long scientific review and noted the measure would not compromise biosecurity, the opposition and figures within the cattle industry have called for an independent examination of the issue.
"If we have created a brand new threat, we should be very clear about that," Liberal senator Jane Hume told parliament.
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The Australian
2 hours ago
- The Australian
Trump's global trade policy faces test, hours from tariff deadline
President Donald Trump's dream of a new world trade order faced a crucial test Thursday, with dozens of economies –- including key commercial partners like Canada -- yet to secure US tariff deals ahead of a midnight deadline. The last-gasp scramble to strike bilateral accords came as an appeals court in Washington considered the legality behind Trump's strategy of invoking emergency economic powers to declare sweeping duties on imports. The 79-year-old Republican doubled down on the wide-ranging levies, posting on Truth Social: "Tariffs are making America GREAT & RICH Again." He insisted in a separate post that the world's biggest economy would have "no chance of survival or success" without protectionist measures. But question marks linger over the effectiveness of Trump's grand plan -- and whether he will really follow through on his most dramatic threats. In a sign of flexibility, he announced Friday that he was delaying a tariff hike on Mexican products originally due Friday for 90 days after talks with counterpart Claudia Sheinbaum. Other road bumps remain. While Trump has touted a surge in customs revenues since fresh tariffs were imposed this year, economists warn the duties could fuel inflation. And the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit meanwhile was hearing arguments Thursday in cases brought against Trump's blanket tariffs targeting various economies. A government lawyer told the court that Trump's tariff orders were covered by "broad discretion" he enjoys when it comes to handling national emergencies -- including pressing economic issues. A lower court's ruling had blocked most of the duties from taking effect, prompting the Trump administration's challenge and the duties have been allowed to stay in place for now. - Deal or no deal - So far, Washington has announced pacts with Britain, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea and the European Union, with those new rates expected to take effect Friday. South Korea squeezed in a last-minute agreement on a 15 percent tariff, significantly below the 25 percent that Trump threatened on its goods. But Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian products -- while postponing imposition and allowing key exemptions -- as an effort to pressure the US ally to drop its prosecution of right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro on coup charges. He also unveiled a 25 percent levy on Indian imports, and warned Canada it would face trade repercussions for planning to recognize a Palestinian state. And the details of the agreements that have been made remain vague. For example, the EU, while having reached a pact, continues pushing for a carve-out for its wine industry. Looming over the entire global economy is the still unresolved trade tussle between the United States and its chief rival China, with the superpowers in talks to maintain a truce after earlier imposing triple-digit tariffs on each other. - Canada threat - Washington has yet to finalize a deal with neighboring Canada, while Trump said he was extending existing 25 percent duties on Mexican imports. Canada's trade relations with the United States came under renewed threat after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September. "That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them," Trump warned on social media. Carney said Wednesday: "It is possible that we may not conclude talks by August 1st." Goods covered by a North American trade pact have so far been excluded from Trump's latest tariffs. The US tariff hikes due Friday were announced in April in a package where Trump slapped a minimum 10 percent levy on goods from almost all partners -- citing unfair trade practices. This rate was set to rise to varying levels for dozens of countries, but Washington twice postponed their implementation. bys-cl/sms Business Breaking News Collapsed Australian fashion label Tigerlily has emerged from a turbulent two-year period to make a dramatic retail comeback just in time for a milestone anniversary. Business Breaking News Property prices have defied interest rate pressures to reach a high, with regional areas outperforming capital cities across most markets.
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Will Trump set Ghislaine Maxwell free?
Sam Hawley: Donald Trump has spent another week fielding questions over the release of the so-called Epstein files. The saga even followed him to Scotland. So what's he up to now to try and get rid of the problem? Well, in part, he sent his Deputy Attorney General to interview Epstein's co-conspirator, Delaine Maxwell, who's in prison for sex trafficking. Today, Jill Wine-Banks, who was one of the prosecutors during the Watergate scandal, on whether Trump could pardon Maxwell and whether that would help him. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Jill, this Epstein issue, it won't go away for Donald Trump. He was even facing questioning about this during his trip to Scotland. Donald Trump, US President: You're making a very big thing over something that's not a big thing. You should be talking about, if you're going to talk about that, talk about Clinton. Talk about the former president of Harvard. Don't talk about Trump. Sam Hawley: It's become rather a bother, hasn't it? Jill Wine-Banks: It is something that is a self-inflicted problem because it was Donald Trump who yelled, conspiracy, conspiracy, you must release all this. And he promised he would. And now he's not. We know that his attorney general told him that he is in the Jeffrey Epstein files, and that would seem very suspicious as to why he is now not releasing it and looking for ways around it. Sam Hawley: Well, Jill, in some of his latest comments, Donald Trump says he fell out with Jeffrey Epstein because he stole young women from his Mar-a-Lago club, including Australian Virginia Jeffrey, who died this year. Donald Trump, US President: I think so. I think that was one of the people. He stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know. Sam Hawley: And he says he never went to Epstein's private island in the Caribbean. Donald Trump, US President: I never had the privilege of going to his island. And I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island. And one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn't want to go to his island. Sam Hawley: But look, what I really want to do with you is to dig a bit deeper into the role of it?in all of this, because she has, of course, been re-interviewed by the deputy attorney general, presumably at Trump's orders. Just remind me, first of all, who she is and why she's serving a 20-year jail sentence in America. Jill Wine-Banks: Absolutely. So Ghislaine Maxwell is an accomplice to Jeffrey Epstein. She is not charged with his crimes. She is charged with basically procuring young girls, grooming them, and participating in sexual abuse of them. So it's not just that she was what we would call in America his pimp, where she went to colleges and other places to find young girls who would come to his Palm Beach estate. And then she groomed them as to how to handle the sexual acts and the massages, as they were called. She was convicted in 2021, sentenced in 2022, and is currently imprisoned. She is appealing. She has asked the Supreme Court to review her conviction. They are on their summer recess, but are expected to decide whether they will take the case this fall when they come back into session. Sam Hawley: All right. So between 1994 and 2004, according to federal prosecutors, Maxwell helped Epstein groom and traffic girls as young as 14. Yes. She has maintained her innocence, of course, hence the appeal. Just a reminder, she's the only one serving time in relation to these awful offenses against young girls because Jeffrey Epstein died in jail in 2019. Jill Wine-Banks: Correct. He was serving time in jail and died. The question was whether he committed suicide or was murdered, and that remains an open question. There can be no further criminal prosecutions because there's no trafficking subsequent to his death. And he died in 2019, and we have a statute of limitations in America that is five years, and it's six years since he died. Sam Hawley: All right. So, Jill, Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence in a Florida prison, but in the past week, the Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, has gone knocking on her prison cell door. Just tell me about that. What's happened? Jill Wine-Banks: Yes. Well, first, let me say how utterly remarkable it is that the Deputy Attorney General would interview a witness. Let me say how remarkable it is that the Deputy Attorney General would be the former private attorney of Donald Trump. Once you are someone's private attorney, you have a duty of loyalty and secrecy to that client forever. And so he cannot be acting on behalf of the American people when he already has a commitment to Donald Trump. That would be a conflict of interest. The other reason it's unusual is that he knows nothing about the prosecution. He has no experience in this case. The people who tried the Epstein and Maxwell cases are people who would be very appropriate to interview her, not someone with no experience. And Maxwell, we should be also adding, she's not a credible person that a jury would be likely to rely on. And we do not in America allow the revelation of secret grand jury testimony or anything else that would accuse someone of a crime unless you're charging them with a crime. And nothing, she says, is going to lead to a criminal prosecution. We don't release information because it would satisfy public interest or purient interest of the public. It has to be in connection with a judicial proceeding. And that's another reason why it would be wrong. Sam Hawley: All right, well, Maxwell's lawyer, David Oscar Marcus, said that she answered every single question she was asked. David Markus, Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney: There were a lot of questions and we went all day and she answered every one of them. She never just said, I'm not going to answer, never declined. You know, this is the first time the government has asked questions. So we were thankful that. Sam Hawley: She was offered limited immunity for participating in this interview. Just explain what that is. Jill Wine-Banks: Limited immunity is basically also called use immunity. It means that anything that she says cannot be used against her and that in any future prosecution, anything that is introduced in evidence against her would have to be shown to not be the result of something she said. That's considered fruit of the poison tree. So it gives her some protection and it is a completely legitimate thing to do. So that is not among the suspicious or wrong things that the Department of Justice is doing. The interview is the wrong thing. And although they are now saying that there are transcripts of it, I want to know who the person taking the notes was. And I want to know whether 100% of from hello until walking out on the second day, how much was maybe done what we call in camera, in secret, not as part of the recorded testimony. Because there is my suspicion shared by many that part of Todd Blanche's purpose in talking to her was to say, well, the president would certainly look favorably on your request for a pardon if you could say that he had nothing to do with this. And maybe in a more subtle way than I'm phrasing it, shape her testimony so that it was helpful to Donald Trump and hurtful to Democrats who might be on the list of people who she has evidence against. We've obviously heard the name Bill Clinton, former president Bill Clinton, as someone who might be involved in this. There's no evidence that there is. And being on the manifest for planes does not mean you committed a crime. It means you took a plane somewhere that Jeffrey Epstein flew you. It doesn't mean you engaged in trafficking or in illegal sex with a minor. Sam Hawley: President Trump was asked whether he would pardon Maxwell. And he really hasn't closed the door on that. Donald Trump, US President: Would you consider a pardon or a commutation for Ghislaine Maxwell? It's something I haven't thought about. I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about. Sam Hawley: But would anyone believe, the public believe what she had to say, whatever that might be? Jill Wine-Banks: I think they would not believe what she had to say. I think they would believe that any pardon was to protect himself. And he said about her, I wish her well. He has not said anything of sympathy toward any of the victims. He should be concerned about the young girls, as you said, starting at the age of 14. Sam Hawley: Well, Jill, the President and the Department of Justice want to quell this criticism that they're hiding something, that they're hiding a list of Epstein's high profile clients. But is this all just the art of distraction, if you like? And is it working? Jill Wine-Banks: Well, he's trying to distract by doing a lot of other things and saying, well, look at Obama. He's a traitor. He should be arrested for treason and a million other things that he is trying to distract the public from. For some reason, the Epstein files have captured the hearts and minds of many in America. And the distraction doesn't seem to be working. People are not giving up on this. As you said, it's overseas. The headlines in the Scottish papers were really harsh on him. And he's now the subject of cartoons. The South Park TV cartoon series has made fun of him. And people are now starting to think that this could really be the thing that takes him down. Sam Hawley: You seem to be saying that you don't think he can wiggle his way out of this, but he's done it so many times with so many controversies, hasn't he? Jill Wine-Banks: He has. I mean, I'm one who thought in his first campaign when the tape of him saying, I grab women's private parts and I can get away with it because when you're a star, you can do it. I thought that was the end of his campaign. I've thought a million other things were the end of his campaign or his career. And I was wrong. He has been a very lucky person to escape the responsibility for his bad acts. So I can't say for sure that he isn't going to get away with this, but he may lose his power if this continues. And if things aren't released, his supporters who believed he was going to do it are not going to forgive him for that. That's going to hurt the Republican Party, not just him. Sam Hawley: And what about Ghislaine Maxwell? What are the chances in your view that Trump will simply let her out of jail? A move that would be simply devastating for Epstein's victims and hers. Jill Wine-Banks: I don't think we can rule it out because I don't think he has empathy for any of the victims. I think he could commute her sentence to time served and let her out of jail without pardoning her for these horrendous crimes. I think, I don't know, I may be Pollyanna, but I still think that there has to be someone advising him who says you cannot pardon these kinds of crimes for which there was more than ample evidence. And yet he thinks he can get away with anything. He, of course, can pardon her and there's no consequences. That's totally up to his discretion. Sam Hawley: Jill Wine-Banks was one of the prosecutors during the Watergate scandal. She's the author of The Watergate Girl and the host of the podcast, #Sisters In Law. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Sam Dunn. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. ABC News Daily will be back again on Monday. Thanks for listening.
The Australian
2 hours ago
- The Australian
Trump says US to impose 15% tariff on South Korean goods
President Donald Trump said Wednesday the United States will impose a 15 percent tariff on imports from South Korea, as he touted a "full and complete trade deal" between the two countries. "South Korea will give to the United States $350 Billion Dollars for Investments," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, adding that the country would buy $100 billion in liquefied natural gas or other energy products. The 15 percent rate is below a 25 percent tariff that Trump had threatened earlier, and was equivalent to deals with Japan and the European Union. Trump added that an additional unspecified "large sum of money" will be invested by Seoul. "This sum will be announced within the next two weeks when the President of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, comes to the White House for a Bilateral Meeting," Trump said, offering congratulations to his South Korean counterpart for his "electoral success." South Korea's Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol said Seoul's commitment to help the United States revive its shipbuilding industry was instrumental in reaching the deal. "I believe MASGA made the greatest contribution to reaching today's agreement," Koo said at a news conference in Washington, referring to the "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again" proposal. "Our world-class shipbuilding companies, equipped with the highest level of ship design and construction capabilities, are expected to help revive the US shipbuilding industry," he said. Shares in South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean, which owns a shipyard in Philadelphia, soared more than 15 percent Thursday. The leaders' White House meeting will be their first since Lee assumed the presidency in June. In a statement on Facebook, Lee called the deal "the first major trade challenge" since his administration took power, adding: "We have overcome a major hurdle." "Through this deal, the government has eliminated uncertainty surrounding export conditions and ensured that US tariffs on our exports are either lower than or equal to those imposed on our major trade competitors." - Mixed reaction - Lee was elected in a snap vote last month following the impeachment of predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol over his disastrous martial law declaration in December. The deal marks an early victory for Lee's tenure as head of the export-reliant economy, Asia's fourth biggest. "This agreement represents the convergence of US interests in revitalizing its manufacturing sector and our determination to strengthen Korean companies' competitiveness in the American market," Lee's statement continued. But there were mixed reactions in South Korea. Its six major business associations, including the Korea Chamber of Commerce, said in a joint statement: "We view this agreement as a critical milestone that will not only ease trade-related uncertainties but also pave the way for a significant strengthening of economic cooperation between the two countries. "With much of the external uncertainty now resolved, the Korean business community will redouble efforts to boost domestic investment and job creation." But a handful of civic groups, including farmers and labour organisations, protested at the US Embassy in central Seoul, opposing "Trump's madman strategy." Demonstrators held signs reading "No Trump! No King!" and pointed out that there may be additional negotiations when Lee meets Trump. "Trump's actions amount to excessive interference in our domestic affairs," said Park Sung-hoon, head of the Korean Apple Growers Association. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has imposed a sweeping 10 percent tariff on trading partners -- with extra rates for dozens of economies set for August 1 -- alongside steeper tolls on steel, aluminium and autos. News of the deal with South Korea came as Trump on Wednesday imposed 25 percent tariffs on Indian goods and 50 percent on those from Brazil. bur-kjk-hs/dan
