Latest news with #US69.4
The Age
08-07-2025
- Business
- The Age
Penguins on standby as Trump ruffles global trade feathers
The penguins of Heard and McDonald Islands are back quaking in their flippers as they await a tariff letter from Donald Trump. After seeing what an eclectic group of nations is going to face if they sell goods to American consumers, the penguins (and seals) of the frigid outpost closer to Antarctica than Australia can be rightfully more than a little concerned about what the US president has in store for them – having been on the first list of 'liberation day' tariffs in April. The only common element to Trump's initial list of 14 countries to be hit with extra tariffs of between 25 per cent and 40 per cent is each runs a trade deficit with the United States. That stretches between $US69.4 billion with Japan and $US126 million with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The common thread – deficits – is a positive sign (among the bleakness of the economic ramifications of Trump's actions for American consumers) for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. In his letters to the 14 nations, Trump made clear they were all about the 'significant trade deficit' between that country and the US. In each missive, he accused the affected nation of having a 'closed trading market' to American products. Australia, despite a couple of monthly surpluses this year by enormous movements in gold caused by investors fearful of the impact of Trump's policies on US inflation, continues to run a deficit with America. In Trump's unhinged view of the trading world, an American trade deficit requires retribution. A surplus means a baseline tariff of 10 per cent. The argument that nations will escape a tariff ignores a key part of Trump's economic plan. He needs the tariff revenue to pay for the Big Beautiful Bill that will blow a $US3.3 trillion hole in the US budget over the next decade.
Sydney Morning Herald
08-07-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Penguins on standby as Trump ruffles global trade feathers
The penguins of Heard and McDonald Islands are back quaking in their flippers as they await a tariff letter from Donald Trump. After seeing what an eclectic group of nations is going to face if they sell goods to American consumers, the penguins (and seals) of the frigid outpost closer to Antarctica than Australia can be rightfully more than a little concerned about what the US president has in store for them – having been on the first list of 'liberation day' tariffs in April. The only common element to Trump's initial list of 14 countries to be hit with extra tariffs of between 25 per cent and 40 per cent is each runs a trade deficit with the United States. That stretches between $US69.4 billion with Japan and $US126 million with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The common thread – deficits – is a positive sign (among the bleakness of the economic ramifications of Trump's actions for American consumers) for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. In his letters to the 14 nations, Trump made clear they were all about the 'significant trade deficit' between that country and the US. In each missive, he accused the affected nation of having a 'closed trading market' to American products. Australia, despite a couple of monthly surpluses this year by enormous movements in gold caused by investors fearful of the impact of Trump's policies on US inflation, continues to run a deficit with America. In Trump's unhinged view of the trading world, an American trade deficit requires retribution. A surplus means a baseline tariff of 10 per cent. The argument that nations will escape a tariff ignores a key part of Trump's economic plan. He needs the tariff revenue to pay for the Big Beautiful Bill that will blow a $US3.3 trillion hole in the US budget over the next decade.
