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Costello slams Trump tariff threat on Australia over ‘unfair’ GST

Tom McIlroy, Michael Read and Matthew Cranston

Feb 14, 2025 – 6.10pm

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The Trump administration has no grounds to punish Australia for its goods and services tax, former treasurer Peter Costello says, after the US president threatened allies with retaliatory tariffs, raising the prospect of more than $2 billion in new taxes for farmers and other exporters.

The US president on Friday ordered trade advisers to draw up a series of “reciprocal” tariffs on US trade partners in retaliation against taxes and other measures applied to American exports.

Tom McIlroy is the Financial Review’s Canberra bureau chief based in the press gallery at Parliament House. He was previously the AFR’s political correspondent.

Michael Read is the Financial Review's economics correspondent, reporting from the federal press gallery at Parliament House. He was previously an economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia and at UBS.

Matthew Cranston is the United States correspondent, based in Washington. He was previously the Economics correspondent and Property editor.