Australia pushes for Trump tariff ‘offer he can’t refuse’

Trade Minister Don Farrell has flagged a fresh offer to US President Donald Trump that “he can’t refuse” as he launches new round of talks to reverse last week’s tariff hit and warns Americans about more expensive hamburgers if duties were placed on Australian beef.

The 25 per cent US charge on Australian metals has turned the US-Australia relationship into a key focus for the election to be held in May. The opposition on Sunday said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was inept for failing to secure a call with Trump leading up to the tariff call.

Can Australia do a deal to avoid Trump’s tariffs?Credit: Aresna Villanueva

Government ministers are bracing for possible tariffs on products such as beef or wine, and Farrell on Sunday said he would speak to US trade ambassador Jamieson Greer on Monday after talking to commerce secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday.

“What we need to do is find out what it is that the Americans want in terms of this relationship between Australia and the United States and then make President Trump an offer he can’t refuse,” Farrell said. An offer to provide greater access to Australian critical minerals had been rejected by the US, he said, casting doubt over the prospects of any future deal.

Jostling over Labor’s handling of the export strike sits alongside a partisan divide on whether Australia should send peacekeepers to Ukraine alongside Britain and other European democracies.

Dutton has rejected the idea of sending troops, prompting Albanese to claim on Sunday it was “not clear who Peter Dutton stands with or what he stands for”, suggesting the opposition leader was failing to side strongly with Ukraine after Trump’s feud with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

The opposition is using the tariff decision to further its argument that the prime minister lacked strength, while Labor ministers are keen to project an image of steady-handedness and unity with other Western democracies being targeted by the US trade war.

Trade Minister Don Farrell is pressuring his US counterparts to spare Australia from further trade strikes.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Albanese left a fundraiser at Visy boss Anthony Pratt’s Melbourne mansion on Saturday night to join a call with European leaders and those of Canada and New Zealand on the prospect of joining a “coalition of the willing” peacekeeping force. Dutton pulled out of the Pratt event.

“Australia stands with Ukraine. We understand that this is an issue not just of a sovereign nation being invaded illegally with an act of brutal aggression from Russia, that Vladimir Putin has imperialist designs, not just on Ukraine, but on the region,” the prime minister told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley on Sky News said she believed any peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, which would occur only if a ceasefire was reached, was a matter that was “better handled by Europe”.

“This is a government that couldn’t even get a shipload of coal to Ukraine to keep them warm during winter. This is a government that cut up helicopters and buried them in the ground instead of sending them to Ukraine,” she said.

The dispute with the US, and the prospect of additional trade strikes, is likely to run into the Australian election campaign as Trump’s protectionist officials continue to review US trade relationships.

Farrell said an Australian offer to give the US greater access to Australia’s plentiful critical minerals had been rejected.

“The offer to the Americans was, ‘we’ll work with you. You want these critical minerals, you want them for electric batteries in cars, you’ve mentioned some of the other things, mobile phones’,” he said.

“But the process of extraction is expensive, we need capital. It’s not about cheaper prices; it’s not about preferred access. It’s about ensuring that they’ve got a reliable supply chain to ensure that when they need these critical minerals, you’ve got a reliable country like Australia.“

Farrell, speaking on Sky News, said his conversation with Lutnick on Friday “wasn’t a pessimistic one” but that he had given no assurances about relief for Australia.

Flagging trade diversification with India, Farrell trumpeted Labor’s record of removing Chinese trade barriers and he countered Dutton’s criticism of Labor’s handling of the US dispute by saying the Coalition leader “couldn’t go two rounds with a revolving door”.

“I wish I could tell you exactly what the American government is finally going to do. To be honest with you, I suspect they don’t even know themselves right now,” Farrell said.

“The significance … of our beef exports is that most of it goes into McDonald’s hamburgers. And if you push up the price of those beef exports by 25 per cent or 10 per cent or whatever the figure is, then you simply push up the price of hamburgers in the United States. It doesn’t make any sense.”