Bill Shorten says Australia should ‘fight back’ against Trump tariffs

Bill Shorten has called for Australia to push back on Donald Trump’s tariffs, and while “tempting”, the Trade Minister said he had another plan.

Former senior minister Bill Shorten has waded back into the political discourse, urging Australia to “push back” against Donald Trump’s call to hit Australian steel and aluminium imports with 25 per cent tariffs.

While the government will continue negotiating an exemption for Australia, it has ruled out retaliatory tariffs which it argues would hit Australian businesses harder.

However Mr Shorten, who officially resigned from parliament in January to become University of Canberra’s vice chancellor, said Australia needed to “consider putting everything on the table to fight back”.

Former Labor minister Bill Shorten said Australia should ‘push back’ against the tariffs and ‘fight back’. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

He said the aggressive action was needed due to the potential of future tariffs on new sectors, like the beef industry, with Australia’s US exports totalling about $16.5bn.

“I worry about the next sector and the next sector … At some stage we have to have to send a message to President Trump that if you do something to us, we’ll do it back,” he told Sunrise.

“Australia might be a bit smaller than America, but we’re not a soft mark and we need to consider putting everything on the table to fight back.”

Although Mr Shorten said the government, and Australia’s US Ambassador Kevin Rudd has been “doing a good job,” he said the US needs to know Australia “means business”.

“I think all reasonable Australians will say at a certain point: ‘You push us, we push you.’ It’s as simple as that,” he said.

“We mean business. We care about our jobs, as much as you care about your jobs, as much as you care about your jobs.

“Far better to stick to your agreement, stick to the road rules but if people don’t want to play by the rules, you gotta stand up and be counted.”

The Trump administration has declined to give tariff exemptions on Australian steel and aluminium imports. Picture: AFP

Speaking to The Australian’s Global Food Forum on Friday, Trade Minister Don Farrell said he would continue to employ “calm, considered diplomacy to resolve all of our trade issues with the United States.

He said while retaliatory tariffs were “tempting,” he said it would go against Australia’s support of free trading.

Notably, Australia also refrained from imposing tariffs after Beijing hit producers hard with high tariffs totalling $20bn on lucrative imports like barley, rock lobster, beef and wine.

Senator Farrell said this was proof “calm, persistent and quiet diplomacy pays off”, with the minister set to speak to his US counterpart Howard Lutnick on Monday (or Tuesday Australian time).

“Our approach working closely with industry has seen the return of every single product into China,” he said.

“We’re also focused on opening new markets for Australian businesses producers and farmers,” he added flagging more deals with the United Arab Emirates, which he described as the “Woolies warehouse of the Middle East”.

While Australia was granted exemptions in 2017, alongside other countries including Argentina and Brazil, Mr Trump’s second round of levies have been sweeping.

ALBO ACCUSED OF SELLING OUT

Australian steelmakers hit by new US tariffs are facing a double trade “whack” as Labor’s changes to make big polluters contribute to climate targets risk a decrease in steel exports of up to 10 per cent over the next five years.

As Anthony Albanese vowed to continue to advocate for a carve out from 25 per cent import taxes on aluminium and steel imposed by the Trump Administration this week, the Coalition has accused the Prime Minister of “selling out” steelmakers at home after analysis found Labor’s strengthened emissions “safeguard mechanism” would cause Australian manufacturers to lose further business overseas.

Labor’s changes to make big polluters contribute to climate targets risk a decrease in steel exports of up to 10 per cent over the next five years. Picture: Getty Images

But Labor has hit back at the opposition, arguing the steel industry welcomed the certainty provided by the safeguard changes and the potential trade impacts were a “worst case” scenario, while grant programs are already helping companies invest in low emissions technologies.

Australian-treated flat steel product exports are expected to fall about 10 per cent by 2030, according to an assessment of “carbon leakage risk” – where climate measures raise production costs and cause some manufacturing to move offshore to cheaper markets – released by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water in November.

Exports of crude steel are forecast to decline by about 7 per cent.

Australia’s biggest manufacturers have to reduce their emissions by 4.9 per cent annually until the end of the decade under Labor’s climate changes. Picture: Dylan Coker

Under Labor’s changes to the safeguard mechanism which came into effect in July 2023, Australia’s biggest manufacturers have to reduce their emissions by 4.9 per cent annually until the end of the decade.

“Trade exposed” sectors are able to reduce by a lower amount in the short term.

Coalition climate and energy spokesman Ted O’Brien said the Albanese Government had not only failed to secure a “fair deal” for Australian steel and aluminium producers in the face of US tariffs, but they were also “whacking them at home” with the safeguard mechanism.

“If the Prime Minister is serious about ensuring Australia can continue making steel well into the future, he needs to take a hard look at Labor’s reformed safeguard mechanism which is jeopardising our steel industry and the livelihoods of thousands of people working in the industry,” he said.

“Even the government’s own analysis confirms that Labor’s safeguard mechanism will slash some Australian steel exports by up to 10 per cent over the next five years.”

Ted O’Brien accuses the Albanese government of whacking Aussie steel makers with its safeguard mechanism.

But the Albanese government says the safeguard reforms provide certainty to the industry. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

A spokeswoman for Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the safeguard reforms provided “long overdue certainty” to steelmakers.

“The Opposition’s assertion is laughable both because it gets the facts completely wrong, and because this is the same party who has publicly revealed it will kill Australia’s entire aluminium sector by 2029,” she said.

Labor has also criticised the Coalition’s nuclear modelling for assuming a huge drop in heavy industry energy needs equivalent to losing every aluminium smelter and other large electricity users like steel producers by 2030.

– with NewsWire

Originally published as Bill Shorten says Australia should ‘fight back’ against Trump tariffs