Trump aide’s fresh attack on tech taxes ahead of Australian trade summit
Washington: A top Trump trade adviser has fired a fresh broadside at US allies who levy additional taxes on American tech companies, in a sign Australia’s latest plans to force social media giants to pay for news may antagonise the new administration.
The comments came as Treasurer Jim Chalmers arrived in Washington for meetings with his American counterpart amid concerted efforts to convince the Trump administration to exempt Australia from planned tariffs.
President Donald Trump and Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who is in the United States to discuss planned tariffs.Credit: AFR
Peter Navarro, who encouraged tariffs on Australia during US President Donald Trump’s first term, criticised countries for targeting American technology firms with digital services taxes to prop up their own industries.
“What these countries are doing is discriminating against our biggest tech companies,” Navarro told CNN. “They do it in a way [that] only applies to the very largest companies, and it’s always the American companies.
“Meanwhile, they use them to promote their own national champions inside the country. Effectively, they steal our tax revenues from us. It’s just outrageous.”
While Australia does not have such a tax and was not named by Navarro, analysts say the federal government’s plan to compel social media giants to fund Australian news outlets, or face a new tax, would be regarded by the White House as discriminatory.
Peter Navarro, the White House’s senior counsel for trade and manufacturing, has long pursued Australia over tariffs.Credit: AP
“The media bargaining code is implicitly a tax on disproportionately US-based tech companies in order to fund Australian media,” said Steven Hamilton, a former Australian Treasury official and now assistant professor of economics at George Washington University in Washington.
The latest comments from Navarro came as former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told a conference in Canberra that Australia should be concerned about Navarro’s increased influence in the administration and a Republican Party that is more protectionist than it was a decade ago.
“You’re right to worry about Peter, he’s a lot more influential now. He went to jail for the president. That counts in that White House,” Mulvaney said, referring to Navarro’s time in prison for violating a subpoena over the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. “I always thought Peter Navarro was crazy, but that’s just me. But you’re right to worry about it.”
Chalmers was set to meet his US counterpart, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in Washington overnight, along with the director of Trump’s National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett.
Mick Mulvaney was White House acting chief of staff during Donald Trump’s first term.Credit: AP
Chalmers declined to comment on the news bargaining incentive. Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, through a spokesperson, indicated the matter was being discussed with the Americans.
“The Australian government continues to work constructively with the US government across a range of issues including the news bargaining incentive,” the spokesperson said.
Chalmers and Bessent will also attend a high-level superannuation summit at the Australian embassy that includes JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon, CitiBank chief executive Jane Fraser and Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman, who was an adviser to Trump in his first term.
“Trade and tariffs will be part of the conversation but not the whole conversation,” Chalmers said in a statement ahead of his bilateral meetings. “I won’t pre-empt the talks on steel and aluminium, except to say they are ongoing discussions and I don’t expect to conclude them while I’m there.”
A number of other Australian policies directly fell foul of Trump’s executive orders, Hamilton said. For example, the 10 per cent GST was a value-added tax, for which Trump planned to impose retaliatory tariffs.
“Whether the Trump administration chooses to draw Australia in on any of these is hard to predict because their decisions to do so are kind of capricious,” Hamilton said. “But there is a real chance, and so Australia is going to need to think very long and hard about exactly how much they’re willing to give up to placate the US administration.”
American tech companies such as Google and Meta have also opposed Australia’s plan to ban children under 16 from social media platforms.
While Trump said he was considering a tariff exemption for Australia following a warm phone call with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, his closest aides have continued to criticise Australia directly and indirectly over particular trade policies.
Navarro previously claimed Australian aluminium exports were “killing” domestic US production, even though the proportion of imports from Australia are fractional. He also falsely claimed Australian aluminium exporters were majority owned by China.
The Washington summit intends to showcase to the administration the nearly $US2.8 trillion ($4.4 trillion) in Australian superannuation savings that could potentially be invested in the US. About $400 billion is currently invested in America, but the industry believes that could reach $1 trillion in the next decade.
Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, will host the event, which follows his cross-country diplomatic offensive meeting with state governors, members of Congress, steelmakers, manufacturers and researchers.
With AAP
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