Donald Trump’s tariff pause kills off Anthony Albanese’s strongest defence

Anthony Albanese’s strongest defence to the great Trump tariff tirade was that no country in the world had emerged in a better position than Australia.

While other major economies were slapped with tariffs of 30, 40, 50 per cent — and in China’s case 125 per cent — Australia had copped the bare minimum of 10 per cent.

It set us apart.

It allowed Albanese reason to suggest we still enjoyed some level of favoured status in the US.

The assumption was that the Government and its diplomats, led by US Ambassador Kevin Rudd, had done as good a job as possible to save us from a bigger hit.

Not anymore.

Trump’s time-limited turnaround has now lumped us back on an even setting with the majority of nations that did not immediately retaliate with tariffs of their own.

But the timing of our election effectively puts us at the back of the pack of countries seeking to negotiate a path out of this tariff torment.

Trump’s boast at a Republican dinner this week that world leaders were “kissing my ass” to negotiate with him was a crude insight into his real intention.

Trump wants the world to come begging at his door.

He wants leaders to bow and scrape and plead for mercy because it would make him look like the big man in global politics.

It is hardly sophisticated, but the intent is clear.

The larger problem is working out Trump’s ultimate aim.

Trump wants to prove to his followers that he has placed America back at the centre of world affairs as the nation every other country has to take a knee to.

It would make him giddily happy to see a conga line of leaders coming to Washington, cap in hand, seeking his charity.

And that will happen.

Indeed, it is already.

And it is a challenge that lies ahead of whoever wins our May 3 Federal election.

The victor will need to arrange a White House meeting as soon as they can to sort out Australia’s place in this mess.

And they will need to do it forcefully and with dignity.

We can no longer lay claim to any particularly beneficial status in Trump’s trade war.

We are now just one of the many.

But we can leverage the advantages of our historical military ties and our long-term trading relationship.

Those arguments haven’t had any impact thus far. They might in the future.

One of Australia’s strongest advocates in the Congress, Democrat Senator Mark Warner, made that case in this week’s trade hearings.

He thundered that Australia was “an incredibly important national security partner”, with which America enjoyed both a rich trade surplus and a free trade deal.

The reply from US trade representative Jamieson Greer gave a strong hint of what Trump wants Australia to concede in future negotiations.

It is a beef over beef.

“They ban our beef and our pork,’ he said.

But strictly we don’t.

The problem is that US beef and pork does not comply with the tougher quarantine laws Australia implemented after America’s mad cow disease outbreak in 2003.

Anthony Albanese insists he will not bend on those protections.

Nor should he.

But we could help the US make changes to comply with those regulations so its beef and pork can come back into our market.

The Department of Agriculture says discussion on that are ongoing.

The larger problem is working out Trump’s ultimate aim.

It is possible that he had a plan.

Maybe he intended to send world economies and capital markets into roiling convulsions for a week and then take his hand away from the financial equivalent of the nuclear button at the last moment.

His message to followers on his Truth social site that “this is a great time to buy” just hours before announcing the pause and sending Wall St zooming up by more than 7 per cent could be the greatest mass case of insider trading the world has ever seen.

But, hey, that’s just Trump.

It’s the art of the deal.

And whoever emerges as victor here in May will have to deal with him. And may the force be with them.