PRIME Minister Anthony Albanese has acknowledged differences with the US after the Trump regime announced a plan to impose a 12.5% tariff on goods from several other nations including Australia.
The US plans to slap the new tariff on dozens of countries for allegedly failing to "address the importation of goods made with forced labour".
National media have referred to efforts by Trump to hit nations with import taxes since the US Supreme Court overturned 10 % tariffs that affected Australian imports in February.
"There is an ideological disagreement where the United States administration has broken with what was a decades-long understanding that tariffs are not positive for the country that is imposing them," Mr Albanese told ABC News.
"They increase the cost of goods and services in the country that is applying them to its consumers, and … free trade is in the interests of the global economy."
Industry analysts have suggested the issue is essentially about review, with several tariffs already in place when Trump returned to the White House, including many imposed during Trump’s first term.
The Australian anti–slavery commissioner also has been active, recommending two main changes including prohibitions on import of goods the product of slave/forced labour.
Several legal actions against big retailers have been lodged by private citizen groups for selling goods made by Uyghur from China in conditions of forced labour.
In other tariff news, Australian beef is soon expected to be subject to an additional 55% import duty in China, with shipments of the meat about to top an annual quota set by Beijing, China’s Ministry of Commerce confirmed this week.
Imports of Australian beef have already reached 90% of this year’s quota, meaning that a tariff adjustment will soon be triggered.
According to the South China Morning Post, until recently, most imports of Australian beef were subject to low or even zero tariffs in China under a bilateral free-trade agreement.
But that changed in January, when Beijing introduced a three-year beef tariff scheme to protect China’s domestic farmers.