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<\/p>\nPrime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia has an “ideological disagreement” with the United States, after the US revealed a plan to impose a 12.5 per cent tariff on exported goods from the junior ally.<\/p>\n
The new tariff is planned to be slapped on dozens of countries for allegedly failing to take action to prevent slavery and forced labour.<\/p>\n
It is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to hit nations with import taxes since the US Supreme Court struck down 10 per cent tariffs that impacted Australian imports in February.<\/p>\n
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The tariffs would replace the Trump administration’s global 10 per cent temporary import surcharge.<\/p>\n
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Mr Albanese said any tariff on Australian exports to the US was “unjustified and inconsistent” with the free trade agreements between the two allies.<\/p>\n
“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 said.<\/p>\n
“They increase the cost of goods and services in the country that is applying them to its consumers, and \u2026 free trade is in the interests of the global economy.”<\/p>\n
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More than 50 countries will be subject to the new tariff over allegations they have failed to prohibit the importation of goods produced with forced labour.<\/p>\n
US trade representative Jamieson Greer said the alleged failure to ban products produced with forced labour created a “dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field”.<\/p>\n
Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell met with Mr Greer on the sidelines of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) meeting in Paris overnight, where Mr Farrell told him the tariffs were “unjustified”.<\/p>\n
The tariffs would replace, and slightly increase, the US global 10 per cent temporary import surcharge when it expired on July 24.<\/p>\n
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Mr Albanese said Australia had world-leading legislation addressing forced labour and modern slavery that passed through parliament with unanimous support.<\/p>\n
‘World’s on its head’<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese also highlighted the point, which US President Donald Trump has also raised, that Australia has a trade surplus with the United States, which means Australia buys more from the US than it sells.<\/p>\n
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