Australian minister says US tariffs to remain at 10%
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON: Australia Trade Minister Don Farrell said on Friday (Aug 1) the White House had confirmed that no country had reciprocal tariffs lower than Australia, suggesting US President Donald Trump had left the 10 per cent baseline tariffs on Australian goods unchanged.
"While we remain in the best possible position under the United States' new tariff regime, we will continue to advocate for the removal of all tariffs in line with our free trade agreement," a spokesperson for Farrell said in a statement.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday imposing reciprocal tariffs ranging from 10 to 41 per cent on dozens of countries.
Australia is one of the few countries with which the United States normally runs a trade surplus, a point often pitched by Australian officials during trade talks with US officials.
The US trade surplus with Australia was US$17.9 billion in 2024, a 1.6 per cent increase over 2023, data from the US Trade Representative's office showed.
Australia last week eased restrictions on beef imports from the United States, potentially smoothing trade talks with Trump, although Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the decision had long been considered and was not related to any trade negotiations.
US tariffs for neighbouring New Zealand were raised to 15 per cent from the baseline 10 per cent announced in April.
"The first step will be to talk to them directly. And we've engaged in a lot. In fact, it's been very good engagement," New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay told Radio New Zealand. - Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
22 minutes ago
- The Star
Tariff respite after the clash
Daily grind: Cambodian factory workers walking out for their lunch break in Phnom Penh. — AFP Thailand and Cambodia welcomed a 19% trade tariff announced by US President Donald Trump, avoiding a threatened levy of 36% days after he intervened to help broker a ceasefire in their deadly border conflict. Cambodia said it would drop all tariffs on imports from the United States and order up to 20 Boeing 737s for its national airline in a further effort to woo the Trump administration. Dozens of countries face steep levies under the tariff regime approved by Trump in Washington on Thursday, set to come into force in a week. He had originally threatened a swingeing 49% tariff on Cambodia as part of his 'Liberation Day' measures aimed at rebalancing world trade in America's favour, but cut it to 36% last month. 'This is the best news for the people and economy of Cambodia to continue to develop the country,' Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote on Facebook yesterday after the 19% levy was announced. The tariff announcement came days after Trump intervened to help broker a ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia to end border clashes that left more than 40 people dead. Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol told reporters that Cambodia would 'zero out all tariff lines' for the United States – more than 11,000 in total. And he said a 'firm offer' had been made to buy 10 Boeing Max 8s for Air Cambodia, with an option to buy another 10. 'In addition, we'll buy whatever we can – medical equipment, agricultural products – from the United States too, as long as the price is competitive,' he said. Cambodia is a major manufacturer of low-cost clothing for Western brands, with garment products accounting for most of its US$10bil in exports to the United States last year. Many factories in Cambodia are Chinese-owned and the White House has accused the kingdom of allowing Chinese goods to stop over on the way to US markets, thereby skirting steeper rates imposed on Beijing. Thailand had been negotiating with Washington for weeks, seeking a reduction in the threatened 36% levy. 'This finalised deal, setting US import tariffs at 19%, marks a major success for Thailand,' Thai government spokesman Jirayu Huangsab said in a statement. 'It represents a win-win approach aimed at preserving Thailand's export base and long-term economic stability.' — AFP
The Sun
32 minutes ago
- The Sun
France says it cannot save contraceptives US plans to destroy
PARIS: France said Friday it could not seize $9.7 million worth of women's contraception products that the United States plans to destroy, after media reports suggested the stockpile would be incinerated in the country. The contraceptives were purchased by the US foreign aid agency USAID under former president Joe Biden to be provided to women in some of the world's poorest countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. But Donald Trump's administration, which has dismantled USAID since Trump succeeded Biden in January, confirmed last month it intends to destroy the contraceptives being stored in a warehouse in the Belgian city of Geel. According to several media reports, the unexpired products were to be incinerated in France at the end of July by a company that specialises in destroying medical waste. France's government has come under pressure to save the contraceptives, with women's rights groups calling the US decision 'insane'. But the health ministry told AFP that 'unfortunately there is no legal basis' for French or even European health authorities to intervene to recover the stockpile. 'Since contraceptives are not drugs of major therapeutic interest, and in this case we are not facing a supply shortage, we have no means to requisition the stocks,' it added. The ministry also said it had no information on where the contraceptives would be destroyed. Where are they? It remains unclear where the contraceptives currently are -- or even if they have already been destroyed. French women's rights group Family Planning told AFP on Thursday they had been informed that the boxes had started being moved out of the Belgian warehouse 36 hours earlier. 'We do not know where these trucks are now -- or whether they have arrived in France,' the group's head Sarah Durocher said, calling on incineration companies to 'oppose this insane decision'. Exactly which company could be responsible for incinerating the products has also not been revealed. French company Veolia, which had been rumoured as a contender, confirmed to AFP that it has a contract with the US firm Chemonics, USAID's logistics provider. However the company emphasised that the contract only covers 'expired products, which is not the case for the stockpile' in Belgium. The products, which include IUDs, implants and birth control pills, are reportedly up to five years away from expiring. Belgium's foreign ministry told AFP earlier this week that it 'is exploring all possible avenues to prevent the destruction of these products, including temporary relocation solutions'. 'Senseless' The US decision has provoked an outcry in France. 'Can France accept to become the executor of a senseless policy imposed by the US?' said an opinion piece by five NGOs in the French newspaper Le Monde on Friday. Among the signatories was MSI Reproductive Choices, one of several organisations that have offered to purchase and repackage the contraceptives at no cost to the US government. All offers have been rejected. Last week, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen pointed to the Trump administration's stated goal of reducing government waste, saying the contraceptives plan 'is the epitome of waste, fraud and abuse'. Shaheen and Democratic Senator Brian Schatz have introduced a bill aiming to prevent further US aid being wasted. A US State Department spokesperson told AFP earlier this week that the destruction of the products would cost $167,000 and 'no HIV medications or condoms are being destroyed'. The spokesperson also pointed to a policy, reinstated by Trump earlier this year, which prohibits providing aid to non-governmental organisations that promote or perform abortions. The NGO Doctors Without Borders, which has slammed the US plan as 'unconscionable', has pointed to reports that there is another warehouse with USAID-purchased contraceptives in the United Arab Emirates. A study published in The Lancet medical journal in June estimated that more than 14 million of the world's most vulnerable people could die as a result of the USAID cuts. Last month, the US also incinerated nearly 500 metric tons of high-nutrition biscuits that had been meant to keep malnourished children in Afghanistan and Pakistan alive. - AFP
The Sun
32 minutes ago
- The Sun
US promises Gaza food plan after envoy visit
GAZA CITY, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: President Donald Trump's special envoy promised a plan to deliver more food to Gaza after inspecting a US-backed distribution centre on Friday, as the United Nations said Israeli forces had killed hundreds of hungry Palestinians waiting for aid over the past two months. The visit by US envoy Steve Witkoff came as a report from global advocacy group Human Rights Watch accused Israeli forces of presiding over 'regular bloodbaths' close to aid points run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The UN human rights office in the Palestinian territories said at least 1,373 Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza had been killed since May 27 -- 105 of them in the last two days of July. 'Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military,' the UN office said, breaking down the death toll into 859 killed near GHF sites and 514 along routes used by UN and aid agency convoys. Witkoff said he had spent more than five hours inside Gaza, in an online post accompanied by a photograph of himself wearing a protective vest and meeting staff at a GHF distribution centre. The visit intended to give Trump 'a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza,' Witkoff said. Trump echoed this in a phone call with US news site Axios touting a plan to 'get people fed'. 'We want to help people. We want to help them live. We want to get people fed. It is something that should have happened long time ago,' Trump said according to Axios. 'Gunning them down' The US president did not say whether his plan would involve reinforcing GHF or a whole new mechanism, the report said. The GHF largely sidelined the longstanding UN-led aid distribution system in Gaza just as Israel in late May began easing a more than two-month aid blockade that exacerbated existing shortages. The foundation said it had delivered its 100-millionth meal in Gaza during the visit by Witkoff and US ambassador Mike Huckabee. Gaza's civil defence agency said 22 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes on Friday, including eight who were waiting to collect food aid. In its report on the GHF centres, Human Rights Watch accused the Israeli military of using starvation as a weapon of war. 'Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families,' said HRW's associate crisis and conflict director, Belkis Wille. 'US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarised aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths.' The Israeli military said in response that the GHF worked independently, but that troops operated near aid sites 'to enable the orderly delivery of food' while trying to 'minimise... any friction between the civilian population' and its forces. The military accused Hamas of trying to prevent food distribution, and said it was conducting a review of reported deaths. Witkoff on Thursday held talks with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to destroy Hamas and rescue hostages seized in the Palestinian group's October 2023 attack that triggered the war. But Netanyahu is under mounting international pressure to end the bloodshed that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry, and threatened many more with famine. Hostage video Following his discussions with Witkoff, Netanyahu met Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who warned that 'the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination.' Wadephul urged Israel 'to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality'. In an investigative report published on Friday, British public broadcaster the BBC said it had gathered accounts from witnesses, medics and other sources of more than 160 children shot in the war, including 95 hit in the head or chest, some by Israeli forces. Responding in a statement to AFP, the Israeli military said any 'intentional harm to civilians, and especially to children, is strictly prohibited' by international law and the army's orders. Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures. The retaliatory Israeli offensive has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence and other parties. Of the 251 people taken hostage during the Hamas attack on southern Israel, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli military. After Witkoff's Gaza visit, the armed wing of Hamas released a short online video showing 24-year-old Israeli hostage Evyatar David, looking emaciated and weak in a narrow concrete tunnel. - AFP
