In less than 24 hours, US President Donald Trump will step into the Rose Garden in the White House and make his self-proclaimed “Liberation Day” announcement.
The press conference is part of a “Make America Wealthy Again” event but little else is known about what Trump intends to announce on this so-called “Liberation Day”.
“April 2, 2025, will go down as one of the most important days in modern American history,” US Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press briefing today.
“Those days of America, beginning tomorrow, being ripped off are over. American workers and businesses will be put first under President Trump.”
Here’s what we do know about “Liberation Day” from what time the announcement will be held, to what we know about the planned tariffs and how they will affect Australia.
“Liberation Day in America is coming, soon,” he wrote on Truth Social last week.
“For years we have been ripped off by virtually every country in the world, both friend and foe. But those days are over – America first!!!”
The president is expected to announce a fresh wave of wide-ranging tariffs tomorrow, however he hasn’t shared details of what those will entail.
More than 20 countries – including Australia, China, India and Canada – and the European Union have been identified as possible targets for hefty new export tariffs.
These will come off the back of a number of tariffs Trump has already rolled out during his first few months in office, including steel and aluminium tariffs that have already been felt in Australia.
There has also been speculation that he may ditch “reciprocal tariffs” (which matched any fees charged by foreign countries on what they import from the US dollar for dollar) in favour of blanket imposts.
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What time will Trump announce tariffs?
The US president will front the press in the White House’s Rose Garden at 4pm on April 2 in the US.
That is 7am AEDT on April 3 in Australia.
The announcement will start at the following times in other Australian time zones:
- 4am AWST
- 5.30am ACST
- 6am AEST
- 6.30am ACDT
Why is Trump doing this?
Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement and the additional tariffs he’s expected to roll out are just another step towards his economic vision for the US.
According to Leavitt, Trump’s announcements tomorrow “will improve American competitiveness in every are of industry”, reduce the US’ “massive trade deficits” and protect the nation’s economic and national security.
She added that the president’s economic vision is “rooted in common sense” and claimed that his America-first approach is “already working”.
How will Liberation Day affect Australia?
Australia has been identified as one of 21 countries that the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) is “particularly interested in” with Trump as part of a review into “unfair trade practices”.
According to a detailed 377-page document from USTR, the Trump administration has taken issue with several facets of Australia’s trade dealings with the US.
Key issues included Australia’s ban on importing uncooked American beef, pork and poultry, the new mandatory news bargaining code, and Australia’s pharmaceutical industry (specifically the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme).
“One is the news bargaining code, the second is pharmaceuticals and the third is biosecurity,” Albanese told media today.
“Those issues are not up for negotiation from the Australian government. We will defend Australia’s interests.”
But George Washington University Assistant Professor of Economics Steven Hamilton today predicted that the direct impact of Trump’s expected “Liberation Day” tariffs will not have a “huge” in Australia.
“I’m not actually that worried about the direct effect of the tariffs on Australia. It’s quite small,” he said.
“The thing that we worry about is … the broader fallout across the world … if a lot of countries do retaliate there’ll just be a chilling of global trade right? And that’s very bad for Australia.”
