Chalmers is asked about the uncertainty from Donald Trump’s tariffs, and how much the US president’s erratic trade policy is clouding the economic outlook.
“You can see in the Reserve Bank statement that the global uncertainty is really one of the defining influences on our economy at the moment,” he says.
“And I think it will be the main thing that shapes our choices as a government in this second term.
“The international environment is very unpredictable, very volatile.”
It emerged today that Trump wrote to Japan and South Korea telling them their tariffs will be increased to 25 per cent, and that other nations are facing duties of up to 40 per cent from the United States, although Australia was not included in the list of countries contacted by the White House.
“There’s no change to the US approach to Australia. We’re still subject to the lowest baseline rate, which is the 10 per cent,” Chalmers says.
“Now, we’ve made it very clear that we think these tariffs are bad for the US, bad for Australia and bad for the global economy.
“And whether it’s our key trading partners Korea, Japan and elsewhere, one of the things that we are most concerned about, in addition to the impact on our own workers and industries and employers, is the impact on global demand more broadly.”
