Australia and the World Past and Present

There have been aspects of Trump’s foreign and economic policy that has been downright harmful to American interests.

The obvious example has been his tariff policy.

First of all, it has been incredibly erratic. This makes the whole global financial system more volatile.

Trump thinks that he has been punishing enemies and competitors. But he has also hurt allies.

Placing higher tariffs on Australia was a poor decision.

Australia has been a steadfast ally of the U.S for generations. Although there are differences, the U.S. and Australia share many common values. Australia plays a vital role for security in Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. gains a lot from maintaining a good relationship with Australia and should not take it for granted or weaken it.

Australia is a keen trading nation. The Australian economy is open to international competition. It is not as though we have a closed economy. And due to economies of scale, U.S. companies tend to do quite well here.

While Australia wants to develop a good relationship with China, key value differences mean that we can only get so close before these differences raise their head. Differences over the openness of the political scene, freedom of expression and freedom of speech and business-government relations are all key differences. If we had more in common, Trump’s actions would drive us further towards links with China.

What do China and Australia do when America slaps more tariffs on us? The natural response is to look at expanding our trade with each other.

Look at what happened with India. In many ways, the US-India relationship should be closer than the India-China relationship. Both the U.S. and India have highly ambitious populations. Both countries display considerable cultural and business dynamism. Both are vibrant multi-party democracies.

Last year, Narendra Modi and Xi Jingping met for the first time in 7 years at a regional summit in Tianjin. India and China – the dragon and the elephant. The two nations were in conflict over the Himalayan border in 2020. Last year Trump had placed 25% tariff on India.

India had been developing ties with the Quad, which includes the U.S., Japan and Australia.

In regards to India, America’s economic policy is not operating in tandem with its security policy.

Trump is pushing allies or potential allies away. He has gutted the NATO partnership. He has berated the leader of South Africa. He isn’t even on speaking terms with the leader of Brazil. He chastises the leader of Mexico. He can’t even get along with Canada.

It is such wasted potential. If he could harness these relationships and put them on a positive trajectory, so much could be achieved.