It’s not really about the tariffs. The casualties are not Australia’s batteries and noodles. There’s no footage with the Australian prime minister standing outside some nondescript government office in Washington with an identity-crisis neighborhood behind him, awkwardly smiling and waving while his biggest trading partner and long-time friend deliberately punishes him. No ketchesup-and-pepperketchup game, no climbed-over fence, no “Practise safe tariffs.” The address may be the same, but that’s where agreement ends. Australian officials wear absolutely befuddled expressions when discussing steel tariffs, as they are being asked to pay five times more for aluminum sheet: $US1150 a tonne instead of, say, $US200. I pay more for artisanal tea.

In its recent response following the US tariffs, the Morrison government has been spooky. It has tried hard to be calm and reassuring, yet no reassurance has been found. Firstly, Australia refuses to accept that Trump’s America is fundamentally different to pre-Trump America. Secondly, its criticism of the tariffs is diplomatically restrained. Hasty or reactionary comments are to be avoided so as not to “escalate tensions” any more than nonmarket tariffs already have. This predictably prompted a Twitter troll jobber to call our trade minister “weak” because heaven forbid we even slightly disagree with the Leader of the Free World.

Australian politicians — after blaming China for everything for the past two years — are being forced to accept that trade wars produce casualties. Australia’s reciprocal tariffs could deter American farmers from buying our produce. Let’s hope they teach the US the outcome of ripping off its allies as they will inevitably do to South Korea in the near future. All that matters is not how to keep the alliance strong, but how Australia shouldn’t be a neocon-utopian Plan B in any event.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/15/the-new-reality-dawning-in-australia-it-can-no-longer-rely-on-the-us