cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11364162
Australia is aligned with Canada’s efforts to seek closer ties with the EU as Ottawa faces an escalating trade dispute with the US.
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“We are on the same page," Australian trade minister Don Farrell told the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday. “We will take great interest in what Carney does.”
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Australia has sought to diversify its trade after facing US tariffs on exports, despite its long-standing security pact and free trade deal with Washington.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not respond to a comment request.
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Mr Farrell said he was open to all options in future arrangements with the EU, excluding fibre-optic cables given the distances.
“The world is dividing into protectionists and free traders,” he said. “It’s indisputable that Australian prosperity of the last 50 years has all been about our engagement with the world.”
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Australia and the EU signed a free trade agreement in March after eight years of talks, removing tariffs on almost all goods and potentially easing EU access to Australian critical minerals.
I wonder whether the USA is actually aware of the damage it has done to its International reputation? Their present administration has done incredible harm to the nation’s global relationships. Not only with nations it has historically been adversarial with, but also to its friends.
Even should a new President come along who sets about mending fences, the world knows they’re one hostile president away from doing this to us all again. We can’t trust treaties with the USA, because a future president might come along again and just tear them up. We can’t fully trust military alliances, because a future president might come along again and call them into question/start implying they will break those alliances. We can’t trust free-trade agreements because a future president might come along again and tear those up/reintroduce tariffs for no logical reason.
Without any hyperbole, this government is costing their economy Trillions of dollars and will take more than a simple change of government to repair. They’ll need to somehow make it impossible for another future government to do all this again. I’m not even positive they have a willingness to do that.
But the insane thing about all of this, is all their identity politics suggests that for all the damage their government has done, it still enjoys massive support from a significant percentage of it’s population.
They don’t care. They don’t care about trivial things like international reputation, the economy, the state of their citizens and the climate and things like that.
The important thing is how much they can grift. Turns out it is quite a lot with even more coming.
I could only see giving the US any trust if they massively disempowered the executive, reformed the judicial branch completely, and the median age of Congress was cut in half.
And that’s firmly at 0% odds, to be clear.
Yeah, I’m not sure they are aware of the damage they’re doing to themselves with all this. And I’m not certain either that the damage can be repaired. They’d need structural changes so deep that the country would probably need to be refunded. Their reputation is gone, and the only thing that keeps them afloat right now is that they apparently have such military might that trying to enforce anything on them is generally dismissed because countries fear military actions from the mad orange.
But even that is starting to crumble, as we all are seeing how they can’t even tackle a country of “shepherds with sticks” like Iran.
Dark times approach the once considered top country of the free world, and I doubt they understand the consequences of all this.
I don’t think anyone is proposing any sort of hostility toward the USA. What we’re seeing globally is a separation. Severing ties with them is not the same as threatening them in any way.
I don’t think Australia is going to sever ties with the USA, but we’ll certainly keep them more at arms-reach that we have in the past. The government is already starting to do that.
I don’t talk about hostility either, but they have an extremely unstable president, even enforcing local laws is seen as a hostility by him (he even sees VAT in Europe as a tariff, ffs!), that’s what I mean when I say many are scared of him when they try to enforce anything.
Which government are you referring to? It clearly isn’t the Australian one, they are all the way with djt
Usually, the Australian Prime Minister and the US President meet several times a year - between G20, APEC, or just regular visits.
This term, Albo has been to the White House once. That’s the only time they’ve met.
Likewise, Senator Wong (aside from the inauguration/meet & greet) has been to the USA once. Again, that’s well-below usual levels between our two nations.
Relations remain cordial, but by any objective measure, they are nowhere near as close as usual.