• Naevermix@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    The Australian leadership is deathly afraid of the CCP. They will suck Trump’s balls dry for the sake of national security.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      7 hours ago

      And do they actually think Trump will lift a finger to step in on their behalf?

      I’d give it 60/40 odds he just used the diversion to try to annex more land.

        • rumba@lemmy.zip
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          7 hours ago

          T is only looking out for himself, Will only look out for himself. If Australia asked the US to step in in a CCP invasion, Australia would be forced to agree to become the 51st state, so once he mobilized the military he could take all of the AUS resources.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    9 hours ago

    Why not?

    If Europe, Canada, Mexico, China and Australia raise tarifs for the US it’ll push itself into bankruptcy faster than you can say “Cheeto and Elmo are sad losers”

  • rumba@lemmy.zip
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    7 hours ago

    Certainly they can find better sources of metal than shipping it halfway around the world.

  • Noite_Etion@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    Just wait till we vote in that asshole Peter Dutton, he will just copy Trump and put tariffs on our allies too.

    Were just as fucked as you guys are.

  • Xanthobilly@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Well, I guess between Canada and Australia, we’ll get to run the experiment on whether the Canuck or cuck approach is the right path.

    • Emily (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      17 hours ago

      We’re not retaliating with tariffs because nearly every mainstream economist has advised against it, including our own Treasury. Here’s the quote from Steven Kennedy, treasury head, at a Senate estimates hearing on 26 February:

      For a medium-sized economy such as Australia, there is overwhelming evidence that the use of trade restrictions imposes costs on our consumers and businesses… If Australia were to impose tariffs, we would bear nearly all the cost, given our size and inability to affect the world prices of the goods we import.

      We would be shooting ourselves in the foot for the sake of what would essentially amount to little more than a symbolic gesture. We have other, more effective cards beyond tariffs.

      • Funwayguy@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        It sucks but it is what it is. Being an island nation dependant on imports, we don’t have much weight to throw around without self destructing with our already fucked cost of living crisis.

    • jimmux@programming.dev
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      17 hours ago

      I can see what they’re going for. We have a good history of exemptions, and getting another one would be a big win domestically with an election looming. You might think there’s no way it will happen, but we do hold some cards, so to speak. I wouldn’t be surprised if in more private negotiations they’re threatening to close Pine Gap or cancel other cooperative military arrangements.

      Retaliatory tariffs just aren’t our best option.

    • kava@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      if you look at the numbers, Canada’s not that far from Australia. they’ve only instituted a tariff on like 10% of American imports

        • kava@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          The federal government’s countermeasures will come into effect at 12:01 a.m. on March 13. The 25 per cent tariffs will hit steel products worth $12.6 billion and aluminum products worth $3 billion.

          In addition, Canada is hitting another $14.2 billion worth of imported U.S. goods with fresh tariffs, totalling $29.8 billion in retaliation.

          I wasnt aware new ones from yesterday. It was for $30B, though. Combined with the last set of tariffs its $60B total out of $350B of US exports to Canada

          So about 17%. So let’s say Canads is at a conservative 3 generous 4

  • overcooked_sap@lemmy.ca
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    16 hours ago

    Clearly some countries didn’t get the memo. Guess it’s time to update the list of limp-wrist cunts for future reference. UK and Australia are really showing their true colours in all this.

  • The_Caretaker@lemm.ee
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    17 hours ago

    Australia could get annexed by the USA too. The USA already has military bases in Australia. Stand for something or fall for anything.

  • rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    16 hours ago

    The US imports more metal from Australia than we export. This will just shoot the US in the foot and will further incentivize the plan to build up Australian manufacturing. It makes perfect sense why they wouldn’t retaliate.