The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Media Release
The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is warning of significant consequences for Victorian exporters, particularly in agriculture, food production and manufacturing, following the announcement that the United States will introduce a 10 per cent tariff on all Australian goods.
Victoria is Australia’s largest food and fibre exporter, accounting for 24 per cent of the national total in 2022-23. The U.S. is a key market for Victorian beef, sheep meat, wool, fresh produce and specialised equipment, with beef exports alone valued at $534 million last financial year. A tariff of this magnitude threatens to erode the competitiveness of Victorian products in the U.S. market, potentially impacting local businesses, supply chains and jobs.
The Victorian Chamber continues to advocate for a renewed focus on diversifying export markets.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chief Executive Paul Guerra says:
“This is a significant hit to Australia, and particularly Victoria, given that our state accounts for 24 per cent of the nation’s food and fibre exports. If the United States reduces its intake of Victorian goods, it will have a major impact on local producers, supply chains and jobs. It will also drive costs up for American consumers who have long relied on Australia’s high-quality, safe and sustainably produced food. These tariffs put Victorian businesses at a disadvantage and risk weakening vital trade ties between our two nations.
“Broader implications are that this could push other heavily impacted countries to redirect their goods into our existing markets, intensifying competition for Victorian exporters. There is a cascading effect that goes beyond just the U.S.-Australia trade.
“Victoria is in a strong position globally, with 24 trade commissioners based in key international markets. The State Government must now activate these networks to shore up Victorian export markets and ensure our businesses have strong alternatives.
“At the same time, the Federal Government must continue diplomatic efforts with the U.S. to push for these tariffs to be overturned, delayed or reduced. Every effort must be made to ensure Victorian businesses can continue exporting to the U.S. at the volume they have been.
“The immediate impact on Australian consumers may be limited, but if our exports start to decline, we could see job losses and broader economic consequences. This is why we must act quickly, both to maintain our U.S. trade, and aggressively pursue new opportunities in global markets. Victoria produces some of the highest-quality, safest and most sustainable food in the world, and we must continue to promote and expand that reputation internationally.”
See also: AWU backs PM’s pivot to more muscular policy to defend Australian industry
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Find new markets. Fast!
Yep. Whilst the world is hungry for good protein and fibre, as the majority rises from the impositions and predations of the ‘west’ forcing it to eat grubs and mud, we ought be mindful that as profiteering reduces, so perhaps our extractive (exploitative) unsustainable lifestyle might become more globally balanced.
Statistics have already established and PROVEN that the most uneducated, easily manipulated, racist and misogynistic fools in the world ALWAYS vote for undemocratic, totally biased Murdoch-promoted, like-minded right-wing extremist regimes like the LNP in Australia, the elitist Tories in the UK and, worst of all, Trump’s now notorious protectionist Republican regime in America which has now been completely controlled and manipulated by that unspeakably evil elitist Trump/Musk Diarchy! Trump is not only a recidivist pathological liar and a notorious misogynistic predator, he also ticks EVERY box as a callously inhumane, degenerate autocratic fascist and political psychopath who is also an internationally reviled CONVICTED CRIMINAL without one iota of insight, remorse or foresight!
Trump’s narcissistic megalomania knows no bounds, no compassion nor a drop of loyalty to (once) loyal allies, like Australia! Trump chooses to forget that Australia is the nation that foolishly stood by and supported America when the rest of the world didn’t! Australia sacrificed the lives of countless young Australians in America’s appalling, murderous conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and even America’s notorious and ILLEGAL invasion of Iraq! NEVER AGAIN should Australia allow America to treat Australians like cannon fodder in their hideous, distractionary wars that provide RWNJs like the LNP and the Republican movement with an inappropriate diversion to take gullible people’s attention away from the right-wing’s escalating level of self-serving depravity, relentless greed, non-stop corruption, callous inhumanity and absolute ineptitude! Because Trump has now betrayed our nation in the worst way, our government MUST consider SHUTTING DOWN PINE GAP because, evidently, we can no longer rely on Trump’s vindictive alienation of Australia (and other American allies) to support us. Because America is fast becoming the most despised western nation on the planet, the ONLY thing that PINE GAP will achieve is to turn Australia into a BIG FAT TARGET !! PINE GAP no longer safeguards us from the tyranny, greed and treacherous persecution of Trump and his dangerously fascist version of America; as such, Australia now needs to shut down Pine Gap PERMANENTLY along with any other unwanted, grotesque American military bases within OUR borders!
Trump’s obscene, totally irrational tariffs – punishing Australia and the world – only PROVES that the ONLY thing that power-obsessed, dangerously irrational felon, Trump, will achieve is to MAKE AMERICA HATE AGAIN! Make no mistake about it, the ONLY people the billionaire Trump cares about is HIMSELF and his corrupt, profit-obsessed, multi-billionaire mates Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos along with the conniving, avaricious grubs in the Pharma industry. They have already and successfully managed to alienate America from the rest of the world INCLUDING its now disgruntled and very angry western ex-allies in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and a rapidly rising number of European nations!
Under the insane, irrational, megalomaniacal rule of the once convicted criminal, Donald Trump, America has become a thuggish, overbearing, inhumane and hatefully fascist nation that is fast becoming the most despised and malignant country in the western world. When America NEXT looks around for a country to help defend them in one of their destructive, senseless and illegal invasions of other vulnerable nations, they better NOT look to Australia, Canada et al to help them! All Trump will get – and deserve – is a big FCUK YOU for his unspeakable, deliberate betrayal of long-standing allies!
As Hillary Clinton wisely said, Trump’s dumbed-down, Murdoch-manipulated short-sighted, protectionist supporters and assembly of RWNJs, are a bunch of deplorables who will, there is no doubt, RUE THE DAY their insane decision to elevate that megalomaniacal psychopath, Trump, a convicted criminal, into fascist power! There can be no doubt that the manipulated intellectual midget, Donald Trump, will devastate the quality of life of ordinary Americans in order to outrageously enrich his OWN life and the non-achieving, avaricious lives of the wealthiest, most corrupt multi-billionaires in the nation! Working- and middle-class citizens who are foolish enough and/or manipulated enough to vote for the megalomaniacal psychopath, Trump, or the like-minded, Trump-supporting elitist grubs in the LNP, can be compared turkeys voting for Christmas = completely voting AGAINST the best interest of themselves, their children and future generations!
Here in Australia, we have the LNP desperate to defund our State school education into oblivion, attempting to DEFUND and/or sell-off absolutely EVERYTHING Australian taxpayers own (including all our once State owned transportation) to greedy, foreign-owned predators who will immediately sack locally-employed staff, increase prices and export profits! The LNP have already outlined their depraved intention to try and PRIVATISE Medibank in order to turn it into the vastly second-rate, deplorably expensive and catastrophic American sub-standard medical health system that will seriously disadvantage and disable all the benefits and advantages Australians have fought for over so many years together with the collaboration and dedication of our Unions and the Labor Party!
In addition to the long, long list of deplorable corruption, malfeasance and hideous callousness of the ILLEGAL Witch Hunt known as ROBODEBT, introduced by the unspeakably inept, nauseating bible-thumping hypocrites, Hillsong cultists, corrupt sociopaths and misogynistic predators who take up EVERY seat in the LNP, there are just SO MANY red flags and reasons WHY intelligent, compassionate and egalitarian Australians should NEVER EVER vote for the Trump-supporting, criminally depraved, maliciously callous political psychopaths in the LNP or so-called “Independents” who may give their preference to the LNP! Vote Labor, Greens or left-wing Independents in order to safeguard OUR public education, taxpayer-funded Medicare and all the benefits government-owned services that Australians currently which, thankfully, the Trump-supporting neoliberal capitalists in the LNP have not, as yet, had time to privatise and defund into oblivion!