CANBERRA, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The global trade disruption driven by U.S. tariffs is an opportunity for Australia to lower trade barriers, according to a leading economist.
Warwick McKibbin, director of the Center for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis at the Australian National University, said on Monday that Australia is in "probably the best position" of any country to handle the economic fallout of President Donald Trump's widespread tariffs.
He told the Australian Conference of Economists that Australia should be looking at Trump's plan to introduce further tariffs from Aug. 1 as an opportunity to expand trade with other nations.
"We should be doing trade negotiations. We should be lowering barriers which make trade harder," McKibbin said.
Following the announcement of Trump's first tariffs in April, Australia's federal government reopened negotiations with the European Union (EU) on a free trade agreement.
Talks previously broke down in 2023 when the two sides could not reach an agreement over access for Australian agricultural products to the EU market.
Australia's Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell said in June that he is hopeful that countries that believe in free and fair trade can reach deals to extend free trade agreements to ensure a greater diversity of trading partners, irrespective of what the U.S. "might choose to do."
An annual review of trade published on Tuesday by the Productivity Commission, the federal government's principal economic advisory body, found that removing Australia's remaining trade barriers could save businesses 4 billion Australian dollars (2.5 billion U.S. dollars) in compliance costs every year.
"Removing Australia's remaining tariffs would maximize the benefits to Australian production from other countries imposing tariffs," it said.
It found that the global effects of U.S. tariffs could drive a 0.37 percent increase in Australia's gross domestic product but warned that the benefit would be minor compared to the costs associated with growing economic uncertainty. ■