Labor worries about trade sanctions from Biden administration

The last time the US imposed protective tariffs on Australian lamb was in the late 1990s, when then-President Bill Clinton implemented the move at the request of US Senator Max Baucus.

Farrell also met with Republican members of Congress and potential officials in the Trump administration.

Trump has proposed across-the-board tariffs of 10% to 20% on all imports from all countries, and additional tariffs of 60% or more on imports from China.

Farrell said he is seeking Discourage Republicans from imposing tariffs on any countryespecially for Australia: “So we try to cover all bases in the election.”

“Australian goods have been exempted from tariffs in the past,” he said, noting that Australia had successfully lobbied the Trump administration to exempt its steel and aluminum products from tariffs.

loading

“You know, we are free traders. We believe that if there is a level playing field, we can sell our products all over the world. We would argue that our special relationship with the United States, and our relationship with AUKUS in particular, should mean that tariffs should not apply, but we don’t want them to apply to anybody.”

Farrell will also visit the planned US construction site of PsiQuantum, an Australian-led, US-based company selected by the Albany government to build the The world’s first commercial quantum computer.

In April this year, the Australian and Queensland governments pledged to invest $940 million to build PsiQuantum’s first factory in Brisbane.

In recent days, the US government and the Illinois state government jointly invested US$640 million (A$970 million) in the company’s second factory in Chicago.

“So you could say the Americans are taking advantage of us,” Senator Farrell said, “and that’s a good thing.”

Michelle Simmons, a quantum expert at the University of New South Wales, said that once the technology is perfected, the computing power of a quantum computer will be equivalent to the sum of all existing computers on the earth.

Mr Farrell said the investment in the company from both Australia and the US made it important for the two governments to work together.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, opinion and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up for our weekly Political Insider newsletter.