New Aussie ambassador to US hits back at tariff threat, says AUKUS is solid

Greg Moriarty has only been Australia’s ambassador to the United States since April, but he’s already got his hands full — fighting a proposed 12.5 per cent US tariff and reassuring everyone the AUKUS submarine deal isn’t falling apart.

Moriarty replaced former prime minister Kevin Rudd in Washington and presented his credentials to President Donald Trump at the White House late last month. He told this masthead that Trump gave him a warm welcome, calling Australia one of his “favourite countries” and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese his “good friend”.

The Trump administration wants to slap a 12.5 per cent tariff on Australian goods — up from 10 per cent — because it claims Canberra hasn’t done enough to stop imports made with forced labour. The move came after the US Supreme Court ruled Trump’s earlier “reciprocal tariffs” were illegal, so the administration found another way to impose levies.

Moriarty said Australia would “robustly but respectfully” push back. “Our regime to counter modern slavery and forced labour is one of the strongest in the world … There is no basis for the proposed action,” he said.

The government is now working on a formal submission to the US trade office and has asked Australian businesses to provide more data on how they handle products from overseas labour. But Canberra isn’t looking to strike a deal. “We are engaging on the basis that we would like adherence to the terms of the [existing] free trade agreement,” Moriarty said.

On AUKUS — the deal under which Australia is set to buy at least three nuclear-powered Virginia-class submarines from the US — Moriarty said he’s been struck by how strong American support is. “All of the people that I’ve spoken to have been uniformly strong in their support,” he said, noting many had pointed to Trump’s own declaration last October that AUKUS was “full steam ahead”.

The US has now confirmed that all three submarines will be second-hand, closing the door on the possibility of a brand-new vessel. That’s raised some doubts. Former ambassador Joe Hockey, now a lobbyist in Washington, recently told the National Press Club he was “a little nervous” about the Virginias for the first time after talking to people on Capitol Hill.

But Rudd, in a recent exit interview, said AUKUS had “zero possibility” of coming unstuck. Moriarty said he didn’t think it was a choice between Rudd and Hockey — AUKUS is “an enormously challenging endeavour”, he said.

Moriarty also weighed in on the Iran war. As news broke that Trump was planning further strikes against Iran — later “cancelled” — Moriarty reiterated Australia’s position that the conflict should be settled diplomatically. He said he was talking to US officials about Australia’s contributions, mainly an E-7 surveillance aircraft in the UAE, and “our willingness to engage in discussions about future maritime security mechanisms”.

Moriarty is no stranger to Iran. He served as Australia’s ambassador to Iran in the mid-2000s and even briefed then-US president George W. Bush on Iranian politics. He called Iran a “malign actor” and said allowing it to develop a nuclear weapon would be “incredibly destabilising”.

“We are engaging on the basis that we would like adherence to the terms of the [existing] free trade agreement.”

— Greg Moriarty