MADELEINE KING MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE
MEMBER FOR BRAND
 
ED HUSIC MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE AND RESOURCES
MEMBER FOR CHIFLEY

Scott Morrison must immediately reject Queensland LNP Senator Matt Canavan’s reckless push for the Government to impose a tax on Australia’s iron ore exports to China.
 
If this is the Coalition’s idea of trade diplomacy, it’s little wonder the Government has failed to deliver a credible path out its current trade woes with China.
 
No one wins in a trade war.
 
Australian jobs and prosperity rely on open, rules-based trade - not retaliatory, tit-for-tat measures.
 
Senator Canavan, a former Coalition resources minister, wrote in an opinion piece today that Australian industries affected by current trade tensions should be compensated with funds raised from a levy on our iron ore exports to China.
 
Australia has benefited massively from the removal of trade barriers over decades.
 
The imposition of an export tax on iron ore would damage our world-leading iron ore mining industry.
 
The value of Australia’s iron ore exports reached a record $100 billion in the last financial year, with most of the commodity shipped to China. The industry employs tens of thousands of Australians.
 
Billions of dollars in trade and thousands of Australian jobs are at risk from these trade tensions.
 
Labor again calls on the Morrison Government to come up with a genuine plan to support our exporters and to make trade diversification a national priority.