Andrew Robb on trade, tariffs and the rise of Asia

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00:00Why I'm so frustrated with Trump at the moment. It's so regressive. You look at the last 70 years,

00:10the architecture that the United States basically introduced and led, it has basically resulted

00:18in billions coming out of poverty. And it also underpins real prospects for peace.

00:26So I'm so committed to the opening up. The whole West, we all patted ourselves on the back as

00:36politicians saying we've kept inflation under control for 20 years. Well, no, we didn't. China

00:43in opening up, they created all that product at cheap rates. And many industries, especially from

00:50America, went in there and took advantage of it. So the world was awash with cheaper commodities

00:55than they would have been. And that led to 20 years of low inflation, right? So the story he's

01:01telling is crap.

01:04The interesting thing is, for the first time in history, the Southeast Asian countries,

01:09I think they've watched China, what happened there in the first 20 years. They are opening up.

01:16You go to Vietnam today, they're our second biggest trading partner. You put them together,

01:21they're China's biggest trading partner. Trump is pushing them into China. You know, how stupid is that?

01:31You know, if there's anything happen, someone takes a long lunch, end up seeing corruption on the

01:36front page, you know, he gets an aeroplane worth $200 million. And they say, good man, that was smart.

01:44We've had our own young people in every theatre of war with the United States for 70 years. We are a

01:54partner. We are an alliance partner. We are friends. We trust one another, right? That's the price we

02:01paid. And we've agreed to pay it because of the strength of our alliance. And then he comes along and

02:07puts 10%, puts 100% on film, right? He puts 35% or 25% on aluminium. And I do not accept it. I do not

02:18accept it. This is, you know, intolerable. You know, there's more to this than just who can buy

02:26something and who can sell something.

02:27You go back historically, I don't care when you go back, thousands of years, you will find when

02:36economies are open, that's when they progress. When they close, that's when they go backwards.

02:42You know, he's now put a 100% tariff on all our films. Tell me the logic, you know, and what

02:49confusion is that causing? And going to all the big black rocks, all these big ones around the world,

02:54now they're saying, until things stabilise, our purse is pretty much closed. We're an export

03:02country. That's what we do. That's what we, why we've got this unbelievable quality of life that

03:07we've got. We've got to foster it. Sorry, I'll get back to your question. But, but you're a,

03:15you're a former politician. You don't have to answer. No, no, I'm quite.

03:17In India, lo and behold, along comes Modi. Who can bring in a GST to 1.4 billion when they

03:26weren't, most of them weren't really taxed before? I mean, that's a miracle. I don't

03:31know how he did it. But the year before we ended up signing the agreement in 22, our agricultural

03:39trade was a billion. The year after was two billion. We've got to stop assuming that China

03:45and Vietnam and Indonesia and India are all underdeveloped and having that. They are walking

03:54past us.

03:56I think so many people in Australia thought, my God, you know, where's this going to end?

04:02What's all this mean? You know, is this, and they, and when you get something, enormous

04:09uncertainty, you, you, you stay with the devil, you know, rather than the devil, you don't.

04:1385% of our population, more or less, lives in five capital cities. Therefore, by definition,

04:2085% of our politicians live in five capital cities. Out comes the budget. Someone's put a

04:27new tunnel under their electorate in the cities. The money that could go regional.

04:32And this is, it's so difficult.

04:37Better not name names, but there's a, there's some very, some very powerful journalists in

04:46this room of their own.

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