Chart of the week: What do Trump’s tariffs mean for the Australian economy?
Tariffs on China are in place and growing.
This week’s Chart of the Week comes from Market Strategist Lochlan Halloway’s evaluation on the effect of Trump’s tariffs on the Australian economy.

After Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs we outlined that Australia’s direct economic exposure was modest. In 2023, the US was Australia’s sixth-largest goods export market, accounting for AUD 22 billion, about 4% of total goods exports.
However, Australia is a small, open economy, and global economic growth matters. In particular, the Chinese economy matters. Trump’s rollback did not include China and as tariff’s escalated through rounds of retaliation the pictuce for China is more unsettled than immediately after ‘liberation’ day.
How this situaiton plays out is the big swing factor. This includes if China chooses to stimulate, the nature of the stimulus, and its magnitude.
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Read more:
- First impressions: US tariffs on Australian equities
- What to do about the tariff tantrum
- Tariffs are a self-inflicted economic catastrophe for the US
- Riding out tariff turbulence
- Trump’s tariff announcement: Implications for Australian investors
- 4 defensive, undervalued Moat stocks with limited tariff exposure