Latest US tariff threat takes businesses 'back to square one', says Ai Group CEO | The Business

The federal government is facing another uphill battle to convince the US against imposing a 12.5 per cent tariff rate on Australian products. The Trump administration says the raised tariffs will apply to 60 countries, including Australia, for failing to crack down on forced labour in their supply chains. Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox says businesses feel like it's "back to square one" in terms of their trading relationship with America. Mr Willox says it's not surprising that the United States would want to "come back and have a second bite at tariffs after the US Supreme Court knocked over their first attempt at a global tariff regime." But he says the way the US has gone about it is surprising. "In the Australian context, we have what's called the Modern Slavery Act, which has been in place since 2018. Australia has a very well-worn, very well understood regime, which is very tough on businesses, costly for businesses to follow through. "When questioned as to why the US is taking this approach, he says the US is in a fight for global pre-eminence and tariffs are its chosen weapon of war. He says Australia is caught in the middle. "It's a surprise that they would go this way. You've got to think that a lot of this is designed to ensure that trade with China is impacted by this measure." He said. Innes Willox spoke with Alicia Barry #ABCBusiness Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-04/asx-markets-business-news-live-updates/106757400 Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated. #ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia