A river of drivel today surrounding Vice-President Mike Pence’s Aussie visit. Grovelling central is the AFR:
US President Donald Trump’s “massive” tax reduction plan, details of which are expected on Thursday, will have direct benefits for Australia, Vice-President Mike Pence says.
He met privately with the chief executives of Westfield, Macquarie Group, Lendlease and Austral before publicly praising them for helping to fuel a US-Australia economic relationship worth a “staggering” $1.5 trillion.
“The truth is that a stronger American economy also means a stronger economy for all of our trading partners, including Australia,” Mr Pence said.
“Rest assured, our tax reform will make the strongest economy in the world stronger still, and it will benefit the American people, American workers, and it will benefit the economy of Australia.”
Sources familiar with the private meeting said participants praised the Trump administration for plans to slash the 35 per cent corporate rate to as low as 15 per cent.
They said they hoped the move would boost the case for lowering Australia’s 30 per cent rate.
American Chamber of Commerce chief executive Niels Marquardt said the lower American tax rate would benefit companies like Macquarie, Westfield and Lendlease, which had a huge presence in the US.
“On a per capita basis Australians out invest what [the US] invests in Australia, and they’re both big numbers,” he said.
Yeh, but what about the border adjustment tax that’ll punish them for investing here?
The FTA has massively favoured the US as well.
Finally, Mathias Cormann is making on sense at all:
US President Donald Trump’s plan to upgrade the nation’s roads, ports and bridges will drive demand for steel and support iron ore prices, Australia’s Finance Minister Mathias Cormannsaid.
“The US and the Trump administration has put out a very ambitious infrastructure investment program” and the steelwill have to come from somewhere, Cormann said in an interview in Washington. “So global demand for steel, we believe, will continue to require significant exports of Australian iron-ore.”
…“It’s early days in terms of the US administration,” he said. “Freer, more open trade helps to lift living standards. It helps domestic business to get access to markets around the world and it helps consumers get access to competitively priced, higher-quality products.”
The US is self-sufficient in iron ore and most of it’s steel is recycled anyway with more than enough spare capacity to ramp into any future need, even as the US punishes China with steel tariffs which will hurt Australian iron ore exports.
But, hey, never let the truth get in the way of a good client-state stroking.
