Perspective with Heather duPlessis-Allan: Was our government too relaxed about the tariffs?

Best of Business · Aug 1, 2025 · 2m · transcript

So, was our government too relaxed about the tariffs then?

Cause this is a shock today – isn't it? To find out that we’ve just been bumped up to 15% while Australia and dozens of other countries have stayed on 10%.

Now, it seems to be related, most likely, to our balance of trade and that the US has a trade deficit with us. So we get 15%, but then a trade surplus with Australia, so they get 10%. So perhaps it was inevitable and unavoidable, as long as the balance of trade sat like that.

But then, on the other hand, Australia did kind of lock that in as well. They lifted their ban on US beef…