Serious warning from George Brandis that Australia will suffer if the US-China trade war escalates

Australia could end up “losers” if a trade war breaks out between the US and China in the next Trump era, former Attorney General George Brandis has warned.

Newly elected US President Donald Trump promised during the election that he would immediately impose 60 percent import duties on China once he comes to power in January.

The proposed tariff has left many Australians wondering how it could affect the close export trade it shares with China.

Appearing on the panel of ABC’s Q+A program on Monday evening, Mr Brandis warned Australia could expect to be the “losers” of the potential global trade war between the two superpowers.

Worsening our position is the lack of Australian leaders with a close relationship with Trump, with some even being called out for previously ridiculing the former president – ​​including US Ambassador Kevin Rudd.

Without establishing a personal relationship, the consequences of action against China on the Australian economy could be dismissed by Trump.

“Anything that harms China – and in particular weakens Chinese demand for what we sell to China – will have a clear impact on the Australian economy and ripple across all sectors,” Brandis said.

‘Few countries in the world are more exposed to international trade and free trade than Australia. We are a trading nation, an exporting nation.

Former Attorney General George Brandis (pictured) warned Australia would suffer if the US imposed high tariffs on China

When host Patricia Karvelas (pictured) asked why Australia’s future relationship with the US would be worse than under Mr Turnbull, Mr Brandis highlighted the unique relationship between him and Trump.

‘So we are at the front of the line of countries that will be prejudiced by American protectionism and economic nationalism.

“We will largely be the losers in a global trade war.”

Mr Brandis now teaches at the Australian National University’s National Security College after returning from a four-year stint as High Commissioner in Britain

He also shared insight into how Australia will ‘manage’ President Trump in the coming years.

Mr Brandis said Trump’s second term will be a very different landscape to ‘Trump 1.0’, which was heavily dependent on the relationship then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had with the president.

The pair had a turbulent relationship when they were leaders at the same time in 2017-2018, including an infamous phone call about a controversial refugee resettlement deal just days after Trump was sworn in as president.

Mr Brandis said: ‘Malcolm Turnbull was very, very good at managing Donald Trump, much better than almost any world leader’ (pictured, Donald and Melania Trump)

“I don’t think we should assume that the success that Malcolm Turnbull had, for example, when Trump 1.0 got an exemption from the steel and aluminum tariffs that Trump imposed at the time, would be repeated,” Brandis said.

When asked by Q+A host Patricia Karvelas why Australia’s future relationship with the US would be worse off than under Mr Turnbull, Mr Brandis highlighted the pair’s unique relationship.

“Malcolm Turnbull was very good at managing Donald Trump, much better than almost any world leader,” he said.

“I don’t think we should necessarily expect that.

Karvelas further pressed Brandis on why he thought Prime Minister Anthony Albanese or opposition leader Peter Dutton – if he won the next election – would not be able to handle Trump.

In response, Brandis said there was “a special relationship between Turnbull and Trump.”

“They got together, they had similar backgrounds in some ways, big billionaires,” he said.

Mr Brandis added that Mr Turnbull and Trump were similar, but went on to clarify “in some respects, certainly as businessmen” that they shared similarities.