Euro-vision: Could Australia join the European Union? One key minister is open to it

September 15, 2026 — 3:00am

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When Donald Trump announced his so-called Liberation Day tariffs on just about every country on earth, while excepting Russia, of course, I asked an eminent economist how bad the damage would be. Warwick McKibbin told me that it certainly wouldn’t be helpful because it’d increase global inflation. Which everyone except Trump seemed to understand.

But it wouldn’t be calamitous for the world economy, said McKibbin, a former Reserve Bank board member and ANU professor.

Why not? Because Trump’s domineering share of global news noise is not matched by America’s material heft in the world economy. The US accounted for only 15 per cent of global trade; the other 85 per cent would simply restructure itself around the US, McKibbin predicted.

He was right. It’s happening. For example, Canada, suffering brutal trade hostility from Trump, is pressing the European Union for much deeper economic ties.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is building Canada’s post-American future. Perhaps even creating a new category of EU membership with Canada as its first “associate member”. The Europeans are open to the idea, according to a weekend report by The Wall Street Journal.

Australia concluded a hard-won trade deal with the EU just six months ago. It’s so fresh that it hasn’t yet been ratified. And might yet be struck down by the Coalition in a parliamentary vote.

The deal is not a champagne-class deal. Use of that regional name would remain restricted to French producers and not every trade barrier would be dismantled. But it is prosecco-level deal. Australian makers would become the only ones in the world outside Italy to be permitted to use the sweet sparkling name. And it would abolish tariffs on 98 per........

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