Australia wants absolutely no tariffs applied to its goods and Donald Trump's policy retreat could provide an opportunity for political leaders to make their case.

The US president has wound back tariffs on the imported goods of many countries to 10 per cent for 90 days, while raising the levy applied to China to 125 per cent.

Australia's tariffs remain the same as it was already subject to a baseline 10 per cent levy in the first week of the federal election campaign.

The latest announcement does not appear to affect the 25 per cent tariffs already placed on all steel and aluminium imports, including Australia's.

But it does open the door for Australia to reignite negotiations.

"The best deal is zero and that's what we are continuing to put forward."

"The US administration changes its position on a regular basis, and on that fact, we need to make sure that Australia is considered in the way that we go forward."

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Trump's latest backflip reflected his "volatility", adding that if he becomes prime minister he will talk to the president about the US relationship with Australia and opportunities for expansion through sectors like critical minerals.

"I will work with whoever the American president is, I will deal with whatever comes at our country and I'll make the right decisions and the tough decisions that need to be made to keep us safe and to make sure that we're a strong economy," he said.

More than 75 countries have made contact with the US to discuss the trade measures and the 90-day pause will allow Trump to engage in "bespoke" negotiations with these nations, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said.

Some Australian external territories, including the Heard and McDonald Islands – which have no human inhabitants – have also been slapped with tariffs higher than 10 per cent.

"Some of the decisions in our region confounded people who were involved in the negotiations," the prime minister said.

"That is why you have to be an adult, not dial it up to 11 at every opportunity, which is what Peter Dutton's plan is on everything."

China and the US have continued to apply escalating reciprocal tariffs and Beijing has asked Australia to "join hands" and respond together, according to reports in the Nine newspapers.

But Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said Australia was "not about to make common cause with China".

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, left, and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor pose ahead of the first treasurers' debate. – AAP

Meanwhile, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his opposition counterpart Angus Taylor clashed over mounting spending, claims of secret cuts and falling living standards in the first treasurers' election debate.

But in their pitch to voters at the debate hosted by Sky News both men urged Australians not to risk electing their opponents.

The US tariffs have reshaped the election debate, sidelining the previously dominant issue of the cost of living and blunting the coalition's key attack line that people had become poorer under Labor.

Chalmers attempted to tie the opposition to the Trump administration accusing it of copying the president's policy platforms, such as the Elon Musk-led cost-cutting agency the Department of Government Efficiency.

"We've got an opposition leader and an opposition which is absolutely full of these kind of DOGE-y sycophants who have hitched their wagon to American-style slogans and policies and especially cuts which would make Australians worse off," he said.

Opposition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was recently named the coalition spokesperson for government efficiency.

Taylor criticised the government for presiding over a budget, released last month, that forecast $179 billion of deficits over the next five years and a return to a structural deficit.