Australia has failed to win an exemption from Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on aluminium and steel, but the government has vowed to fight on for a carve out.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared the decision was “against the spirit of our two nations’ enduring friendship”. “This is not a friendly act,” he said.
“We will continue working hard for a different outcome,” Albanese told a news conference.
In recent times, Albanese was not able to get another phone call with President Trump for a late top-level pitch.
Australia would not impose reciprocal tariffs on the US – such a course would only push up prices for Australian consumers, he said. The US decision increased costs on American consumers, he added.
The White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, earlier had told Australian media in Washington “there will be no exemptions” from the tariffs, which come into effect imminently. Pressed on why, she said “America First steel”.
She said, “If they want to be exempted, they should consider moving steel manufacturing here”.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government would continue to lobby for an exemption. He pointed out it had taken the Coalition government many months to win a carve out from tariffs under the first Trump administration.
“Tariffs don’t make any sense, it’s an act of kind of economic self harm. We’ll be able to find other markets for our steel and our aluminium and we have been diversifying those markets. But we’re obviously really disappointed with this.
“I would say, though, we’ll keep advocating to the United States on this issue. Last time around it was nine months before we got an exemption in relation to steel and aluminium out of the Trump administration in its first term. So, we’ll keep pressing the case, we’ll keep diversifying our own trade. But look, there’s no hiding this, we’re really disappointed with this decision.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the decision was “unprovoked and unjustified”.
Opposition deputy leader Sussan Ley said the government “just hasn’t done enough”.
“All of the other leaders of the Quad and AUKUS, Japan, India, the UK, travelled to the US, and they had face-to-face meetings, and they did what they needed to do. They advocated fiercely in their country’s interests, but this prime minister has been nowhere to be seen.”
But given no exemptions are being provided, a personal trip by the Albanese would likely have had little effect. The PM made the case for an exemption to the president in a call some weeks ago. In that conversation Trump indicated he would consider Australia’s case, but the government quickly became pessimistic about the administration giving it a special deal.
BlueScope, while expressing disappointment, saw one silver lining. “BlueScope produces more than 3 million tonnes of steel per annum at its NorthStar BlueScope plant in Delta, Ohio. As the US tariffs come into effect the company expects to see the positive impact from an improvement in steel prices.”
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull this week predicted Trump would shy away from exemptions this time around. While some observers said Turnbull’s broad attack on Trump, whom he called a bully, could work against Australia’s lobbying, it almost certainly was irrelevant, given all representations were rejected.
The Australian concern is less the direct impact of the tariffs – our exports of steel and aluminium to the US are limited – but the fallout from an international trade war that could be sparked by Trump’s policies.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article here.
Like it or not, US President Donald Trump’s actions affect us, too. What are your thoughts on this most recent development? Do you agree that Australia not getting an exemption from tariffs is an unfriendly move from a key ally? How about on feedback that the government just hasn’t done enough? Share your thoughts below.
No worries Don baby. Thanks for coming. All part of the service. By the way, the price of using Pine Gap has just gone up to 350 billion a year. Oh and those submarines, you know, the ones that are in AUKUS, the agreement you ‘don’t know what that is’, and that we were never going to see anyway? Elon has an aperture that they would fit up nicely.
The immediate answer is a 50% tariff on tesla vehicles and domestic batteries. This directly targets one of the most malignant (unelected) disaster causes in the american administration, without harming australia at all.
I also believe AUKUS doesn’t serve australia… america perhaps, joe hockey and shitmo definitely, and probably albanese when he leaves office. It’s an abomination that should be torn up immediately as it never should have been signed. No sane leaders of countries can afford to buy key defence equipment that can be rendered inoperable at the whim of any american president ever again.
Diesel subs are far more suitable for australian coastal defence. We have no need to project australian power in the china sea. We have no conflict with china, and as no country should ally with america we have no need of future conflict with china.
We should seek to ally with those numerous countries trump (the orange mussolini) is threatening, including canada, greenland, denmark and panama.
With these tariffs, who is he actually hurting. ALCOA, the Manufacturer and exporter of Aluminium is actual a US Based Company Smelting the Aluminium here and exporting it to the US because it is far cheaper for them to do that than do it in the US.
Even with the Tariffs, Australia is still the cheapest option.
Well, China’s boycott of our goods was even more widespread after being asked for an investigation into the Coronavirus, but there was no such reaction from some of the public.
Is that because these people are scared of a communist regime?
No phone call or visit from the top would have sealed the deal.