Miranda Live: Steve Ciobo’s WTO threat ‘not how friends treat friends’ says Sebastian Gorka
A FORMER senior Trump adviser has slapped down Australia’s trade minister who suggested challenging the US’s new tariffs on steel, saying Steven Ciobo was “biting the hand offered”.
A FORMER senior Trump adviser has slapped down Australia’s trade minister who suggested challenging the US’s new tariffs on steel, saying Steven Ciobo was “biting the hand offered”.
Australia has been granted exemptions to the newly introduced increased tariffs on steel and aluminium, but Trade Minister Steve Ciobo yesterday said the Turnbull government would still consider supporting a European Union referral of the US to the World Trade Organisation.
But that comment has been shot down by former deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, Sebastian Gorka, who told Miranda Live “you don’t want to be sending that message to America”.
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“I would say that man has probably never met Donald Trump and should be probably assessing that statement with his colleagues in government,” he told Daily Telegraph columnist Miranda Devine on her online radio show.
“We are trying to work with you, in partnership with you. Why would you send that message to us? Are you trying to bite the hand that’s offered to you?
“That’s not how friends treat each other.”
Mr Gorka, a former intelligence analyst is now a Fox News contributor. He left the White House in August 2017, shortly after the departure of chief strategist Steve Bannon
He does, however, maintain close ties to the administration and recently dined with Mr Trump at the White House.
READ MORE: US trade war risks Aussie jobs and billions of dollars
Mr Ciobo was part of the recent Australian delegation, led by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, to the US and met with Mr Trump.
He and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop were quick to say Mr Trump was not expecting anything further in exchange for the tariff exemption.
Questions have been raised over the exemption for Australian steel and aluminium exports, with concerns it only came with an increased Australian military involvement in the South China Sea in support of the US.
Mr Ciobo also said the government would “look at” supporting a European Union threat to appeal against the new measures.
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