Trump aide claims Australia ‘killing’ US aluminium

A senior Trump aide has made a wild claim about Australia as uncertainty festers around an exemption from brutal US tariffs.

A senior aide to Donald Trump has accused Australia of “killing” the American aluminium industry a day after the White House claimed Canberra violated a “verbal commitment” to voluntarily limit exports.

Peter Navarro, who advises the US President on trade, said on Wednesday (AEDT) Australia was flooding the US aluminium market.

“Australia is just killing our aluminium market. President Trump says, ‘No, no, we’re not doing that anymore’,” Mr Navarro told CNN.

“What they do is they just flood our markets after Biden gave them an agreement that said, ‘don’t flood our markets, you can have a reasonable amount’. That’s what we’re dealing with.

“Our aluminium industry is on its back. It’s at 50 per cent capacity utilisation … in Australia, it’s 90 per cent.

“And we can’t afford not to have strong aluminium and steel industries.”

Mr Trump on Tuesday (AEDT) signed an executive order slapping brutal 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports “without exemptions or exceptions”.

He did so shortly after giving Anthony Albanese assurances an exemption for Australia was “under consideration”.

Mr Trump appeared to slightly walked back on the absoluteness of his order, but whether Australia will get a carve out remains unknown.

‘Verbal commitment’

Jim Chalmers has said he did not know of the deal Australia allegedly broke.

Asked during a morning show appearance if Australia had broken any agreement, the Treasurer said: “Not that I’m aware of.”

The Trump White House has claimed Australia broke a ‘verbal commitment’ to voluntarily limit aluminium exports. Picture: Jim Watson / AFP

“I’ve obviously seen the reports out of DC,” Mr Chalmers told Seven’s Sunrise.

“This happened under a previous Coalition government.

“They may be able to provide a bit more colour and context around some of these sorts of claims.

“No doubt we’ll be able to find a way … to get to the bottom of what’s happened there.”

Mr Chalmers pointed out the negotiations Mr Trump mentioned took place “almost a decade ago”, when Malcolm Turnbull was Australia’s prime minister during Mr Trump’s first administration.

According to a White House proclamation, the “volume of US imports of primary aluminium from Australia has also surged and in 2024 was approximately 103 per cent higher than the average volume for 2015 through 2017”.

“Australia has disregarded its verbal commitment to voluntarily restrain its aluminium exports to a reasonable level,” it said.

But Mr Turnbull has rejected the claim, saying steel was the focus of negotiations at the time.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says he is not aware Australia has broken any export agreements with the US. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Despite the uncertainty sparked by Mr Trump’s order, Mr Chalmers said the conversation between the Prime Minister and Mr Trump on Tuesday was “very, very positive”.

“The conversation that happened yesterday was very productive, very positive,” Mr Chalmers said.

“Prime Minister Albanese made the case for our steel and aluminium exporters standing up for our national economic interest, and for Australian jobs.

“I think it’s a good thing that President Trump said he would be willing to consider that exemption.

“We obviously don’t take any outcome for granted, but I think yesterday’s conversation between the two leaders was a positive step.”

Hopes of an exemption have not been completely crushed — Mr Trump acknowledged Australia was “one of the few” countries the US has a trade surplus with.

He told reporters in the Oval Office he promised to consider a levy exemption for Australia, calling Mr Albanese was a “very fine man”.

“I told him that that’s something that we’ll give great consideration to,” Mr Trump said.

The opposition has backed the Albanese government, with Peter Dutton saying the imposts would “damage the relationship between the United States and Australia”.

Originally published as Trump aide claims Australia ‘killing’ US aluminium