Australia’s road to US tariffs (or out of them) runs through this man

Washington: Howard Lutnick is not a name on the lips of most Australians. But the New York billionaire – Donald Trump’s “tariff man” – is already playing an outsize role in the fate of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Australian exports.

Though he is not yet confirmed as commerce secretary, Lutnick is rapidly advancing his agenda as a close member of the US president’s team. He is a long-time friend of Trump’s and the two see eye to eye on tariffs as a force for good, as well as a negotiating tool.

Howard Lutnick, with US President Donald Trump, is nominated for commerce secretary.Credit: Bloomberg

“Of course, it’s a bargaining chip,” Lutnick told CNBC during the election campaign. “It’s a win-win scenario. We’ll make a bunch of money on the tariffs, but mostly, everybody else is going to negotiate with us.”

Lutnick, 63, is better known in the US from the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York. As the then chief executive of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, he lost 658 employees that morning – about two-thirds of the company’s staff. All were working on the upper floors of the World Trade Centre’s north tower, above where the plane hit. His brother Gary was among those killed.

Lutnick would ordinarily have been at the office that morning, but was taking his son to his first day of kindergarten. He has been with the company his entire working life, becoming president and chief executive in 1991, around his 30th birthday.

While Lutnick became a familiar face as the nation mourned – including through a tearful appearance with Larry King on CNN – he also attracted criticism for a “ruthless” decision to strike those dead workers from the payroll four days later, potentially leaving grieving families high and dry.

Lutnick days after the September 11, 2001, attacks in which more than 600 Cantor Fitzgerald employees died.Credit: Richard L. harbus/The New York Times

Lutnick said the fate of the decimated firm was on the line. He soon created the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, and surviving and new employees agreed to donate 25 per cent of their salaries for the next five years, which totalled $US180 million.

“My employees, they stitched my soul back together,” Lutnick told his confirmation hearing in late January. He said he paid staff back double after taking a division of the company public in 2008. The charity continues today under Lutnick’s sister Edie, and raises money for disaster relief.

Ahead of the confirmation hearing, US Vice President J.D. Vance introduced Lutnick as “both a product guy and a sales guy”.

“Howard is a force of nature … he never lets his foot off the gas, and he never forgets what the mission is,” Vance said. “This is a person who, on the world stage, will say more and do more and convince businesses that America is back, that America is growing and thriving.”

Lutnick says he as a “simple” view of tariffs and they should be applied broadly, country by country, rather than product by product.Credit: AP

Fast-talking and succinct, Lutnick’s language on tariffs often mirrors Trump’s. He interprets the global trading landscape as a continuation of the post-World War II Marshall Plan, whereby the US provided aid and favourable trade conditions to help devastated European economies rebuild.

At Trump’s pre-election rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden, Lutnick fired up the crowd with a rousing vision of returning to a time before income tax, with the US growing rich from tariffs alone. As he told CNBC, however, sometimes on the campaign trail, people simplify the message so they are more easily understood.

At his confirmation hearing, Lutnick was more sober, but still firm in his view the US was being dudded.

“We are treated horribly by the global trading environment,” he said. “They all have higher tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers and subsidies. They treat us poorly, we need to be treated better, we need to be treated with respect, and we can use tariffs to create reciprocity, fairness and respect.”

Lutnick said his preferred approach to tariffs was “across the board … country by country – macro”, rather than choosing individual products to tax. He was emphatic in his view that tariffs – which are levied on US importers at the border – do not cause inflation, calling it “nonsense”.

Trump said he would give “great consideration” to exempting Australia from punitive 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium after a 40-minute phone call with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday.

“We actually have a surplus [with Australia]. It’s one of the only countries which we do. I told him that that’s something that we’ll give great consideration to,” Trump said of his conversation with Albanese.

The most recent Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade data shows Australia importing $65.1 billion from the US in 2023, while exporting $33.6 billion to the US in the same period.

Discussing his shared view with Trump, Lutnick said: “I’m a more simple view of tariffs kind of guy, and I think the president is of like mind.”

“The steel and aluminium had 560,000 applications for exclusions [last time]. It just seems that’s too many. I think we need to simplify it and make it more effective.”

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.