Albanese’s $750m shield against Trump steel, aluminium tariffs

Anthony Albanese has moved to shield the steel and aluminium industries from Donald Trump’s tariffs with $750m worth of subsidies.

Anthony Albanese has moved to shield the steel and aluminium industries from Donald Trump’s tariffs.

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Anthony Albanese has moved to shield the nation’s steel and aluminium industries from Donald Trump’s 25 per cent metals tariffs with $750m worth of new subsidies to keep producers globally competitive.

The cash injection from the government’s $1.7bn Future Made in Australia fund will aim to boost innovation and development of low-emissions technologies and brings federal government support for the sector to $5bn.

The move came as the Prime Minister trumpeted his free-trade credentials, rejecting former Labor leader Bill Shorten’s call for Australia to match the US President’s tariffs “dollar for dollar”.

“Tariffs are a tax on Australian consumers and people who buy products. That is our view. We stand very clearly in favour of free and fair trade.” he said.

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said the metals industry subsidies were just another form of protectionism and accused the government of trying to “pick winners”. “Protectionism comes in three forms: tariffs, quotas and subsidies. We’ve gone down the subsidy path,” Dr Oliver said.

“I’m pleased they haven’t pursued retaliatory tariffs but I’m not convinced all this extra spending is money well spent.”

But the union movement said the funding boost would secure a better future for Australian workers and communities.

“Supporting the growth of our metals industry through new technologies means more jobs for working people and lower emissions for our planet,” ACTU president Michele O’Neil said.

BlueScope Steel workers Ruby O’Driscoll, Edward Cook and Gill Smillie at the company’s Port Kembla plant. Picture: Nikki Short

The support is aimed at unlocking commercial production of “green metals” using Australian ores and renewable resources.

It follows a $2.4bn rescue package for the Whyalla steelworks and comes as Mr Trump prepares a second round of trade measures that will target non-tariff barriers which undermine the competitiveness of American industry.

The so-called reciprocal tariffs due to be imposed from April 2 could hit an array of Australian products, including medicines, beef, seafood and other food ­exports. As Canada and the European Union slap retaliatory levies on US exports, Mr Shorten said Australia should consider a similar response.

“At the end of the day, if they keep putting tariffs on all of our goods, then we’ve got to reciprocate, dollar for dollar, tariff for tariff,” he told Channel 7’s Sunrise program.

Mr Shorten, who is now the University of Canberra’s vice-chancellor after he resigned from parliament earlier this year, said Mr Trump was running the White House as if he was on a ­“reality TV show”.

“I mean, it’s still aluminium today? Is it agriculture and farming tomorrow? And I actually think that at some point we’ll have to send a message to Mr Trump,” he said.

“We cannot be pushed around. And if this behaviour continues, Australia might be a bit smaller than America, but … we’re not a soft mark, and we need to consider putting everything on the table, as I’m sure the government will be, to fight back.”

The government is still stinging after the Trump administration rejected its offer to turbocharge critical minerals co-operation with the US to avert the steel and aluminium tariffs.

As revealed by The Australian, Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, laid out a plan for a guaranteed supply chain of critical minerals in talks with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, but the offer was rejected.

“We were led to believe by Lutnick this is what they wanted,” a senior government source said.

The package remains on the table and will be central to the ­nation’s case ahead of Mr Trump’s April 2 reciprocal tariffs ­announcement.

As the EU prepared to impose a 50 per cent EU tariff on American whiskey on Thursday AEDT, a furious Mr Trump threatened a 200 per cent levy on European wine, champagne and spirits.

He called the EU’s targeting of US whiskey “nasty” and dubbed the bloc “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the world”.