‘Very fine man’ Anthony Albanese has one month to turn Donald Trump tariff anger around
The Trump administration has accused Australia of threatening the US’s national security by allowing aluminium to surge into the country and failing to rein in steel shipments.
Donald Trump has accused Australia of threatening the US’s national security by allowing aluminium to surge into the country and failing to rein in steel shipments, tempering hopes of an exemption from his new 25 per cent tariffs on the metals.
Anthony Albanese and Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd have one month to convince the President to grant Australia a carve-out, with the new trade levies set to kick in on March 12.
The timing means the Prime Minister may have to fight the upcoming election, due by May 17, with tariffs being imposed on Australian industry by the nation’s closest ally.
The Prime Minister won a commitment from Mr Trump in a 40-minute phone call on Tuesday that he would consider exempting Australia from the import duties, with the President agreeing Australia presented a special case.
“I just spoke to him – very fine man,” Mr Trump said of Mr Albanese. “We have a surplus with Australia. One of the few … And I told him that (an exemption) is something that we’ll give great consideration to.”
But the text of two executive orders signed by the President after his conversation with Mr Albanese singled out Australia for criticism, suggesting the government may have a tough time securing an exemption.
His proclamation imposing aluminium tariffs was particularly scathing, accusing Australia of breaking a 2018 deal to limit exports of the commodity to the US in a threat to its national security. “Australia has disregarded its verbal commitment to voluntarily restrain its aluminium exports to a reasonable level,” it said.
“The volume of US imports of primary aluminium from Australia has … surged and in 2024 was approximately 103 per cent higher than the average volume for 2015 through 2017.”
Mr Trump’s order imposing steel tariffs said Australia was among a number of countries that had failed to restrain exports of the metal to the US as agreed in 2018, when Australia was granted a tariff exemption by his first administration. “Thus, I have determined that steel articles imports from these countries threaten to impair the national security, and I have decided that it is necessary to terminate these arrangements as of March 12, 2025,” the proclamation said.
Mr Albanese said he had had “a very constructive and warm discussion” with Mr Trump, and would continue to work on securing a carve-out. “I presented Australia’s case for an exemption, and we agreed on wording to say publicly, which is that the US President agreed that an exemption was under consideration for in the interests of both of our countries,” the Prime Minister said.
But while Mr Trump agreed to consider Mr Albanese’s request, he was explicit in an impromptu press conference that the tariffs would apply across the board “without exceptions or exemptions”. He said US industry was being “pummelled by both friend and foe alike”, and it was “time for our great industries to come back to America”.
“This is the beginning of making America rich again,” the President said. “Our nation requires steel and aluminium to be made in America, not in foreign lands.”
Mr Trump said discussions would take place in coming weeks on the introduction of further sector-specific tariffs that would apply to cars, drugs, pharmaceuticals, and computer chips.
Earlier, Congress heard Mr Trump’s promised tariff hikes were an “insult” to Australia, given Canberra’s longstanding support of America and commitment to upholding security in the Indo-Pacific.
The Democratic co-chair of the Congressional AUKUS Working Group, Joe Courtney, told the House of Representatives Mr Trump’s justifications for the steel and aluminium imposts did not apply to Australia. He noted that Australia had, just days ago, made a $US500m ($796m) downpayment on a $US3bn AUKUS commitment to help rejuvenate the US submarine industrial base.
“The US economy has a trade surplus with Australia. We export more into Australia than they export back to us,” Mr Courtney said.
“They have been a signatory with a free-trade agreement (with America) with no tariffs … Our alliance between our two countries, going back to World War I, is probably the most deep and strong of any other nation in the world.”
Mr Albanese said he spoke to Mr Trump about the US’s trade surplus with Australia, the small volume of Australian steel and aluminium entering the US, and Australian firm Bluescope’s investments in the US steel sector. He said he planned to meet with the President at or before the next Quad leaders’ meeting in India later this year, and defended the job that Dr Rudd was doing as the nation’s top diplomat in Washington.
Peter Dutton offered “strong support” for Mr Albanese’s efforts to secure an exemption from the tariffs.
“We don’t believe that this tariff should be put in place, and if it remains in place, then I believe it will damage the relationship between the United States and Australia,” the Opposition Leader said.
Mr Dutton said the government’s initial engagement with the second Trump administration had been undermined by disparaging comments by Mr Albanese and some of his ministers about Mr Trump. “But what’s important now is that the Trump administration hears that there is a bipartisan position in Australia to stand up for our national interest, and that national interest is best served by a removal of the tariff as it applies to Australia,” he said.
Mr Dutton said the Coalition supported Dr Rudd’s work, but left open the prospect that another candidate could do a better job. “I assume that he is getting access to the White House and to key administration figures and I presume that he has a functioning relationship with the chief of staff as Joe Hockey did, as Kim Beazley did and others. I assume that those relationships are all developed,” he said.
The tariff threat came amid upheaval in Australia’s aluminium sector, with more than 500 workers walking off the job at the Tomago smelter new Newcastle over a pay claim.
AWU state secretary Tony Cullinan acknowledged the tariff threat to the industry and said he hoped the dispute could be settled quickly. “With some of the conversations around tariffs and other things in the industry, it’s probably not a good time to be considering industrial action,” he said.
Manufacturing company Capral Aluminium warned that the new US tariff on the commodity could prompt China to dump cheap aluminium products on the Australian market, in a threat to suppliers.
Australia exported about $640m worth of steel and $440m worth of aluminium to the US last year. Australian exporters with US operations, including market leader BlueScope Steel, stand to benefit from the trade restrictions, but those without a US presence risk being shut out of the world’s largest economy.
Additional reporting: Brad Thompson
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