A day after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump, hoping to secure an exemption on steel and aluminium tariffs, a senior White House adviser poured cold water on the idea.
Trump’s senior trade and manufacturing advisor, Peter Navarro, dismissed the possibility of an exemption, accusing Australia of harming the U.S. aluminium market.
“Australia is just killing our aluminum market,” Navarro told CNN. “President Trump says no, no, we’re not doing that anymore.”
On Feb. 10, Trump raised tariffs on steel and aluminium imports by 25 percent, effective from Mar. 12.
U.S. Commerce Department data shows Australia ranked 17th in steel exports and eighth in aluminium exports to the United States over the past decade.
“What they do is flood our markets,” Navarro claimed, blaming the previous Biden administration for allowing Australia to maintain access under an earlier agreement.
Trump’s former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, however, provided a different perspective.
He told CNN that Australia had been the only country producing “green steel”—steel made without fossil fuels—during Trump’s first term. As American manufacturers lacked the technology to produce it, tariffs would have made American buyers pay 25 percent more with no alternative supplier.
Prime Minister Defends Trade Relationship
The setback came after Albanese described his conversation with Trump as “constructive and warm.”He said the president agreed an exemption was “under consideration in the interests of both countries.”
Albanese highlighted the long-standing U.S.-Australia trade surplus, which has remained roughly two-to-one in America’s favour since the 1950s.
“The U.S. is a major investor in Australia, and our steel and aluminium make up just 1 percent and 2 percent of U.S. imports, respectively,” he argued.
He also pointed to Australian investment in U.S. industry, particularly BlueScope Steel, which has invested $5 billion across more than 30 locations and is now the fifth-largest steelmaker in America.
“Our major export to the United States is Colorbond roofing for California’s West Coast,” Albanese said, while also noting aluminium’s importance to the U.S. defence industry.
Trump later addressed the media, acknowledging the U.S. trade surplus with Australia.
“They buy a lot of airplanes. They’re far away and need lots of airplanes,” he said. “We actually have a surplus with Australia. It’s one of the only countries we do. That’s something we’ll give great consideration to.”
Without an exemption, hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Australian exports are at risk. According to United Nations COMTRADE data, Australia’s exports to the U.S. include $378 million (US$237 million) in iron and steel and $503 million in aluminium.
Other countries hit hard by the tariffs include Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and Japan for steel, and Canada, China, Mexico, the UAE, India, and Bahrain for aluminium.
