Opposition Says Australia Should Play Critical Minerals, AUKUS Card in Trump Tariff Talks

Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on aluminum and steel have caused a political and media storm in Australia.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office as he announces reciprocal tariffs, on Feb. 13, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Coalition Shadow Trade Minister Kevin Hogan says Australia should leverage its vast critical mineral stores to continue negotiation with the Trump administration over tariff exemptions.

The comments come after the White House confirmed Australia would not be exempt from an executive order imposing 25 percent tariffs on aluminum and steel imports.

Hogan said Australia has more leverage to negotiate with America compared to a few years ago.

“We would be looking at the critical minerals. We have some great critical minerals that are very important to them, especially some that they can’t access many other places,” Hogan said on ABC Radio National.

“We have the $800 million AUKUS cheque that [Defence Minister] Richard Marles just went over and threw on the table as part of the deal with AUKUS,” he added. “So we actually believe we have more leverage points with America now than when we got the exemption a few years ago.”

The MP’s comments come after executive director of the Australian Institute for Progress, Graham Young, made the suggestion.

“We don’t know what the Albanese government was offering, but like the Ukraine, we have substantial rare earth deposits—perhaps there is a trade to be done there,” Young told The Epoch Times after news broke of the exemption rejection.

Australia is home to some of the world’s largest reserves of lithium, cobalt, manganese, vanadium, and tungsten located in Western Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales.

These minerals are in high demand globally and are used in a range of modern technologies from magnets, EVs, smartphones, and fighter jets.

Australian Ambassador to the U.S. Kevin Rudd has reportedly attempted to use critical minerals in talks with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, but to no avail.

But Shadow Minister Hogan insists Albanese get on a plane and “meet the leader of America.”

“We think there’s some great things that we can say and get some leverage on, but we think it’s very important that that person to person, leader to leader, that’s how Trump operates, and it’s very disappointing that our leader hasn’t found the will to go over and do that,” he said.

To Retaliate or Not?

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Australia should not consider retaliation against the United States, like Canada or the European Union.

Dutton said he was more concerned about a second round of tariffs and said there were “worrying signs” at the moment.

“If the government doesn’t get its skates on, we’re going to have further tariffs applied to Australia,” Dutton told reporters on the Central Coast, New South Wales.

Dutton pointed out the Coalition had been able to negotiate with the previous Trump administration—about eight months later—and continued his criticism of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for not being able to get through to the U.S. president for a call.

“This prime minister can’t even get a phone call. And I don’t agree with what President Trump has done at all. We [the Liberal government] actually rolled our sleeves up. We negotiated with the Trump administration, and we got an exemption,” Dutton said.

The European Union and Canada have already announced retaliatory measures against the Trump tariffs, but this has led the U.S. president to simply threaten further retaliation including a 200 percent tariff on alcohol from France and other European nations.

“The U.S. doesn’t have free trade. We have stupid trade. The entire world is ripping us off,” Trump posted to Truth Social on March 13.

Former Labor Minister Bill Shorten, now vice-chancellor at the University of Canberra, suggested Australia needs to push back, criticising Trump for leading the “free world as if it’s a reality TV show.”

“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,” Shorten told Sunrise.

“This is not the argument that Australia wants to be in, but I’m confident this government, and I think all reasonable Australians, will say at a certain point, ‘You push us, we push you.’”

Minister Says US Trade Still Small Compared to China

Meanwhile, Labor Trade Minister Don Farrell said the United States had done a “great act of self harm” and noted the scale of Australia’s trade with China.

“Our two-way trade with China last year was $327 billion. Of that, $230 billion was trade that we sold to China. $100 billion was trade that they bought from us. Overwhelmingly, our relationship with China has been one that’s been very, very much in Australia’s favour,” he told reporters on March 13.

However, he cautioned about the next round of tariffs from April 1, and said Australia would be talking with American counterparts to “try and convince them that they are heading in the wrong direction.”

“Well, we sell a lot of agricultural products to the United States. We sell a lot of pharmaceutical products to the United States. There’s $30 billion worth of products that we sell to the United States,” he said.

“We don’t want any of those products that haven’t yet been subject to the tariff to be subject to the tariff. And that’s the argument that we’re putting to the United States, and that’s the argument we will continue to put to the United States.”