Top U.S. officials have stood by the Trump administration’s decision to impose 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, calling it a long-overdue correction.
While the sector will impact Canada and Mexico to a larger extent, countries like Australia were also caught out.
“We’re not going to stand for China dumping, Japan dumping. Australia does a lot of aluminium at below cost,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Fox News.
He added that U.S. President Donald Trump’s priority was protecting American workers and industry.
“You’ve got dumpers in the rest of the world … What that means is, they make it, they over-produce, and they sell it dirt cheap … to drive our guys out of business.”
While China’s dumping tactics have been well publicised, Australia’s trade with the United States in the steel and aluminium sectors are minimal.
Despite the significant dollar value of the affected exports—$378 million (US$237 million) for iron and steel products and $503 million for aluminium—Australia accounts for just 1 percent of U.S. steel imports and 2 percent of aluminium.
For Australia, this represents just 0.2 percent of the overall value of the country’s exports in 2024.
Secretary Says Trade Has Become ‘Incredibly Imbalanced’
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also defended the tariffs, calling them a necessary course adjustment.“What happened post-2004 was that some communities recovered, but the workers never did. It was much more devastating on a human level,” he said.
“What we are trying to do is make free trade, fair trade, because the trading systems have become incredibly imbalanced,” he told CNN.
Bessent pointed to trade deficits and foreign subsidies as key issues.
“We’re going through, we’re looking at tariff barriers, non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation, government subsidies, and in the EU, some of these gigantic fines that they’re putting on our tech companies just because they see a big pool of capital. And we’re going to push back on those.”
Lutnick took a combative stance, vowing to make foreign businesses pay their share.
Governments Around the World Prep for Retaliation
Different governments are responding in different ways.Canada, which has the most to lose, has announced reciprocal tariffs on American steel imports.
Japan and China have also warned of responses that could escalate trade tensions.
However, Bessent dismissed concerns over retaliation, insisting the United States was merely correcting long-standing trade imbalances.
“At the end of the day, President Trump has been saying ’tariff‘ is his favourite word. I think ’reciprocal’ may be a second favourite word, and we’re going to put this at the feet of our trading partners on April 2nd.”
Trump has already signed a measure paving the way for reciprocal tariffs on that date, which will fulfill a campaign promise and raise revenue to help pay down the nation’s debt.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his country will not be looking at retaliation, while also criticising the U.S. tariff move as “economic self-harm.”
“Friends need to act in a way that reinforces, to our respective populations, the fact that we are friends,” Albanese said.
“This is not a friendly act. But it is imposed on every country, that is important.”
