Extract from The New Daily
Source: Sky News
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has blasted the “entirely unjustified” tariffs imposed on Australian steel and aluminium by the US, saying it’s a poor way to treat a friend.
The comments – echoed by Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who said it was “no way to treat a friend and partner” and that the tariffs were “unprovoked and unjustified” – were the strongest language yet from the Albanese government in the unfolding trade war initiated by US President Donald Trump.
The White House announced early on Wednesday that it would impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium from all US trading partners – “with no exceptions or exemptions”. They will take effect from 3pm Wednesday AEDT.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Australian media in Washington the hoped-for exemption was off the table.
“He (Trump) considered it and considered against it. There will be no exemptions,” she told the outlets, including the ABC.
“American-first steel. And if they want to be exempted, they should consider moving steel manufacturing here.”
Later on Wednesday, Albanese – who has previously avoided criticising the Trump administration – said the US announcement of no exemptions was “fundamentally at odds with the benefits that our economic partnership has delivered over more than 70 years”.
However, Australia would not impose reciprocal tariffs on the US, because that would “only push up prices for Australian consumers and increase inflation”.
“Australia has no tariffs on goods from the United States and, of course, we have a free trade agreement with the United States,” Albanese said.
He also pointed to Australia’s long-standing close relationship with the US.
“Friends need to act in a way that reinforces, to our respective populations, the fact that we are friends,” he said.
“This is not a friendly act. But it is imposed on every country, that is important.”
Wong said she expected talks with US officials to continue “in the hours, days and weeks ahead”.
“I have said for some time this was a harder hill to climb than the last time and you only need to look at the President’s adviser Peter Navarro, who has said that the lesson from the last Trump administration was that exemptions don’t work,” she told Sky News.
“Their position is hardened against exemptions and they have made clear at this stage that there would be no exemptions so this is a global tariff.
“We think it is unprovoked and unjustified and I know it’s not good for the American economy and it’s not the way to treat a friend and partner.”
Wong said US consumers would be hurt more by the decision than Australia.
“It’s actually American consumers, it’s Americans in the products they buy, it’s Americans in the effect on the stock market and on the American economy so this is, these tariffs will harm the American, the ordinary American and the American economy,” she said.
Later on Tuesday (local time), Trump did back down from a threat to slap a further 25 per cent in tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum products – on top of the 25 per cent to go into effect on Wednesday.
His reversal came after an agreement announced by Ontario Premier Doug Ford and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to suspend a planned 25 per cent surcharge on electricity from Ontario sent to US customers.
Ford’s withdrawal came with an agreement for a meeting at the White House this week to discuss renewing the US-Canada trade agreement.
Slim hopes for Australian reprieve
Australia’s remaining hopes of a tariff reprieve hinge on a historical precedent.
Earlier on Wednesday, Health Minister Mark Butler noted that it took nine months for the government, with Malcolm Turnbull as PM, to get a tariff exemption during Trump’s first term.
The Coalition maintains Albanese should have travelled to the US to advocate in person on Australia’s behalf, like other leaders from Japan and India.
“This government just hasn’t done enough,” Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley told Sky News.
But Japan’s trade minister on Tuesday confirmed he’d failed to secure an assurance on an exemption.
Former US ambassador to Australia, Jeff Bleich, said Australia’s leaders did “everything they could”.
“Australia did far more than any other country that I’m aware of, with respect to making compelling arguments to the Trump administration,” he told ABC radio on Wednesday.
“It was significant enough that the United States kept open that possibility until the very last minute.
“I can’t fault Australia for failing to make the right arguments or failing to be persistent.”
Trump’s arguments to refuse exemptions for other countries did not apply because of Australia’s trade surplus with the US, Bleich said.
“It’s very difficult for me to see what real advantage there is to the United States in applying this tariff in this way at this time,” he said.
-with AAP
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