(March 11): Australia is playing down the possibility of an exemption from steel and aluminium tariffs expected from US President Donald Trump within days, despite last-minute discussions between officials in Canberra and Washington. 

Australia Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd has held meetings with Trump administration officials in recent days, while Trade Minister Don Farrell has met steel and aluminium producers to discuss possible diversification strategies. Speaking on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was meeting with officials from Rio Tinto and Bluescope Steel in advance of the decision.

“It is in Australia’s interest, but it’s also in the economic interests of the US for Australia to be exempted from tariffs that of course just increase prices for the purchaser of those goods,” he said. Albanese said in February that Australia’s steel and aluminium are both critical inputs for the US manufacturing sector.

Following a call with Albanese in February, Trump said he would “give consideration” to a potential exemption for Australia from 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium exports to the US. However, since then senior Trump trade advisers have played down the possibility, accusing Australia of “killing” the American aluminium industry.

Asked by reporters outside the White House last Friday, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said Trump didn’t like the word exemption. 

“I walk in and I offer an exemption then I will probably get kicked out of the office, we will see how it goes though. Maybe there will be some. I doubt it,” Hassett said. The steel and aluminium tariffs are due to come into effect on March 12 in the US. 

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, whose government managed to negotiate tariff exemptions in Trump’s first term, told Bloomberg on Monday it would be a “lot harder” for Australia to get the same deal this time around. 

“I suspect he will conclude himself that you give one country an exemption, then you have to give another and another, and before long there are too many exemptions and you haven’t got much of a tariff,” Turnbull said.

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