Donald Trump’s trade adviser claims Australia is “crushing” and “killing” America’s manufacturing sector with its imports of aluminium, as the Albanese government scrambles to try and secure exemptions to the president’s 25% tariffs on metal.
Anthony Albanese said he was still hopeful the local steel and aluminium industry could be spared from the tariff regime, even after escalating comments from the Trump administration criticising current trade arrangements with allies – including Australia.
Despite Trump himself saying tariff exemptions for Australia were being given “great consideration”, the president’s trade adviser Peter Navarro has taken a swipe at aluminium arrangements in a media blitz.
“Australia is just killing our aluminium market. President Trump says, ‘No, no, we’re not doing that anymore’,” Navarro told CNN, claiming Australia was seeking to “flood our markets”.
On Fox News, Navarro claimed Australia was “crushing” America’s aluminium sector.
Trump on Tuesday said the starting point for the worldwide tariff arrangement was there would be no exemptions for any country, with comments from other advisers that previous exemptions – such as those given to Australia in 2018 – had harmed the US market.
The official proclamation for the aluminium tariffs, signed by Trump, accused Australia of breaking a “verbal commitment” to limit aluminium exports. Albanese government sources indicated this was a reference to an arrangement made by the former Morrison government; former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who secured the initial exemptions with Trump, has indicated he gave no such commitment himself.
Navarro, Trump’s senior adviser on trade and manufacturing, doubled down on that claim in American TV interviews. Also criticising the actions of Mexico, Canada, South Korea and Brazil, Navarro wrote in a Fox News comment piece his concerns about “widespread tariff circumvention by foreign countries – including many of our putative allies.”
“Australia is crushing, just crushing, with the help of China, our aluminium sector,” he told Fox News in a separate interview.
“The President says no more country exemptions, no more product exclusions.”
On CNN, Navarro went further in criticising Australia.
“What they do is they just flood our markets after Biden gave them an agreement that said, ‘don’t flood our markets, you can have a reasonable amount’,” he said.
“Our aluminium industry is on its back. It’s at 50% capacity utilisation, in Australia, it’s 90%. And we can’t afford not to have strong aluminium and steel industries.”
Clips of Navarro’s interview were posted to an official Trump administration communications account on X, indicating a high level of endorsement of his criticisms by the White House.
Albanese in a press conference referred to his conversation the day prior with Trump, and the president’s own press remarks that he was considering Australian carve-outs.
“President Trump gave a very clear signal yesterday when he said that an exemption for Australia is under great consideration. They’re his words, they’re consistent with the discussion that I had with President Trump. It was a very warm and constructive discussion,” he said.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said in morning media interviews that he was not sure what arrangement Trump’s proclamation referred to, or whether the previous Coalition government had broken its word, but indicated the government was seeking clarity.
“No doubt colleagues will try and get to the bottom of what’s being said here, but again, to remind your listeners, we’re talking about something from almost a decade ago under a previous Coalition government. It may be that our predecessors can clear this up or provide some more context and commentary around it,” Chalmers told ABC radio.