Industry Minister Ed Husic has called Donald Trump’s tariffs on aluminium and steel a “dog act”, as Australian parliamentarians continue to react with shock to the decision not to issue Australia a carve-out.
The Trump administration announced it had rejected Australia’s request for an exemption to the tariffs that took effect on Wednesday afternoon local time. The tariffs will add a 25% tax on all steel and aluminium exports to the US.
Trump last month promised Albanese “great consideration” for a carve-out, despite the White House trade adviser, Peter Navarro, consistently accusing Australia of “dumping” its steel and aluminium in the US.
On Wednesday, Albanese criticised the decision not to give Australia an exemption as “not a friendly act” and called the tariffs “unjustified”. But Husic went further, saying Australians have “spilled blood” alongside Americans over a century of friendship.
“I think this is a dog act after over a century of friendship. Australians have stood by and stood with Americans for many decades,” he told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.
“Australians have spilled blood alongside Americans in different conflicts. We have stood together not just from a national security perspective but from an economic security perspective as well.”
The prime minister, senior cabinet members and the opposition traded barbs throughout the day on Wednesday over the tariffs.
The Australian prime minister said his government would continue pushing for an exemption to the 25% tariffs, calling the trade barriers favoured by Trump “a form of economic self-harm”. But the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, said the US decision was a “failure” by the Albanese government, who hadn’t been able to get Trump on the phone.
“It’s obvious that Anthony Albanese and Kevin Rudd have had a shocker. The prime minister can’t secure a phone call, let alone a meeting with the president of the United States,” Dutton told reporters in Brisbane.
“How on earth can an outcome be negotiated if the president won’t even take the prime minister’s call?”
Albanese took several interviews on Wednesday afternoon in which he responded to Dutton’s claims.
“Seriously – Peter Dutton had a choice of backing Australia or backing the Trump administration, and has chosen once again to talk Australia down,” he told 3AW.
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“The fact is that no other country has succeeded on steel or aluminium tariffs. None have received an exemption. A bit like his nuclear plan, it’s just one bit of evidence that Peter Dutton lives in some sort of fantasy land.”
Dutton also called the trade minister, Don Farrell, “hapless” in his inability to negotiate the carve-out. Farrell responded, telling Sky News today is “a very bad day for our relationship with the United States”.
“I ignore these insults, I don’t think it’s helpful on a day like today,” he said.
“I think we have done absolutely everything we could do in the circumstances … I don’t believe that there was any intention on the part of the United States government to give us an exemption.”
In his ABC interview, Husic also took aim at Dutton, who claimed a Coalition government could have secured an exemption.
“I am staggered that Peter Dutton, an appeaser, has spoken up in a way that he has today, not to speak up for the country but to speak up his political interests and to suggest in the face of reality that he could have somehow got a better outcome … defies the reality that these tariffs have been set across the board,” he said.
In a statement, independent senator Jacqui Lambie warned Australia needs to “stand up to Trump”.
“America is no longer a reliable ally – hopefully that will change, but in the meantime we can’t keep assuming that America has our back, Trump clearly doesn’t have anyone’s back except his own.”