Australia’s trade minister has denied the Trump administration’s claims local aluminium producers are “killing” America’s market, rejecting US allegations at the centre of the tariff standoff that Canberra had breached a Morrison-era handshake deal to limit exports.
Don Farrell says he “can’t predict” when the US president, Donald Trump, might come to a decision on whether to grant Australia an exemption to 25% steel and aluminium tariffs, but has argued bluntly that such trade barriers would be harmful.
“The argument that will be presented to the United States … will be that it doesn’t make any sense at all to be imposing a tariff on a country where you have a trade deficit,” he told reporters in Parliament House on Thursday, in his first major comments on the brewing trade storm.
A voluntary commitment, made to Trump in 2019 by the then Morrison government, to unofficially limit aluminium exports to the US is at the heart of the Albanese government’s efforts to avoid tariffs. The president’s proclamation for the aluminium tariffs accused Australia of reneging on a verbal agreement on the product; Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, claimed Australia is “crushing” and “killing” America’s manufacturing sector.
Sources told Guardian Australia that the agreement, described as a voluntary undertaking, was struck after a dinner between Morrison and Trump at the G20 in Japan in 2019. It’s understood that Trump advisers, including Navarro, were keen to remove the exemptions in 2019 but an undertaking by the Morrison government saw Australia voluntarily limit aluminium exports instead.
They said it was unclear whether 2019’s voluntary undertaking was upheld under the Biden or Albanese governments, after the Trump and Morrison governments lost subsequent elections in 2020 and 2022. It’s understood the Albanese government has found no such written or formal record of such an agreement.
Farrell said he was not aware of such an agreement being made or continued under the Albanese government, which came to office in 2022.
“This government, I believe, has complied with all of the arrangements set in place by the American government,” he said.
“I believe we’re complying with all of our obligations in terms of entry of our steel and our aluminium into the United States, and we’ll continue to do so.”
Farrell said that Australia’s exports of steel and aluminium had found more diverse markets in recent years, after Albanese government efforts to diversify export markets.
While Navarro accused Australia of “flooding” markets with aluminium, figures from the US Department of Commerce show Australia was eighth on a list of largest exporters to the US.
As of February 2025, 97,421 metric tonnes of aluminium had arrived in the US from Australia; that compares with 3,288,315 metric tons from the top import destination Canada, then 392,080 from the second-placed United Arab Emirates, and 238,425 from Korea. Bahrain, China, Argentina and India all exported far more aluminium to the US then Australia.
In 2024 Australia exported about $23.8bn worth of goods to the US and imported $50.6bn.
Government sources have downplayed the prospect of any imminent decision on tariff exemptions, even with the tariffs set to come into force in mid-March.
“I can’t predict what the American government might do in terms of when they’ll make a final decision. But can I say this, we’ll continue to represent Australia’s interests with the United States,” Farrell said.
The shadow home affairs spokesperson, James Paterson, argued Australia was “a very small importer of steel and aluminium to the United States compared to its other trading partners”.
“We’re very clearly not doing harm to the United States’ steel or aluminium industries,” he told Sky News Australia.
Paterson claimed Albanese should have been “on the first plane over to the United States after the inauguration to have that in-person meeting with President Trump to build that rapport”.
On Tuesday Trump labelled Albanese a “very fine man” and said he would give “great consideration” to an exemption after a phone call between the two leaders.