Australian steel and aluminium are set to be slapped with 25 per cent tariffs when they are exported to the United States.
President Donald Trump has announced the 25 per cent tariffs would apply for those imported products during a media conference aboard Air Force One, on Monday Australian time, as he was flying to the Super Bowl in New Orleans.
‘Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 per cent tariff,’ he told reporters.
In 2018, Australia was given an exemption from 25 per cent American tariffs on steel and 10 per cent import taxes on aluminum after then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull pointed out the US had trade surpluses with Australia.
Canada, Mexico, the European Union and the UK were also given exemptions on steel and aluminium tariffs.
But this time, President Trump has imposed tariffs more broadly, even though Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made the same point about the American trade surpluses with Australia stretching back to 1952.
This would affect steel workers at Port Kembla, near Wollongong, and Whyalla, in South Australia, and aluminium manufacturers in Newcastle north of Sydney.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers was last week hopeful President Trump would grant Australia an exemption again.
‘We are confident that we can navigate these changes coming out of DC. We are well placed, we are well prepared,’ he told reporters on February 4.
President Donald Trump has announced the 25 per cent tariffs would apply for those products during a media conference aboard Air Force One, on Monday Australian time, as he was flying to the Super Bowl in New Orleans (he is pictured with daughter Ivanka)
