Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium is “entirely unjustified” and “not a friendly act”, Anthony Albanese says, after the Labor government failed to receive the exemption the US president had dangled in a call last month.
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”, in his strongest criticism of the American president since he returned to office.
“This is against the spirit of our two nations’ enduring friendship and fundamentally at odds with the benefit of our economic partnership that has delivered over more than 70 years,” Albanese said in Sydney on Wednesday.
The Trump administration announced it had rejected Australia’s plea for an exemption from US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, due to come into effect on Wednesday. Albanese stressed in his press conference that no nation, including Australia, had received a carve-out.
“[Trump] considered it and considered against it. There will be no exemptions,” the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told Australian media in Washington overnight.
“American-first steel. And if they want to be exempted, they should consider moving steel manufacturing here.”
The deputy press secretary Kush Desai later confirmed the tariff regime would be comprehensive, and that no country had been granted an exception.
Trump had said he would give “great consideration” to an exemption for Australian metals after a phone call with Albanese in February.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, claimed the tariffs were a failure of Albanese’s leadership. Earlier in the week, the former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull – who secured the 2018 exemption – disputed such characterisations, saying Albanese was “unlikely to succeed” in any case.
Dutton claimed “because of the prime minister’s inability to deal with this issue, Australian jobs are at risk, and Australian industry is at risk.
“The prime minister needed to get this right and he didn’t,” Dutton said at a press conference.
“I think the prime minister has let every Australian down. The Coalition government was able to negotiate an exception largely because we were able to prosecute our argument more effectively than what Anthony Albanese you can.”
Dutton claimed that he would have a better chance of securing exemptions if the Coalition won office at the coming election.
‘Not a friendly act’
Australian officials have lobbied Washington in the weeks since Trump announced the new tariff regime, repeatedly stressing Australia’s trade surplus with the US, and its longstanding economic and security cooperation. Senior government members including the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and the trade minister, Don Farrell, had travelled to Washington DC to join ambassador Kevin Rudd in making the case.
Hours after the confirmation that no nation would get special treatment, Albanese was strongly critical of Trump’s decision.
“It is disappointing. Australia has a close relationship with the United States. Friends need to act in a way that reinforces, to our respective populations, the fact that we are friends. This is not a friendly act,” he said.
“But it is imposed on every country, that is important.”
Albanese was asked if Australia should have proposed “a deal” to Trump to avoid the trade barriers; the prime minister claimed Australian officials had put forward “a range of propositions” to the US which were not successful, but would not elaborate.
He said Australia would not impose reciprocal tariffs on America, as other nations have done, but that the upcoming federal budget would contain new funding for a “Buy Australian” campaign to promote local products, and that government officials would continue pushing for a deal even after the tariffs come into force.
“Our government will continue to put forward a very strong case for an exemption, noting that the last time this occurred it took months for that exemption to be granted … Australia will work hard for a different outcome and discussions with the Trump administration are ongoing,” he said.
“Tariffs and escalating trade tensions are a form of economic self-harm and a recipe for slower growth and higher inflation. They are paid by the consumers. This is why Australia will not be imposing reciprocal tariffs on the United States. Such a course of action would only push up prices for Australian consumers and increase inflation.”
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Patience and persistence are ‘key’
Industry groups in Australia also expressed alarm at the developments.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said Trump’s call would harm local steel and aluminium exporters, as well as consumers.
The Business Council said the outcome was “not unexpected” and said the government should continue with diplomacy.
“It’s important to remember that it took eight months for the Australian government to secure tariff exemptions under the last Trump administration – what this tells us is that these discussions are complex and that patience and persistence are key,” said BCA chief executive Bran Black.
The levies are part of a broader suite of tariffs Trump has vowed to pursue to level what he regards as an unfair global trading regime.
He said this week the tariffs would enrich the US: “We’re going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, and we’re going to become so rich, you’re not going to know where to spend all that money.”
Overnight Trump threatened to raise the tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium to 50% from 25%. There are also forecast tariffs on pharmaceuticals and agricultural products that could have an even greater impact on Australian exporters.
In Trump’s first term as president, Australia won an exemption from steel and aluminium tariffs, arguing than it was an ally with which the US had a trade surplus (the US exported more goods to Australia than it imported from Australia).
But Turnbull has since argued that the chances of a second reprieve were low because Trump regretted concessions granted in his first term.
The “surplus” argument was also undermined by the fact that in January 2025, for the first time since the US census bureau published records, Australia recorded a trade surplus with the US. This was driven, almost wholly, by a run on gold in the US. Australia shipped a record amount of gold to the US in January – worth US$2.9bn – according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, the highest figure in records dating back to 1995.
Investors in the US, fearful of the impact of an uncertain and potentially punitive tariff regime, have taken refuge in the safe-haven asset, driving prices to new records last month.
Australia’s fight for tariff relief exists within a chaotic and deepening trade war globally.
US stocks had their worst day of the year on Monday amid fears of a recession.
Asked if he was expecting a recession this year on the back of his rollout of a global tariff regime, Trump replied: “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big.”
