U.S. says Australia won't get exemptions on steel, aluminium tariffs

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the Trump administration's decision to impose tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium imports is "entirely unjustified". The White House has confirmed there will be no exemptions from the 25 per cent tariffs, which will come into effect this afternoon. Global supply chain researcher, Professor Maggie Dong, says she's not surprised by the decision.

Transcript

00:00For the Australian exports, it certainly hurts the manufacturers, but the effect would be

00:10limited, because Australia exported about $1 billion trade in terms of steel and aluminum

00:18to the U.S., but it only accounts for a very small portion of the total trade to the U.S.,

00:27the total Australian exports.

00:29So also, Australia is not the major importer for steel and aluminum in the U.S., so the

00:39effect definitely is negative, but it's limited.

00:43I think overall, tariffs are not a wise strategy to manipulate the trade and economy, but the

00:52game has started, so Trump has started this game.

00:56So I think retaliative tariffs can be one resource that Australian government to consider,

01:03but they need to consider in what categories to implement this retaliative tariff, because

01:12if that's some products that consumers use very often, that would also push up the inflation.

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