Aussies hoping AUKUS relationship will spare them Trump’s steel, aluminum tariffs
One analyst said “the imposition of tariffs likely will have a corrosive effect on American soft power — of the latent good will in the Australian political scene towards positive US-Australian security and economic dynamics.”
US President Donald Trump displays a signed executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. Trump ordered a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports, escalating his efforts to protect politically important US industries with levies hitting some of the country’s closest allies. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
SYDNEY — Last week, made its first payment of $500 million USD to the United States to bolster the submarine industrial base, part of an eventual $3 billion investment inside the US to help speed up production of the Virginia-class nuclear powered attack submarine. It was a move that drew rare praise for a foreign government from Trump administration officials.
Now, just days later, Australia finds itself hoping that goodwill can carry over after US President Donald Trump used an Executive Order to slap 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports from around the globe.
There is hope for an exemption, although, as has happened multiple times in the first few weeks of the new administration, the message coming from the White House is sometimes difficult to ascertain with any precision.
When Trump signed the executive order for the tariffs, he told reporters that there would be “no exemptions.” But he also said he had had a “warm and constructive” call with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, during which the PM made the case for an exemption.
Trump noted the trade surplus that America has with the Lucky Country, “and the reason is they buy a lot of airplanes,” he said at the White House after speaking with Albanese. He added that he told the prime minister the exemption is “something that we’ll give great consideration to.”
During a discussion today with reporters after the call with Trump, Albanese was very careful to say several times that “we agreed on wording to say publicly, which is that the US president agreed that an exemption was under consideration.”
Clearly echoing his conversation with Trump, Albanese noted that “the US has a trade surplus with Australia that it’s had since the Truman administration.” He noted that the US only imports about one percent of its steel and two percent of its aluminum from Australia. The fifth largest steel maker in America is an Australian company, BlueScope, which has invested about $5 billion into the US, the prime minister said.
At least one AUKUS supporter is concerned: Rep. Joe Courtney, a Connecticut Democrat who is a major backer of the trilateral agreement, said in a statement that “What we’re seeing is a completely needless, almost insult to the people of Australia by raising tariffs of Australian products coming into this country.”
“They are buying three nuclear submarines, cash on the barrelhead, full price, no gimmes, no giveaway,” Courtney continued. “So again, by all the measurements that President Trump talks about trade issues that we’re being ripped off by other countries, in this case, every one of those arguments fails.”
One Australian defense expert, John Blaxland of the Australian National University, compared his country’s “circumstances with its strategic cousins in Canada. There, tariffs are driving a strong nationalist reaction, while also triggering a period of reflection on trade and national security priorities internal to the nation.”
Australia and Canada share many characteristics, as both are wealthy Commonwealth countries with parliamentary democracies and they have extremely close relations with the United States. And yet, Canada has found itself in Trump’s crosshairs, to the point Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has warned that Trump’s threats to annex Canada are “a real thing.”
Blaxland noted that “the imposition of tariffs likely will have a corrosive effect on American soft power — of the latent good will in the Australian political scene towards positive US-Australian security and economic dynamics.” The good news for Australia is that steel and aluminum are not huge industries here so the country is not “likely to suffer to any great degree as a result — as the pain probably will be diffused internationally,” he added.
How should Australia measure its relationship with the United States, given the fact they are treaty allies, are working together to build a unique alliance based on the purchase and construction of nuclear-powered submarines and have fought side by side in every war since 1918?
“Do not be misled by the idea that there’s any altruism in Washington towards Australia. Australians love to delude themselves to this,” former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the Australia Broadcasting Corporation. “If we want to be respected, we have to stand up.”
