By Alasdair Pal and Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s trade minister Don Farrell said on Thursday the country had increased aluminium supply to the U.S. with Washington’s approval, addressing a hurdle to Canberra’s request for an exemption from U.S. tariffs on aluminium and steel.
U.S. President Donald Trump said this week he would consider an exemption for Australia from a flat 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports, before one of his closest advisers said Australia was “killing our aluminum market”.
The executive order imposing tariffs said the volume of aluminium from Australia had surged after it was granted a tariff exemption by Trump in 2018, with the country disregarding a verbal commitment to restrain aluminium supply.
But Farrell said Australia had increased its aluminium exports with the blessing of the previous administration of President Joe Biden, after supply disruptions from Russia during its ongoing war with Ukraine.
“All of that was done with the full knowledge of the American government. We haven’t done – at any stage – anything that the American government has not been comfortable with,” he said in an interview with state broadcaster ABC.
The centre-left Labor government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing a national election due by May and recently unveiled a A$2 billion ($1.26 billion) plan to help aluminium smelters transition to renewable electricity. The initiative aims to safeguard up to 75,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Australia, the world’s sixth-largest aluminium producer, accounted for 1% of steel imports into the U.S. and 2% of its aluminium imports.
($1 = 1.5918 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal and Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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