No paper trail for Scott Morrison's 'verbal' deal with Trump over tariffs
DFAT was unable to find any documents confirming a mooted deal a Trump official claims was broken, which the US has used to justify tariffs on Australian exports.
There is no paper-trail documenting meetings between Australian officials and Donald Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro, despite his public accusation that Australia violated a Morrison-era “verbal commitment” to curb aluminium exports.
At least, not at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
DFAT said a “thorough search”, conducted after a freedom of information (FOI) request from Capital Brief on Navarro's meetings with Australian officials, has thrown up nothing relevant – despite checking its US, UK, and Canada branches, its goods and market branch, and the Australian embassy in Washington.
The verbal agreement was made during a June 2019 meeting between Trump and then-prime minister Scott Morrison, which Navarro attended.
Navarro publicly accused Australia of violating the commitment last month, as the Albanese government scrambled to secure an exemption from Washington’s global 25% tariffs on aluminium and steel imports, which ultimately came into effect on Wednesday.
