Trump advisor Navarro's concerns triggered Morrison government's aluminium pledge
The "verbal agreement" at the centre of Trump's latest trade controversy does not appear to have been documented and was not widely reported at the time it was secured.
Morrison-era government officials verbally agreed to limit Australian aluminium exports to the United States during Donald Trump's first term after the president's top trade adviser Peter Navarro expressed concerns in private meetings, Capital Brief can reveal.
Navarro threw a major curveball into Australian politics on Wednesday after he said the country was "killing" the US aluminium industry and would not be exempt from planned tariffs on the metal as well as steel.
“The major companies in Australia are majority held by – the largest shareholder is China, and what they do is they just flood our markets,” Navarro said in an interview on CNN.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed confidence he would be able to secure an exemption from the tariffs following a phone call with the US president. Australia was one of the few countries to avoid tariffs during Trump's first term.
