Tariff tightrope
Anthony Albanese has taken a first step towards achieving an exemption for Australia from US tariffs. But even if he succeeds, it doesn't guarantee Donald Trump won't change his mind later on.
For a moment this morning, it looked like US President Donald Trump had quickly reneged on an agreement made with Anthony Albanese on an earlier phone call to describe a tariff exemption for Australia as “under consideration”.
“It’s 25% [on steel and aluminium] without exceptions or exemptions … No exceptions, no nothing,” the president declared at a press conference as he signed his tariffs into law.
But seconds later, Trump appeared to offer Albanese just that possibility.
“We have a surplus with Australia … It’s one of the only countries [with] which we do,” he told reporters in the Oval Office, reflecting on the large number of aeroplanes Australia purchases from the US.
“I told him that [the exemption is] something that we’ll give great consideration to.”
