"We worked with DFAT and trade negotiators during the previous Trump administration and have been doing the same with the new administration to seek to ensure there are zero tariffs for aluminium, steel and iron produced in Australia," Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association, the Australian Industry Group, said today.
"A tariff on Australian goods, despite us having a long-standing free trade agreement with the United States and agreements around exemptions for Australian produced goods during the previous Trump administration, would be a slap in the face for Australian industry and our mutually beneficial economic and security arrangement," Mr Willox said.
"This decision reminds Australia that nothing can be taken for granted in what is a rapidly changing world.
"This also reinforces that we cannot be sanguine about one of our most important trade and investment links.
"On trade, the President is simply doing what he said he would do.
"Pollyannaish hopes that we would fly under the radar have proven to be sadly misplaced. That this advice has been given the day after our Deputy Prime Minister was in Washington to hand over billions of dollars to secure the AUKUS submarine deal is particularly troubling.
"It is now up to the Federal Government to quickly step in and protect Australian industry and producers from being caught up in a rapidly escalating global trade war.
"Reversing these tariffs must be a national priority, and the Government must use all the leverage at its disposal to quickly turn this around," Mr Willox said.
