Call for local steel mandate in face of Trump’s tariffs
Tess Ikonomou |
Australia is being urged to mandate the use of local steel in projects to protect the nation’s workers and industry from Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The US president has announced a plan to double levies on foreign steel from 25 per cent to 50 per cent in coming days.
Australian goods exported to the US are already subject to a 10 per cent baseline tariff.
Australia must adopt strong domestic protections, says union secretary Arthur Rorris, whose South Coast Labour Council includes workers from BlueScope’s Port Kembla Steelworks.
“If we don’t mandate the use of our steel for our own uses, we will become the path of least resistance for the glut of global steel,” he told AAP.
“If you don’t defend your own markets, others will take them.”
Labor could not just talk about a future made in Australia but had to provide the funds to back it, Mr Rorris said.
He said the government needed to understand the transactional nature of the Trump administration and use whatever leverage it had to get a better deal.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers in February said quotas for Australian steel were under consideration.
Australian Steel Association chief executive David Buchanan said he was yet to see dumping of cheap foreign steel into Australia.
“We do have a very strong system to protect the industry from dumped materials,” he told ABC radio.
Mr Buchanan said the US president’s decision would not have a major impact on Australian industry, but would result in increased prices for American consumers.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese branded the move an act of “economic self-harm” and is expected to sit down with the American leader on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada later in June.
Mr Trump’s deepening trade war is considered destabilising to the framework that has benefited middle powers such as Australia.
Announcing the steel and aluminium tariffs earlier this year, Mr Trump committed to imposing them “without exceptions or exemptions” in a bid to help shield domestic industries.
The Albanese government has ruled out retaliatory tariffs against the US as it tries to secure an exemption for Australian goods.
But Australia could take the US to the World Trade Organisation, as it did with China over punitive trade sanctions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic as diplomatic relations hit a low.
Trade Minister Don Farrell has said the government would continue to “coolly and calmly” argue its case for the removal of the tariffs.
Canada has taken the US to the umpire, which determines global trade rules.
Senator Farrell is travelling to France, leading Australia’s delegation to the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting.
On the sidelines of that meeting, Australia will host an informal meeting of World Trade Organisation ministers to discuss the importance of an open, rules-based global trading system.
In Mr Trump’s first term, the US president gave Australia exemptions on the argument the US has a trade surplus with its ally.
AAP
