Will the Australian government take any tariff dispute to the World Trade Organisation if Trump moves forward with his tariff plan against Australian steel and aluminum?

Anthony Albanese:

I don’t want to preempt the decision that is made by the United States in the coming period. What I can say is that we are prepared for all possibilities going forward and a repeat what I’ve said before – tariffs are an act of economic self-harm by those who have imposed them, increase costs for buyers in the United States of America.

The important issue to state as well and I will make one more thing on top of the comments I have already made on this is the United States represent under 5% of our exports, goods exports, around the world. But, importantly, as well, we will continue to diversify our trade relationships. We do that, we have done that over the last few years, not in anticipation of action by the United States, but because one of the lessons of the trade issues that were there with China is we did not have enough diversification of our trading relationships.

We think free and fair trade is important, but Australia more so than the direct effect of any trade decision by the United States on Australia, the issue I think is for global trade and the impact that will have if the United States takes actions that diminish global growth and diminish global economic activity. That is one of the concerns that we have, is the indirect impact as well.