Donna Demaio: Australian Correspondent on the concerns over Trump's steel and aluminium import tariffs

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is set to speak with Donald Trump as tariffs loom. 

The US President has said he will announce a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium entering the country, on top of already existing metal duties. 

He implemented a similar policy in his first term, but later granted partners like Australia duty-free quotas. 

Australia Correspondent Donna Demaio told Andrew Dickens the Albanese Government has been preparing for such a decision. 

She says it’s been reported that attempts to secure exemptions have been developed behind the scenes. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're off to Australia and good morning Donald tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Good morning to you.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
So Tariff Talk comes to Australia with your Prime Minister
to talk to Donald about steel.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yes, mister Abinizsi, our PM is planning a chat with Trump.
He wants to make that case for fee free, sorry
free and fair trade with America now that we know
that President Trump says he's going to impose his tariffs
on all steel and aluminum imports into the US. Now
this is on top of existing metal duties that we

(00:30):
know of, and he says that that's going to count
for everybody. Everybody's facing this twenty five percent tariff. So
the Albanese government has been preparing for such a decision,
it says, and it's been reported that attempts on how
to secure these tariff exemptions have been developed behind the scenes.
We know that Richard Miles, who is our Defense Minister,

(00:50):
was in the US on the weekend and he has
been meeting with senior Trump officials, but no word on
that yet. Meantime, the PM says he does have an
upcoming phone call. We're not exactly sure when that is,
but he's going to bring up tariff. So we have
to just wait and see what happens there after that
little chin wag.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
All right, just now, you've got some big bushfires in Tasmania.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yes, many many, in fact, about sixteen blazers are raging
across Tasmania's remote west. But we know that help is
on its way and aircraft operations manager is coming from
New Zealand to help with the fire fighting efforts, so
thank you very much for that. But lightning strikes that
started these bushfires in western Tasmania, it's about a week ago.

(01:33):
They're still raging. There's hundreds of people there trying to
get on top of it, and we know that there's
also specialists from New South Wales and Queensland heading down.
But unfortunately Tazy's going to have some searing heat, some
very very hot weather on its way at least for
tomorrow and Thursday. But thankfully the cold front is due
late Thursday, so hopefully that will help.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
And have we offered help.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yes, yes, someone from New Zealand is coming. An aircraft
operations manager apparently is on their way, which we have
to say, thank you very much for helping us with
our firefighting efforts.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Oh, it's nothing, it's okay. Thank you, Donna Jamaya. For
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