Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants Australians to buy Australian-made products first in light of the US tariffs on our steel and aluminium. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is urging all Australians to buy Australian-made products first and is promising to boost that push with new funding in this month’s federal budget.
Mr Albanese has not called for a boycott of US-made products in light of US President Donald Trump’s refusal to exempt Australian steel and aluminium from his sweeping tariffs.
Neither is he inclined to impose so-called revenge tariffs on US products.
Instead, he has called for Australian-made products to be the first choice for Australians at the checkout.
“Australians can have an impact by buying Australian goods,” Mr Albanese said.
“Buy Bundy rather than some of the American products.”
That’s the message Mr Albanese will take into the imminent federal election now his case for Australia to be exempt from the US tariffs has been denied.
The budget is already being reworked to include greater injections into the Buy Australian effort.
“Around the world and here at home, our government will always stand up for Australian jobs and Australian industries,” Mr Albanese said.
“All Australians can join this effort and support our industries by taking the opportunity to buy Australian.
“The March budget will provide additional support for our Buy Australian campaign.”
Mr Albanese has clearly aired his displeasure over the tariffs, calling them concerning and “entirely unjustified”.
Diplomatic efforts have immediately ramped up in a bid to get the US to reverse its decision.
“The United States decision to impose tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium as part of a global decision is concerning,” he said.
“It has been foreshadowed that no country regardless of its relationship with the United States has been granted an exemption. Such a decision by the Trump Administration is entirely unjustified.
“This is against the spirit of our two nations’ enduring friendship and fundamentally at odds with the benefits our economic partnership has delivered over more than 70 years.”
Mr Albanese said Australia had no tariffs on goods from the United States.
“Our government will continue to put forward a very strong case for an exemption and to advocate for Australian trade with the United States at every level and through every channel,” he said.
“Australia will continue working hard for a different outcome and discussions with the Trump administration are ongoing.
“Our government is prepared and has been engaging directly with the Australian steel and aluminium industry and will continue working through this with them.”
The government is also working to further diversify markets for Australian products internationally and to build the sales of other locally made products into the US.
Australian steel and aluminium exports to the US represent less than 0.2 per cent of the total value of the nation’s exports with neither in the top 10 of products sold to the US.
“Tariffs and escalating trade tensions are a form of economic self-harm and a recipe for slower growth and higher inflation,” Mr Albanese said.
“This is why Australia will not be imposing reciprocal tariffs on the United States. Such a course of action would only push up prices for Australian consumers.
“We will continue to engage constructively with the United States and to make the case for Australian trade and the benefits it delivers to Americans.”
That was not good enough for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who said the government was outplayed by the Americans.
Mr Dutton said Australia should have secured an exemption for our steel and aluminium.
“I think the government’s been caught flat-footed here,” he said. “In 2018, the Coalition government was able to negotiate with the Trump administration for an exemption.
“We have a trade surplus, we’re an important military ally to the United States, and we should have been able to negotiate the same outcome today as the Coalition was able to negotiate in 2018.”
“I just don’t think the Prime Minister has the gravitas, he’s not well respected, and he’s seen as weak – and not just here but for our trading partners as well.”
“I disagree vehemently with the decision that the US administration has made and I don’t think it’s a bad decision just for Australia, I think it is for the US as well. If we have a situation where there are more tariffs applied to different commodities – to beef or whatever it might be – then that will be a disaster for our country.”
