
According to the New York Times report, some of the United States top trade advisers including Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, and Peter Navarro, the director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, had urged the Trump administration to impose tariffs on aluminium imports from Australia. But Trump was eventually persuaded to backtrack on the decision as imposing tariffs on Australia could alienate a key ally in the Asia-Pacific region.

The surge in Australian aluminium flowing onto the American market over the past year, which now accounts for about 6 per cent of all aluminium imported to the country, led the United States top advisers come up with the idea of scrapping the exemption that was granted last year to Australia.
In May last year, when the Trump administration had imposed additional 25 per cent import tariff on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium on several countries like the European Union, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico, it had granted a rare exemption to Canberra after lobbying by the then Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
However, speaking to reporters in the Solomon Islands, the present Australian Prime Minister said the country’s aluminium exporters were doing nothing wrong. "We have an arrangement with the United States and we are working within that arrangement," he said.
Australia exports about A$500 million ($347.00 million) in steel and aluminium to the United States each year.
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