Key Trump advisor blames Australia for sparking the bitter tariff trade war – after accusing Aussies of dumping ‘dirt cheap’ exports in the US

A senior member of Donald Trump’s cabinet has accused Australia of dumping cheap aluminium in the United States as justification for its 25 per cent import tariffs.

While the US has a trade surplus with Australia, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has accused Australia of flooding the United States with cheap aluminium in a bid to undercut American manufacturers.

‘Look, you’ve got dumpers in the rest of the world,’ he told Fox Business.

‘Japan dumps steel. China dumps steel. What that means is, they make it, they overproduce and they sell it dirt cheap, to drive our guys out of business

‘The President is here to protect American workers. He’s here to protect American industry. We’re going to stop that nonsense and bring steel here.

‘So, this concept that, oh, prices are going to rise … you’ve got to remember, President Trump is playing for the strength of America.

‘We’re not going to stand for China, dumping, Japan dumping, or Australia does a lot of aluminium below cost.

‘This has got to end and the President is on it.’

World Trade Organisation rules only allow tariffs under limited circumstances, including to stop dumping, where one exporting country floods another with cheap imports.

However aluminium made up just 1.6 per cent of Australia’s exports to the United States in 2025, in a trade worth $400million.

Dr Naoise McDonagh, a geopolitics and international trade expert at Edith Cowan University, said Mr Lutnick’s assertions about Australian aluminium exports had no basis in fact.

‘Lutnick’s comment that there’s been dumping has been unsubstantiated by any evidence,’ he told Daily Mail Australia. 

A dumping complaint with the WTO requires an American company unfairly affected to make a complaint to the US government, which has not even occurred. 

‘Typically, if you wanted to make an anti-dumping action, which is allowed WTO law, you would have to do an investigation and provide evidence that would say an Australian producer of aluminium is selling that product into the US market at a lower price than it sells in its home Australian market.

‘There hasn’t been any reports of evidence of that – there hasn’t even been discussion of an investigation.’ 

The Australian government doesn’t directly subsidise Tomago Aluminium in Newcastle to product the lightweight metal cheaply. 

But President Trump last month claimed American aluminium imports from Australia were much higher compared with his first term in the White House.

‘The volume of US imports of primary aluminum from Australia has also surged,’ he said in a proclamation attached to the executive tariff order.

‘In 2024 [it] was approximately 103 percent higher than the average volume for 2015 through 2017.

‘Australia has disregarded its verbal commitment to voluntarily restrain its aluminum exports to a reasonable level.’

The 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium came into force on Wednesday, with Australia getting no exemption unlike 2018.

The tariff was imposed despite the US trade surplus with Australia dating back to 1952, where Australia buys more goods from the US than they buy from us.

Australian steelmaker BlueScope will escape the tariff as it already manufactures steel in Ohio.

Dr Patricia Ranald, a public policy expert with the University of Sydney’s School of Social and Political Sciences, said Australia could go to the World Trade Organisation to appeal the 25 per cent tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium.

But she said the dispute resolution would only allow Australia to reciprocate with equivalent tariffs if the WTO found the US was in the wrong.

‘They breach the rules because the US has made an agreement not to raise tariffs in the context of its WTO agreements,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.

‘If you take a dispute and it’s a valid dispute, then the country that imposed the tariffs, if they lose the dispute, then the other country has the right to put tariffs of equivalent value on to them.’ 

The tariffs also breach the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement that came into force in 2005. 

‘Both the WTO agreements and the US-Australia FTA are legally binding,’ Dr Ranald said.