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Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he would be traveling to Washington DC later on Sunday as the US ally presses its case to be excluded from tariffs.
The trip is of critical importance for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his center-left government, which must hold an election within the next three months and has been trailing in recent opinion polls.
Albanese has been under intense pressure from local lawmakers and business executives to secure the exemptions, after painstaking negotiations during Donald Trump’s first term avoided similar trade imposts.
“Trade and tariffs will be part of the conversation, but not the whole conversation,” Chalmers said on the Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s Insiders program. He plans to meet with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and to highlight areas of economic partnership including the large investments made in the US by Australia’s $2.6 trillion pension industry.
While Trump earlier this month agreed to consider an exemption for Australia from tariffs on steel and aluminum, senior trade adviser Peter Navarro quickly threw this into doubt, contending that Australia was “killing” the US aluminum market.
Protecting blue-collar jobs is a hot political topic in both countries, with Albanese last week announcing a $1.5 billion bailout for a steelworks in South Australia state.
“I don’t expect to conclude those discussions on steel and aluminum while I’m in DC,” said Chalmers. “But whether it’s the flow of capital or critical minerals and trade, there’s lots to talk about.”
Chalmers said he would also address the Australian Superannuation Investment Summit, which is being held in the US capital. Large Australian funds invest about one in five dollars of members’ retirement savings in the US, according to a statement issued collectively by representatives attending the event.
As expectations increase that Albanese will within weeks set an election date, he also rolled out a plan this weekend for a multi-billion dollar investment in Australia’s universal health care system if he retains government.
Initially very popular after his election win in May 2022, Albanese’s approval began to slump in mid-2023. He’s been criticized for not focusing enough on a national cost-of-living crisis, sparked by high inflation and interest rates that have only this month come down slightly for the first time since 2020.