Shipping containers are seen at Port Botany, in Sydney. [Photo Credit: Reuters]

Australia is keeping its options open in the face of Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium and goods imports, and could take its case to the global trade umpire.

The US president has announced a plan to double levies on foreign steel from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, which is due to come into effect this week.

Australian goods exports to the US are already subject to a 10 per cent baseline tariff.

The move has been branded an act of “economic self-harm” by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is expected to sit down with the American leader on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada later in June.

Mr Trump’s deepening trade war is considered destabilising to the framework that has benefited middle powers such as Australia.

Asked if Australia might challenge the tariffs before the World Trade Organisation, cabinet minister Chris Bowen told the ABC on Sunday: “I’m sure we will consider all options available to defend the best interests of Australian industry.”

Announcing the steel and aluminium tariffs earlier in 2025, Mr Trump committed to imposing them “without exceptions or exemptions” in a bid to help shield domestic industries.

The Albanese government has ruled out retaliatory tariffs against the US as it tries to secure an exemption for Australian goods.

This could include taking the nation’s closest security ally to the WTO, as it did with China when punitive trade sanctions were imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic when diplomatic relations hit a low.

Trade Minister Don Farrell said the government would continue to “coolly and calmly” argue its case for the removal of the tariffs.

Canada has already taken the US to the body, which determines global trade rules.

Senator Farrell will travel to France, leading Australia’s delegation to the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting.

On the sidelines of that meeting, Australia will host an informal meeting of WTO Ministers to discuss the importance of an open, rules-based global trading system.

In Mr Trump’s first term, the US president gave Australia exemptions on the argument that the US has a trade surplus with the nation.

It took Australia nine months of lobbying before it secured an exemption.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon says US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth asked Australia to increase its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product during a meeting with Defence Minister Richard Marles over the weekend.

Australia’s defence spending is on track to rise to approximately 2.3 per cent of GDP within a decade, from its current level of two per cent.

Government minister Tanya Plibersek said the government had already increased defence spending.

“The way we decide how much we’ll spend on defence is to decide what we need to keep Australians safe,” she told Seven Sunrise on Monday.

“We don’t pick a number out of the air, and then work out how we can spend that many dollars.”

Opposition finance spokesman James Paterson told Nine’s Today show Australia should increase defence spending because it’s in the national interest, not because the US told it to.

But he also said there was an argument to lift spending to three per cent of GDP, which the coalition advocated for ahead of the May federal election.

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