'Economic self harm': PM hits back at Trump's latest tariff pledge

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised US President Donald Trump's pledge to double tariffs on steel and aluminium.

Albanese said today it was "an act of economic self-harm by the United States that will increase the costs for consumers in the United States."

Australia will host representatives from the World Trade Organisation this week.

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At an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) meeting in Paris, Trade Minister Don Farrell intends to sit down with his US counterpart to push for the tariffs to be dropped.

A three-judge panel of the US Court of International Trade ruled on Wednesday that Trump overstepped his authority when he invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency and plaster taxes – tariffs – on imports from almost every country in the world.

But Trump's trade wars are far from over.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday allowed the president to temporarily continue collecting the tariffs under the emergency powers law while he appeals the trade court's decision.

And the initial ruling covers only Trump's country-specific imposts but doesn't touch his sector-specific taxes, such as the extra charge on steel and aluminium.

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Albanese also responded to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's dire warning to the Asia-Pacific on China.

Hegseth said China's designs on Taiwan pose a threat to global peace and stability that requires "our allies and partners do their part on defence".

"There is no reason to sugarcoat it. The threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent," Hegseth said in a speech to the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier defence forum, in Singapore on Saturday.

Albanese said billions had already been invested.

"What we'll do is we'll determine our defence policy. We've invested just across the forwards an additional $10 billion in defence," he said.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles backed some of America's concerns over Beijing.

He agreed to consider the US calls to boost defence spending.

"It's not just the size of the military build up it's the fact that it is happening without strategic reassurance, without a clear strategic intent," he said.

"That's a sentiment we understand and as I've said that's a conversation we're totally up for."

China has railed against America's efforts in recent years to tighten its alliances and stiffen its defence posture in Asia, while economic frictions rose to historic levels earlier this year after Trump imposed tariffs on China, sparking a tit-for-tat between the two countries that saw duties rise to more than 100 per cent on each other's goods.