Australia has negotiated an exemption to most of the new steel tariffs announced by the US last week, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday.
"Understandings have been reached with the United States administration over the weekend which will allow Australian exports of hot rolled steel products to the United States West Coast to proceed," Howard told the House of Representatives.
Howard said the exemptions meant that 85 percent of Australian steel exports to the US would not be affected by the new tariffs.
It was not immediately clear if other countries would also benefit from the move.
US President George W. Bush announced tariffs last Tuesday of up to 30 percent for three years on a wide range of steel products.
The hikes were widely perceived as a bid to protect US steel industry jobs in states vital to his Republican Party in upcoming congressional elections.
The move drew sharp criticism from many steel-producing nations that fear the tariffs would reduce their steel exports to the US.
Last week, some prominent industry and political leaders in Australia suggested that if the country were to be negatively affected by US trade tariffs, then Canberra should review its close security and defense ties with the US.
Australia has long been a close ally of the US, and Howard's government was one of the first to offer military support for the war in Afghanistan.
Australia exports about 800,000 tonnes of steel worth some A$450 million (US$234 million) to the US each year.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS