Deputy prime minister says government has ‘hit the ground running’ with Trump. Follow today’s news live

Marles ‘confident we will be able to pursue a productive relationship’ between Australia and America

Marles was asked if Australia would use upcoming Aukus payments as part of a leverage to the United States regarding potential tariffs. He said Australia would “walk down the path of pursuing the Aukus arrangement as we have been”:

We want to maintain a sense of momentum that we have in the way in which we have been engaging with the Trump administration … We’ve now just had the second conversation between President Trump and Prime Minister Albanese. And we really have hit the ground running in the way in which we’re engaging with the Trump administration.

Let’s take the fact that the president has agreed to give active consideration to an exemption in relation to Australia that he acknowledged today in his statements that it is a trading relationship where America has the surplus … And I am confident that we will be able to pursue a productive relationship between Australia and America under the Trump administration.

That’s not said lightly … that was the agreement they reached in their conversation this morning which, having spoken with the prime minister himself, he said was very positive, very constructive. And we will obviously now work diligently to put forward our case for those exemptions to apply.

We do roughly over $100bn of trade every year. It’s about two to one in favour of the US. In that sense, having that trade in a manner which is tariff-free is very much in the interests … of the US.

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