SYDNEY, Aug 14 — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said today he had asked US President Donald Trump in a phone call for an exemption from tariffs slapped on his country last month.

“The ask that I made of the president is that he consider full exemption, or at the very least, no increase,” Albanese told journalists.

Australia was slapped with a levy of 12.5 per cent last month over alleged forced labour concerns, along with 59 other countries.

In what he described as a “warm and productive” conversation, the US president agreed to consider exempting Australia from that tariff, Albanese said.

“I did ask that Australia’s position as a friend of the United States be considered, and the president agreed that he would give consideration to my request,” he said.

“We have a different position when it comes to tariffs,” he added.

“Our position as a government is that tariffs are an economic imposition, a cost on the countries that are imposing them and we support free and fair trade.”

The two leaders also discussed progress in AUKUS, under which Australia is expected to receive at least three so-called “Virginia-class” nuclear-powered submarines from the United States within 15 years.

Albanese said he had raised the war in the Middle East and reiterated Australia’s view that Iran should not be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

“I expressed our view that we wanted to see an end to the conflict there,” he said. — AFP