Trump exempts Aussie steel tariffs

Australia's multi-billion dollar steel and aluminium industries have been formally exempted from tough US trade tariffs.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this afternoon announced that the decision had been confirmed by Washington.

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The deal ends months of arm twisting and tough talk between Mr Turnbull and Donald Trump after the President moved to impose tariffs.

The PM welcomed the news, saying the exemption "reflects the fair and reciprocal trade relationship Australia shares with the United States".

It underpinned, he said, the "unbreakable friendship between our two great nations".

If imposed, the tariffs would have cost the two industries billions of dollars.

Mr Trump has argued that the tariffs would protect American companies and save jobs.

Malcolm Turnbull began one-on-one talks with Donald Trump in Europe last year and raised the issue again in Washington last month.

The Prime Minister used the two countries' longstanding relationship and the fact that Australia has stood by America on battlefields since World War One to ram home the importance of the deal.