The President The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500 March 7, 2018 Dear Mr. President, We thank you and commend you on your outstanding economic leadership during your tenure and for your stalwart support for our friend and ally, Australia. As you well know from your presence on the Intrepid, for 100 years since the Battle of Hamel in WWI, Australia is our only ally to fight alongside America in every major battle. As business leaders who trade extensively between America and Australia, we wanted to be sure that your economic team appreciated that our economic relationship with Australia has been equally as positive as our military and intelligence relationships. • For each of the past 33 years, America has enjoyed a significant positive trade surplus with Australia. Since we signed our bi-lateral Free Trade Agreement ten years ago, that surplus has increased substantially in America’s favor, peaking at $22 billion surplus in 2012. • In addition, Australian companies have and continue to invest in the United States to a value of over $459 billion, employing 180,000 Americans. • Australia is increasing the size of its defence budget by 4.7 per cent every year until 2025. This will see Australia’s defence spend reach 2.2 per cent of GDP in 2023, above the level the United States is requesting of our allies. • The majority of Australia’s military equipment is imported, providing substantial opportunities to US companies, and over the past decade, Australia has been the fourth largest importer of US military equipment, ahead of Japan, Israel or any European nation. The value of Australia’s trading of steel and aluminum with the United States is an industry worth $545 million to Australia's economy, which might be adversely affected should those tariffs be extended to include Australia or these companies. Though the economic amount is small relative to our overall trading relationship, it is essential to preserving Australia’s ability to maintain its own national security and defense. Crippling these industries in our critical Pacific ally could seriously jeopardize our own power projection, readiness and repair capabilities in the Southern Hemisphere. As the founding members of the American Australian Business Council, we respectfully request that your economic team consider the historic trade surpluses, our $1.29 trillion two-way trade between the United States and Australia, and our critical defense relationship before taking any action that might have demonstrable negative impact on the mutually beneficial American-Australian bi-lateral relationship. Yours sincerely, Robert Thomson Chief Executive Officer News Corporation Andrew N. Liveris AO Executive Chairman, Dow DuPont Chairman & CEO, The Dow Chemical Company Wes Bush Chairman & CEO Northrop Grumman Corporation The Greg Norman Company Ambassador John Berry (Ret.) President American Australian Association Jennifer Nason Chair, American Australian Association Global Chairman of Investment Banking, J.P. Morgan