Australia's ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd has promised to put his "shoulder to the wheel" to secure better trade relations with a "hardline" US but warned negotiations with the second Trump administration will continue to be "rough". The US on Wednesday refused to grant a tariff exemption to Australia on steel and aluminium imports to the United States, causing a political storm. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Mr Albanese and former PM Mr Rudd of having "had a shocker" on the issue, despite a number of political experts having warned little could have been done to sway Trump's views on protectionist tariffs and trade policy. His view on trade has been labelled mercantilist by former PM Malcolm Turnbull, while former Australian ambassadors Joe Hockey and Arthur Sinodinos have openly questioned Trump's understanding of how tariffs work and how they will impact the US. Nonetheless Mr Rudd, who has his own "nasty" history with Trump, has vowed to push on and fight for Australian interests in a new America that is less friendly to its allies. "This administration is more nationalist on questions of foreign policy, more protectionist on trade policy, and much more transactional in its overall approach to international negotiations. "These are deep-seated, fundamental changes in this different America, which every one of the 36 countries who negotiated tariff exemptions on steel and aluminium last time round, back in 2017, have had to contend with this time round." The man driving those negotiations from the US side is US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. Mr Lutnick singled out Australia for criticism alongside Japan and China, in a scathing attack on alleged dumping of steel and aluminium early on Thursday morning AEDT. "You've got dumpers in the rest of the world. Japan dumps steel, China dumps steel … we're going to stop that nonsense and bring steel here," Mr Lutnick told Fox Business. Mr Rudd questioned those claims and said: "Australia only provides 1.5 per cent of total US imports of aluminium". Tackling the 'Trumpian world view' However he also said negotiations with Mr Lutnick on steel and aluminium had proven tough, despite Mr Lutnick understanding that the US has a large trade surplus with Australia, Australia imposes zero tariffs on US exports and has enjoyed that since Harry Truman's presidency in the 1940s. Mr Rudd said he made all of those arguments but at this stage they "have not prevailed". The negotiations with Mr Lutnick had begun soon after Trump was sworn in, the negotiating became more intense in February, before continuing all of last week and into this one. "I've had considerable and ongoing discussions right through the end of last week, in fact, starting a little earlier than that and through into the early days of this week," Mr Rudd said. "These have been straightforward, hard [and] direct. "The Lutnick negotiations are probably one round of about 10 sets of discussions we've had right across the US system, with Secretary Lutnick, who very much now carries the president's mandate. "So it's been tough and hard, but we have delivered our arguments as equally firmly back so far." Mr Rudd said it was towards the end of the negotiations he felt Mr Albanese would benefit from another phone call with the US president. That request was previously revealed to 7.30 by Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Wednesday night. "As we got to the end of this negotiating process I formed the judgement that it was useful to make a further request for a follow-up call by the prime minister with the president," Mr Rudd said. "By the time the decision was taken, late Tuesday, we had not been able to secure that time." Mr Rudd though, like many other commentators, believes it is unlikely that a phone call would have changed Trump's mind. "Remember this ... 36 other countries — all these interventions from other governments either through telephone calls, even the odd visit, such as the British prime minister — was not able to deliver outcomes on steel and aluminium for them," Mr Rudd said. "I think it stands to reason we should question whether, in fact, even this request for a late telephone call would have necessarily made a material difference. "An administration which has a very deep-seated view that tariffs are the way to the future." US 'vulnerable' on critical minerals When he spoke to 7.30 on Wednesday Mr Sinodinos, himself a former ambassador who dealt with Trump, spoke of Australia being able to potentially sway the US through a critical minerals deal. The US has previously shown interest in critical minerals from Ukraine and Greenland and Mr Sinodinos indicated Australia would be a better and more stable partner. Ambassador Rudd would not be drawn on the detail of discussions over critical minerals supply but acknowledged they were central to the negotiation. "If you do the maths, it's pretty interesting," Mr Rudd said. "America designates itself as having 50 categories of critical minerals, which it needs for the future, 50 priority categories. "If you look at those 50, we are currently supplying 28 and can supply 36 of them ... we are uniquely positioned to be able to do this." Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV