Australian industry is worried the local economy will be stampeded by American and Chinese "elephants" in a global trade war.
Peak industry body the Ai Group is urging the Turnbull government to plead for sanity before a "catastrophic" trade war ignites after the Trump administration announced hefty tariffs on steel and aluminium.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has promised to keep advocating globally for open markets.
However, Trade Minister Steve Ciobo has spoken with his US counterpart seeking exemptions from the new tariffs but has come away no clearer on the details of President Donald Trump's announcement.
"Ultimately, I believe it will come down to a decision of the president about whether he wants to have exemptions or not," he told Sky News on Sunday after his discussion with US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross.
"What is clear ... is that the US is still working through the detail with respect to this announcement and so the extent to which Australia may be captured is still yet to be determined."
He noted Australia had been told at the G20 last year it would be exempt from any new US tariffs.
Mr Turnbull said he had made the case for free trade and open markets during his visit to Washington 10 days ago - which included a meeting with Mr Trump - and would continue to do so.
"Protectionism is a dead end. It's not a ladder to get you out of the low growth trap. It's a shovel to dig it much deeper," he told reporters in Sydney.
"The bigger and wider the playing field Australians can run onto in terms of export opportunities, the more successful they will be."
Canada has started talking about retaliating on agriculture exports while the European Union has drawn up a hit list of US products from bourbon to Harley Davidson motorbikes on which to apply tariffs if Mr Trump follows through with his plan.
Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox warned any trade war would quickly escalate and go in strange directions.
"We don't want to get caught up between the stampeding elephants of the US, China and Europe in a global trade war," Mr Willox told Sky News.
"Because we are such a huge export nation we stand to be among the biggest losers from a global trade war so we have to be the ones trying to pull the elephants together."
He wasn't sure the US administration would grant Australia exemptions, saying if they did the pressure would then be on them to make similar offers to other countries, undermining their stance.
