“But didn’t the US impose tarrifs on Australian steel?”

I’m not sure about steel, but they certainly put tarrifs on Ozzie and our Beef… seems the poor US cattlefarmers can’t compete in the real world.

(Note with the aussies sending some of their SAS troops to Iraq they are currently negotiating a fre trade agreement with the US… after Helen Clarke said that if gore was president there wouldn’t have been a war… for which she was asked to appologise, and later stated that the war was bad news for all small countries in the world, we were told the US wasn’t ready to form a free trade agreement with yet… despite the fact that our government subsidises nothing.)

“although I don’t know much about NZ politics, it does seem that the Greenies annoyed the US.”

I disagree, I think it was our anti nuclear stance that p!$$ed them off and they haven’t gotten over it yet. That was through a labour government and no national government has had the balls to overturn it… it is no longer a greens issue… I don’t think anyone wants nukes here… though I do miss the visits of the big ships.

It certainly killed ANZUS ( a treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the US).