Malcolm Turnbull is promising "very intense private engagement" with the United States as well as a public push against proposed steel tariff hikes.

Thousands of Australian and US jobs could be affected if US President Donald Trump keeps his promise to hike steel tariffs, which Mr Turnbull wants an exemption from.

"I think what I'll do is continue to make our case, both publicly as I have in the United States ... but also we'll continue the very intense private engagement," Mr Turnbull told the Financial Review Business Summit on Wednesday.

"There is literally nothing to be gained in the United States at all, from imposing a tariff on Australian steel exports."

Mr Turnbull recently visited Washington in a bid to encourage trade, but Australia is not exempt from US plans to impose a global 25 per cent tariff on steel imports and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminium imports.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop is in New York urgently seeking a meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to raise concerns about the tariff hike.

Vice President Mike Pence said in a speech in Iowa the US was cracking down on "unfair trade practices".

"The United States has been taken advantage of for too long, by too many countries, when it comes to trade," Mr Pence said.

But Treasurer Scott Morrison said Mr Turnbull's work at building a trade relationship with the US would pay off.

""Right now our prime minister is one of, if not the best-placed leader in the world today to understand how best to respond to what's happening," Mr Morrison said.

Mr Turnbull said hiking prices on Australian steel would make it more expensive to build houses in the US.

BlueScope ships Australian steel to the US west coast to make into roofing products because of the high cost of freight from the east coast.

"The consequence of imposing a tariff on Australian steel to the west coast would be simply putting up the price of building in California," Mr Turnbull said.