Trump steel tariffs: Trade wars are good, says Trump - BBC News

2/3/2018

Trump steel tariffs: Trade wars are good, says Trump

Trump on new tariffs: 'We haven't been treated fairly'

US President Donald Trump has said "trade wars are good", amid controversy over his decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

He tweeted that the US was "losing billions of dollars on trade" and would find a trade war "easy to win".

On Thursday he said steel imports would face a 25% tariff and aluminium 10%.

Canada and the EU said they would bring forward their own countermeasures. Mexico, China and Brazil have also said they are considering retaliatory steps.

Critics argue that the tariffs would fail to protect American jobs and would ultimately put up prices for consumers.

The news sent shares in both Asia and Europe down on Friday.

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'We win big'

In a tweet early on Friday, Mr Trump said the US will "win big" in a trade war.

@realDonaldTrump

When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win. Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don’t trade anymore-we win big. It’s easy!

9:50 PM - Mar 2, 2018

The combative post follows Thursday's assertion on Twitter that US steel and aluminium industries had been "decimated" by trade policies.

"We must not let our country, companies and workers be taken advantage of any longer," he said.

The US imports steel from more than 100 nations and brings in four times more steel from abroad than it exports.

Since 2000, the steel industry has suffered, with production dropping from 112m tons to 86.5m tons in 2016, and employee numbers in steel work falling from 135,000 to 83,600 in the same period.

Mr Trump's tariff announcement has been met with international condemnation, at a time when the US is renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) with Canada and Mexico.