The United States President, Donald Trump has declared a trade war and he is not mincing words to describe how the US was being taken advantage of by other countries on trade for together.
Taking to Twitter, Trump said Washington DC has a trade deficit of almost $800 billion.
When you’re almost 800 Billion Dollars a year down on Trade, you can’t lose a Trade War! The U.S. has been ripped off by other countries for years on Trade, time to get smart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2018
Trump asserted that the US had to be treated fairly on trade.
In his second tweet, he wrote,
The United States must, at long last, be treated fairly on Trade. If we charge a country ZERO to sell their goods, and they charge us 25, 50 or even 100 percent to sell ours, it is UNFAIR and can no longer be tolerated. That is not Free or Fair Trade, it is Stupid Trade!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2018
The US President’s tweets follow on heels of six countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom – condemning the change and expressing disappointment over Trump’s move to impose heavy trade tariffs on three of its biggest trading partners – Canada, Mexico and the European Union (EU) earlier this week.
Meanwhile, finance ministers of the six countries, who participated in the G7 Finance Ministers Meeting in Whistler, Canada, along with US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin have threatened to impose their own set of tariffs on American goods.
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“President Trump has been very clear in wanting to address trade issues. Our objective is to make sure that we have fair and balanced trade and that’s what we’re really focused on,” Mnuchin briefed the media after holding separate meetings with the all six finance ministers.
Meanwhile, the EU on Friday lodged an official complaint with the WTO over Trump’s “unfair” trade tariffs. The Bloc plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on around 200 American products by June 20. It also plans to slap heavy tariffs on US products such as, bourbon, US denim, motorcycles, motor boats etc.
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According to EU officials, the American exports targeted in the initial wave of EU retaliatory tariffs are worth roughly 2.8 billion euros ($3.3 billion) annually, as per reports.
The EU Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, slammed Trump’s tariffs as “pure protectionism”, calling it “illegal” under WTO trading rules.
The Canadian Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland has announced that Ottawa was planning to impose tariffs on American goods worth 16 billion Canadian dollars ($12.4 billion), including aluminium and steel. Following this, Canada filed a complaint at the WTO over the new US tariffs.
The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau has called the US trade tariffs “insulting and unacceptable”.
Trudeau also rubbished the US President’s claim that it was imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium goods of Canada in order to “protect American national security interests.”
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Meanwhile, Mexico too plans to slap strict trade tariffs on US products such as, pork, flat steel, fruit, cheese and lamps.
For the unversed, on June 1, Trump announced that he will impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminium on Canada, Mexico and the EU.
The said trade tariffs came into effect midnight the same day. The said move would raise prices of a range of everyday products.
A total of 25% tariff will be imposed on imported steel and 10% on imported aluminium, the Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross has informed.
Earlier in March, Trump had announced that the said tariffs would be applicable worldwide while exempting Canada, Mexico and the EU.
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