President Donald Trump said today that “trade wars are good” in a tweet the morning after he announced the U.S. would impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum, a move that prompted America’s trading partners around the world to suggest they would retaliate, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“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,” Mr. Trump tweeted shortly before 6 a.m. Friday. “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!” It appeared Mr. Trump was referring to a $100 billion bilateral trade deficit with a certain country, though it wasn’t clear which one he was invoking. In 2017, the U.S. ran a global goods deficit of $810 billion. The largest bilateral trade deficit was $375 billion with China.
{Matzav.com}
