YEREVAN, MARCH 2, ARMENPRESS. A day after announcing new tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Friday that“ trade wars are good, and easy to win,” Reuters reports.

The US President said on Thursday that the country would apply duties of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum to protect U.S. producers.

“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,” Trump’s tweet read.“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!”

Trump believes that the new tariffs will safeguard American jobs.

However economists say the impact of price increases for users of steel and aluminum, such as the auto and oil industries, will destroy more jobs than curbs on imports create.

Australia’s trade minister said the measures risked triggering retaliation from other economies.

China predicted harm to trade if other countries followed the example of Trump.

The European Commission called the step a blatant intervention that amounted to protectionism. However, it made no mention of retaliation but instead spoke of counter-measures in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan