United States President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that the US was being taken advantage of by other countries on trade for the past many years.
"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!", the US President tweeted.
Trump asserted that the US had to be treated fairly on trade.
In his second tweet, he wrote, "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."
The US President's tweets came after six countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom on Friday condemned and expressed 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, CNN reported.
The 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.
"President Trump has been very clear in wanting to address trade issues. Our objective is to make sure 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 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.
The EU also plans to slap heavy tariffs on other products such as bourbon, US denim, motorcycles, motor boats etc.
According to EU officials, the American exports targeted in the initial wave of EU retaliatory tariffs are worth roughly 2.8 billion euros (USD 3.3 billion) annually, as per the report.
EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom slammed Trump's tariffs as "pure protectionism", calling it "illegal" under WTO trading rules.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland announced on Friday that Ottawa was planning to impose tariffs on American goods worth 16 billion Canadian dollars (USD 12.4 billion), including aluminium and steel. Following this, Canada filed a complaint at the WTO over Trump's tariffs.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday dubbed trade tariffs imposed by the United States as insulting and unacceptable.
Continuing his tirade against Trump, Trudeau 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."
On the other hand, Mexico also plans to slap strict trade tariffs on US products such as pork, flat steel, fruit, cheese and lamps.
For those unversed, on June 1, Trump announced that he will impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminium on Canada, Mexico and the EU.
As reported by CNN, the said trade tariffs came into effect from Friday midnight. The said trade-move would raise prices of a range of everyday products.
25 per cent tariffs will be imposed on imported steel and 10 per cent on imported aluminium, as told by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a press conference on Thursday.
Earlier in March, Trump had announced the said tariffs to be applicable worldwide while exempting Canada, Mexico and the EU.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)