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Trump Provokes War Over 'Smart Trade', Reckless Tweets - US Senator

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - President Donald Trump is provoking a global trade war in his determination to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and tweeting recklessly about the matter, US Senator Michael Bennet said in a statement on Friday.
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"Provoking a global trade war with reckless tweets puts American jobs and businesses at risk and increases costs for American families," Bennet stated. "The President's action motivated by his political whims rather than effective policy will invite retaliation and isolate us further from our trading partners."

In his Thursday announcement, Trump said that the United States had been treated unfairly by other states in bilateral trade and therefore would introduce 25-percent and 10-percent imports tariffs on steel and aluminum, respectively, to address the issue.

Trump's announcement was met with condemnation from Washington's major trade partners, particularly Canada, China and the European Union, which accused Trump of excessive protectionism and pledged to impose countermeasures.

Speaking about the US move, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that it might result in significant disruption to markets on both sides of the border.

"Any disruption to this integrated market would be significant and serious. But that is why we were impressing upon the American administration the unacceptable nature of these proposals that are going to hurt them every bit as much as they are going to hurt us, and we are confident we're going to continue to be able to defend Canadian industry," Trudeau told reporters at a news conference in Ontario.

Russian legal experts are still assessing the possible impact of recent US tariffs on steel and aluminum although potential damage to the Russian economy will be less than to China or the European Union, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Friday.

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