April 6th, 2018 | By Ana Swanson and Eileen Sullivan
President Trump defended his pugnacious approach to trade policy on Friday, just hours after he doubled down on a White House plan to punish China by threatening to levy tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese imports.
Mr. Trump, in a tweet, criticized both China and the World Trade Organization, saying that the Chinese “get tremendous perks and advantages, especially over the U.S. Does anybody think this is fair. We were badly represented. The WTO is unfair to U.S.”
The price of aluminum per pound has been falling since February, a decline that started before the tariffs were imposed. Mr. Trump’s decision to exempt Canada, which supplied more than half of America’s aluminum imports in 2016, has also helped to soften the blow from tariffs, companies say.
The president’s criticism of the World Trade Organization is not new — many of his top advisers have complained that its process for reviewing and resolving trade disputes has put the United States and Western countries at a disadvantage.
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