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US President Donald Trump has said "trade wars are good", amid controversy over his decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
He tweeted that the US was "losing billions of dollars on trade" and would find a trade war "easy to win".
On Thursday he said steel imports would face a 25% tariff and aluminium 10%.
Canada and the EU said they would bring forward their own countermeasures. Mexico, China and Brazil have also said they are considering retaliatory steps.
Critics argue that the tariffs would fail to protect American jobs and would ultimately put up prices for consumers.
'We win big'
In a tweet early on Friday, Mr Trump said the US will "win big" in a trade war.
He later followed this up with a further tweet, saying the US must "protect our country and our workers".
The combative posts follow Thursday's assertion on Twitter that US steel and aluminium industries had been "decimated" by trade policies.
"We must not let our country, companies and workers be taken advantage of any longer," he said.
The US imports steel from more than 100 nations and brings in four times more steel from abroad than it exports.
Since 2000, the steel industry has suffered, with production dropping from 112m tons to 86.5m tons in 2016, and the number of employees in steel work falling from 135,000 to 83,600 in the same period.
