US President Donald Trump, after shocking markets with the risk of a global trade war, has come under intense pressure from US business interests and foreign trading partners to moderate his threat to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
Mr Trump dispatched pro-tariff advisers Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro to TV news studios to defend his plan, while White House aides scrambled to downplay the prospect of a resignation by free trade advocate Gary Cohn, the top White House economic adviser, over the matter.
Mr Cohn is part of a faction in Mr Trump's administration that warned the Republican president for months not to threaten the 25% steel and 10% aluminum tariffs that he pledged to impose in a chaotic announcement on Thursday.
Industry groups want exemptions for imports from individual countries or for types of metals that cannot be found in the United States, the lobbyists said. Companies that use cans for products like drinks or soup were among the most vocal opponents.
"Like most brewers, we are selling an increasing amount of our beers in aluminum cans and this action will cause aluminum prices to rise and is likely to lead to job losses across the beer industry," said Miller Coors spokesman Colin Wheeler.
"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," he wrote on Twitter yesterday.
Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, responding to the tweet," wrote on Twitter, "There are no winners in global trade wars."
Stock indexes recouped some losses yesterday, but ended the week in the red as investors fretted over a possible global trade war.