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© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
The US will impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports next week, President Donald Trump has announced.

"We're gonna build our steel industry back. We're gonna build our aluminum industry back," Trump said in a White House listening session with industry executives on Thursday. He cited the success of the recently imposed tariffs on solar panels and washing machines.

"I don't blame other countries" for taking advantage of bad trade deals made by the US, Trump said.

Executives have complained about "capital depletion" and pushed the need for a "level playing field" with foreign competitors.

"What's been allowed to go on for decades is disgraceful," Trump said, adding that without being able to make aluminum and steel, "you almost don't have much of a country," especially the defense industry.

The increase of tariffs comes amid US having demanded to negotiate NAFTA, its treaty with neighboring Canada and Mexico, to make it more favorable to America. Trump has been also attacking the World Trade Organization recently as WTO head warned about the dangers of 'trade wars.'

Industries that rely on steel have been opposed to tariffs, pointing out that they would result in higher prices. The economist network Econofact has argued that the loss of jobs in the steel industry was not related to Chinese imports but increases in productivity and automation, Reuters reports. This would mean that tariffs would not result in major job gains, while about two million jobs in industries that rely on steel might be adversely affected, the economists said.