Russian Prime Minister Says Nobody Will Emerge As Winner In Global Trade War

The ongoing trade war is bringing benefits to some countries now, but in the end, there will be no winners in it, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

HANOI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2018) The ongoing trade war is bringing benefits to some countries now, but in the end, there will be no winners in it, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

"[The trade war] is ongoing. And we are all witnessing that this war, in general, is already bearing some fruit to some countries that are trying to impose their course. On the other hand, there are expenses to the whole world trade. Because, after all, as in any war of this kind, of course, there will be no winners here," Medvedev told reporters.

He also expressed hope that in the future, more countries would support the principle of free trade.

"We advocate preserving the free and open trade regime, the principle of the so-called multilateralism or of multilateral relations in trade, and trying to consolidate these principles, but on a more modern basis.

I hope that in some time we will be able to convince other states of the need to support this position," Medvedev stressed.

He also noted that this position had a lot of supporters.

"They [supporters] include China, European countries and a number of other countries, including our partners from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, where we are now," Medvedev specified.

China and the United States are currently engaged in a major trade spat that resulted from US President Donald Trump introducing steel and aluminum import tariffs in March. Tensions deepened in late May when Washington announced that $50 billion worth of Chinese goods would be subject to 25 percent tariffs. Since then, the two countries have exchanged several rounds of trade duties against each other.