US-EU TRADE WAR LIVE: Latest updates as Trump takes on bloc with HUGE tariffs

Here Express.co.uk delivers the latest updates on the first day 25 per cent taxes on steel and 10 per cent tax on aluminium came into force.

Donald Trump’s tariffs will hit products such as plated steel, slabs, coil, rolls of aluminium, and tubes, raw materials which are used extensively in US manufacturing, construction and the oil industry.

Canada and Mexico have already retaliated with levies on billions of dollars of US goods from orange juice to pork and the EU looks set to tax bourbon whiskey and Harley motorcycles. 

It comes after the Republican announced his plans to slap a 25 per cent tariff on steel and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminium back in March, citing security reasons.

And on Thursday, the White House announced the levies have now been imposed on the EU, Mexico and Canada, despite previous exemptions. 

International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox branded the move “patently absurd” and signalled the UK was prepared for “tit-for-tat action”.

He said Mr Trump’s decision had nothing to do with national security and was rather “protectionism”.

While French President Emmanuel Macron blasted the tariffs as "illegal". 

US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross said talks with the EU had made progress, but did not go far enough to continue exemptions.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker hit back with a threat of immediate retaliation following the move from the Republican firebrand.

He said: "This is a bad day for world trade.

"We will immediately introduce a settlement dispute with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and will announce counterbalancing measures in the coming hours.

"It is totally unacceptable that a country is imposing unilateral measures when it comes to world trade."

Please follow Express.co.uk for live updates on the ongoing trade war…

11:43am update: Germany's economy minster has called for a united response to Trump 

Peter Altmaier said: "We want open markets, free markets but we have to convince the US administration.

"We tried to do it through negotiation and we will now do it by standing together and formulating a common European answer, possibly working more closely with Mexico and Canada."

11:26am update: US shares have PLUNGED since Trump's announcement 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1 perc ent and the S&P 500 shed 0.69 per cent. Shares of industrial heavyweights Boeing and Caterpillar both fell, with Boeing down 1.7 per cent and Caterpillar down 2.3 per cent.

The S&P 500's packaged foods and meats industry sub-index fell 2 per cent, with shares of meat producer Tyson Foods Inc falling 3.9 per cent.

Trade war fears drove Chinese shares lower, with the Shanghai Composite Index ending down 0.7 percent. European shares were lifted by a long-awaited deal to form a government in Italy, but still sharply down for the week.

Shares of Harley-Davidson Inc fell 2.2 per cent and Brown-Forman Corp, maker of Early Times and other bourbon brands, lost 2.1 per cent , after the EU threatened tariffs. 

11:18am update: The EU is set to respond at 12pm (GMT) 

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom has announced a 1pm noon Friday news conference to deliver its response of the world's largest trading bloc. 

10:59pm update: EU will PAY

Modern Age editor, Daniel McCarthy backed Donald Trump’s decision on BBC Newsnight saying the US “will win” a trans-Atlantic trade war with the European Union. 

He said: “If there were to ever be a trade war which is what so many people are calling this, the US would stand to win.

"We have trade deficits with all of the countries in question here, with Mexico, with Canada and with the EU.

“That means we are not selling them nearly as many goods as we are buying from them.

“That means that we have the ability to put tariffs on their goods and there is very little that they can put tariffs on or retaliate against in terms of our trade with them.”