President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he plans to impose tariffs of around 25% on auto imports as well as semiconductors and pharmaceuticals shipped to the United States as early as April 2.

Donald Trump is considering imposing tariffs of about 25 per cent on imports of cars, drugs and chips into the US as he teased the next steps of a rapidly escalating trade war. The US president said on Tuesday that he was weighing tariffs “in the neighbourhood” of 25 per cent on automotive imports and at least that level on pharmaceutical products and semiconductors.