Venezuela is the latest country at which Trump has taken aim. On Monday, he promised to raise a 25% tariff on goods from any country that buys oil and gas from the South American country that has some of the largest reserves in the world.

The European Commission will assess U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement for tariffs of up to 25% on automotive imports, it said late on Wednesday, together with other measures the U.S. is looking at in the next days.

Šefčovič warned American officials that a tariff of 20 per cent on imports from the EU would be “devastating” for the bloc, according to the first official briefed on the talks. The US tariff level would be higher than at any stage since the EU’s founding members launched a common trade policy in the late 1950s.