These include Japan, whose firms are the biggest investors in the US but which was saddled with a 24% levy on its imports into the world’s biggest economy.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba promised Trump in February a trillion dollars in investments, while the US president said Japan would partner in a “gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska”.
Ishiba called the tariffs announcement “extremely regrettable” and the government was tight-lipped about any retaliatory measures.
Japan has also failed to win exclusion from 25% tariffs on car imports into the US that bit today.
Those also hit South Korea, another close US ally which was saddled with new tariffs of 26% today.
Acting President Han Duck-soo said “the global tariff war has become a reality”, instructing his trade minister to “actively engage in negotiations with the US to minimise damage”.
Taiwan chips
Trump also saddled Taiwan with a 32% tax, although all-important semiconductor chips were excluded.
Taiwan had also pledged increased investment in the US, more purchases of US energy and greater defence spending.
The government found the tariffs “highly unreasonable and deeply regretted it, and will initiate serious negotiations with the US”, cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee said.
The US has been Australia’s strongest military ally since World War II but its exports there will also be subject to a 10% tax.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would not retaliate but called Trump’s move “unwarranted”.
“This is not the act of a friend,” Albanese said.
However, ANZ Bank agribusiness analyst Michael Whitehead said Australia had, in some ways, gotten off lightly.
“10% on Australian beef at the moment, it’s better than a lot of people were expecting – or less worse, let’s call it,” he told AFP.
Trump unveiled tariffs of 34% on China, one of its largest trading partners, on top of a 20% rate imposed last month.
China had responded to those with levies of up to 15% on a range of US agricultural goods.
“There is no winner in a trade war,” Beijing said today.
The commerce ministry said it will “resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests” and that the levies “do not comply with international trade rules”.
The commerce ministry also said at a weekly briefing today that the two sides were “maintaining communication”.
‘Massive blow’
In South Asia, Indian exporters expressed some relief that the flat 26% on exports imposed on the fifth-largest economy could have been far worse.
“Many countries which we compete with globally, including China, Indonesia and Vietnam etc, have been hit harder than us,” Ajay Sahai from the Federation of Indian Export Organisations told AFP.
India’s government was yet to comment.
Bangladeshi textile industry leaders called the US tariffs a “massive blow” to the world’s second-largest garment manufacturer.
Trump slapped new tariffs of 37% on Bangladesh, hiking duty from the previous 16% on cotton and 32% on polyester products.
Southeast Asian countries came in for harsh treatment, with Vietnam hit with a 46% levy and Cambodia 49%.
Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse heavily reliant on exports, said this week it had cut import duties on a range of goods in an apparent attempt to head off new tariffs.
Washington’s trade deficit with Vietnam – a major beneficiary of the trade war between Beijing and Washington during Trump’s first term – is its third highest.
Deputy finance minister Julapun Amornvivat said Thailand would “negotiate with understanding, not aggressive talk.
“However, we have to talk which products they feel are unfair and we have to see whether we can adjust,” Amornvivat said
Australia also expressed puzzlement about a 29% tariff on its tiny Pacific territory of Norfolk Island, home to a little over 2,000 people.
“I’m not quite sure that Norfolk Island, with respect to it, is a trade competitor with the giant economy of the US,” Albanese said.
Trump also slapped 10% on Australia’s Heard and McDonald Islands territory in the sub-Antarctic, inhabited by penguins but not people.