U.S. President Donald Trump's new tariff rates of up to 41% on U.S. imports from dozens of countries have drawn expressions of relief from some countries that negotiated a deal or managed to whittle them down from rates announced in April.

U.S. President Donald Trump's latest wave of tariffs on exports from dozens of trading partners sent global stock markets tumbling on Friday and countries and companies scrambling to seek ways to strike better deals.

President Trump said he reached a trade agreement on Sunday with the European Union, avoiding a damaging trade war with the U.S.’s largest trading partner and marking his biggest deal so far in his attempt to remake the global trading system through higher tariffs for U.S. trading partners.

Donald Trump hit dozens of US trading partners with tariffs while formalising recent deals with others, including the UK and EU, as he plunged the global economy into a new era of mercantile competition.

U.S. President Donald Trump intensified his trade war with Canada a day ahead of his August 1 deadline for a tariff agreement, saying it would be "very hard" to make a deal with Canada after it gave its support to Palestinian statehood.