Brussels | US President Donald Trump’s threat to place a 30 per cent tariff on goods from the European Union caused outrage among European leaders, with some urging retaliatory tariffs while others said they hoped a deal could still be worked out before the new levies went into effect.

The European Union has been in deep negotiations with Washington in the hope of reaching trade deals that would avert such punishing levies and a wider trade war. But Trump’s threat on Saturday (Sunday AEST) to impose a 30 per cent levy on European and Mexican goods on August 1 upended months of deliberations in one fell swoop, and European leaders are threatening to strike back.