European Union countries are expected to approve on Wednesday the bloc’s first countermeasures against Donald Trump’s tariffs, joining China and Canada in retaliating and escalating a conflict that could become a global trade war, Reuters reported.

The 27-nation bloc faces 25% import tariffs on steel and aluminium and cars as well as the new broader tariffs of 20% for almost all other goods under Trump’s policy to hit countries he says impose high barriers to US imports.

The European Commission, which coordinates EU trade policy, proposed on Monday extra duties mostly of 25% on a range of US imports in response specifically to the US metals tariffs. It is still assessing how to respond to the car and broader levies.

The imports include motorcycles, poultry, fruit, wood, clothing and dental floss, according to a document seen by Reuters. They totalled about 21 billion euros ($23bn) last year, meaning the EU’s retaliation will be against goods worth less than the 26 billion euros of EU metals exports hit by US tariffs.

They are to enter force in stages – on 15 April, 16 May and 1 December.

Trump’s punishing tariffs have shaken a global trading order that has persisted for decades, raised fears of recession and wiped trillions of dollars off the market value of major firms.

Since Trump unveiled his tariffs last Wednesday, the S&P 500 has suffered its deepest loss since the benchmark’s creation in the 1950s. It is now nearing a bear market, defined as 20% below its most recent high, Reuters reported.

Global benchmark bonds, assets perceived as relatively safe, were also caught up in the market turmoil on Wednesday, an unnerving turn towards forced selling that is sounding alarm bells for investors.

European shares fell on Wednesday as the US tariffs kicked in and U.S. stock futures pointed to more pain ahead, after a grim session for most of Asia. Chinese stocks bucked the trend, however, as state support propped up the ailing market.

Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news over the next few hours.

We start with news that president Donald Trump’s new tariffs have gone into full effect today.

When Trump announced the latest round of tariffs on 2 April, he declared that the US would now tax nearly all of America’s trading partners at a minimum of 10% – and impose steeper rates for countries that he says run trade surpluses with the US.

The 10% baseline had already gone into effect on Saturday. Trump’s higher import tax rates on dozens of countries and territories took hold at midnight, Washington DC time, AP reported.

The steeper levies run as high as 50% – with that biggest rate landing on small economies that trade little with the US, including the African kingdom of Lesotho.

Some other rates include a tax of 47% on imports from Madagascar, 46% on Vietnam, 32% on Taiwan, 25% on South Korea, 24% on Japan and 20% on the European Union. Some of these new tariffs build on previous trade measures.

Trump last week announced a tariff of 34% on China, for example, which would come on top of 20% levies he imposed on the country earlier this year. He has since threatened to add an another 50% levy on Chinese goods in response to Beijing’s recently promised retaliation. That would bring the combined total to 104% against China.

China said it will take “resolute measures” to defend its trading rights, but gave no details on how it will respond.

In other news:

• Donald Trump signed four executive orders boosting coal production yesterday. The orders direct government agencies to “end all discriminatory policies against the coal industry,” including by ending the leasing moratorium on coal on federal land, accelerating all permitted funding for coal projects, protecting coal power plants scheduled to be shuttered, and investigating state or local governments that “discriminate against coal”.

• During his executive order ceremony, Trump tried to assuage fears of a recession, saying that tariffs are bringing in $2bn a day. The White House has also said that nearly 70 countries have reached out looking to begin negotiations to lower or postpone their tariffs.

• A federal judge ruled that the White House’s decision to block the Associated Press from its press pool is unconstitutional. The ruling comes nearly two months after the White House first barred an AP reporter from the Oval Office over the outlet’s decision to continue using the term “Gulf of Mexico” after Donald Trump issued an executive order renaming the body of water the “Gulf of America.”

• The US will take back the Panama canal from Chinese influence, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said during a rare visit to the nation still unsettled by Trump’s threats to take back the canal. Just hours after his visit, the Chinese embassy in Panama issued a statement calling Hegseth’s comments part of “a sensationalistic campaign” to “sabotage Chinese-Panamanian cooperation”.

• A New York judge will hear arguments tomorrow about the legality of Donald Trump’s deportations of Venezuelan immigrants, one day after the supreme court issued a ruling saying immigrant rights advocates had filed their case in the wrong state. After the supreme court issued its ruling yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union re-filed its case in Manhattan.

• Hours after the Internal Revenue Service formalized an agreement to share tax information of undocumented immigrants with Homeland Security, the acting head of the Irs has decided to step down. The acting Irs commissioner, Melanie Krause, is the third person to lead the tax agency since Donald Trump took office in January.