Donald Trump’s latest act of trade brinkmanship risks creating a “tariff wall” around the manufacturing hubs of south-east Asia, leading to higher prices and tough choices for US consumers and industry, analysts warn.

Southeast Asia's biggest economies prepared on Tuesday to step up trade negotiations with Washington after it hit them with steep tariffs, despite a last-ditch flurry of offers to boost imports and slash levies on U.

Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Kazakhstan will face 25% import duties starting Aug. 1, while goods from Laos and Myanmar will face a 40% tariff.

Trump said the United States would impose tariffs of 25% on goods from Tunisia, Malaysia and Kazakhstan, with levies of 30% on South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, climbing to 32% on Indonesia, 35% on Serbia and Bangladesh, 36% on Cambodia and Thailand; and 40% on Laos and Myanmar. A deal with India was close, Trump added.

The country’s new president, in office for a little over a month, had just dispatched his senior deputies to Washington to try to work out a trade deal.