US President Donald Trump says he will speak with his counterparts in Mexico and Canada on Monday, a day after announcing punishing tariffs on the neighbouring countries as well as China.

    The Trump administration plans to impose levies of 25 percent on goods from Canada, and 10 percent on energy products from the country starting from Tuesday. Goods from Mexico will be subject to tariffs of 25 percent, while imports from China face 10 percent.

    Trump says tariffs on the European Union will also happen “very soon”, but declines to give a specific timeline.

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his country will respond with matching tariffs on up to 155 billion Canadian dollars (roughly $105 bn) in US imports. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has also ordered retaliatory tariffs, while China promised “countermeasures”, saying the US tariffs seriously violate World Trade Organization rules.

    Trump said the potential domestic “pain” caused by the tariffs and retaliatory measures taken against the US will “be worth the price that must be paid”, also railing against critics of his plan, on his platform Truth Social.

    South Korea to devise ’emergency exports strategy’ over Trump tariff plans

    South Korea acting President Choi Sang-mok said the government will devise an “emergency exports strategy” with relevant agencies to respond as the US government imposed steep tariffs on its biggest trading partners.

    Choi said South Korea will make an “all out effort” to make sure Asia’s fourth-largest economy can weather threats of a trade war, without giving further details, according to a statement from the finance ministry released after Choi met with South Korean exporters.

    He said South Korea’s exports are expected to increase in February from a year earlier after January shipments declined for the first time in 16 months.

    Asian stocks plunge as tariffs spook markets

    Asia’s stock markets are racking up steep losses in response to Trump’s tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico.

    As of 04:00 GMT, Taiwan’s benchmark TAIEX had dropped 3.90 percent, while South Korea’s KOSPI and Japan’s Nikkei 225 were down 3.03 percent and 2.62 percent, respectively.

    Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 0.65 percent in the red.

    China’s bourses in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.

    Meanwhile, US investors are bracing for heavy losses once the market reopens on Monday.

    S&P 500 futures sank by nearly 2 percent on Sunday, while futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 2.4 percent.

    Bitcoin slides below $100,000

    The price of at least two cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, has fallen amid the uncertainty over Trump’s tariff plans.

    Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best-known crypto, fell to $94,476.18 on Monday morning in Asia, touching a three-week low of about $91,441.89, according to the Reuters news agency.

    Smaller cryptocurrency ether was down about 24 percent and back to levels last seen in early September. It last fetched $2,494.33, it said.

    Analysts told Reuters the fall could be due to investors seeking to sell “risky assets”.

    “Crypto is really the only way to express risk over the weekend, and on news like this, crypto resorts to a risk proxy,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.