Mubasher: The European Union (EU) on Friday criticised US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose heavy tariffs on steel and aluminum tariffs, hoping that the European countries will be exempted from these tariffs.

On Thursday, Trump officially signed the tariffs, which will be imposed at 25% for steel imports and 10% on aluminum.

Trump’s actions are wrong and the EU members should be excluded from these measures, the bloc’s trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said.

"We had been in talks with our American friends for quite some time to explain to them that whereas we share the concerns over overcapacity in the steel sector, this is not the right way to deal with it," Malmstrom stated.

"We hope that we can get the confirmation that the EU is excluded from this and that we can go on to continue our dialogue on how to deal with the problem with the U.S. and Japan and others," she added

Last week, the EU’s trade commissioner threatened that the EU would take serious safeguard actions against the US if tariffs plans came into effect, while the European Central Bank's (ECB) governor Mario Draghi warned against a potential trade war.