More now on the meeting planned tomorrow between Canadian officials and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Finance Minister Dominic Leblanc says Trump's comments about Canada being the 51st state were "outrageous" and "not constructive".

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada needs to put "maximum pressure" but they "also need offramps".

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne then weighs in to highlight the crucial car industry.

"We are going to fight for the auto sector every single day," he says.

These companies have longstanding commitments to this country and they will make sure they abide by them, he adds.

The ministers are taking questions from the media now.

Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc says they have been having a conversation with the Trump administration around getting to 2 April, with the objective of removing all of the US tariffs against Canada.

He says they will continue to maintain their countermeasures and increase them in April if "we can't get to a position" where the US lifts its tariffs.

LeBlanc adds that Trump and the government should respect the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, which was renegotiated during Trump's first administration and which Trump signed.

Champagne continues, saying that Canada will always defend its workers and industries.

But, he says, we also need to change our attitude, and our way of doing things in this country.

What is required, Champagne adds, is a movement "to become more Canadian".

The best way to do this is through "purchasing power", he continues, encouraging people to start buying Canadian goods.

"We can diversify our exports, but also we can choose to buy local," Champagne says.

He concludes: "Let's stop with this tariffs nonsense".

We're then onto questions from the media.

Now to Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who says tariffs on Canada is an attack on Americans.

Canadian steel and aluminium are essential for North America and they fuel North American supply chains, he says.

But tariffs are "bringing the wild west to factory floors."

"This needs to stop," he adds.

One job in Canada in the Canadian steel and aluminium industry supports 13 jobs in the US, he says.

This shows how integrated the two countries are.

He adds families are paying the price - causing anxiety across north America and "we need to stop that."

Joly then addresses her European partners, and says they will work together to end tariffs they are facing too.

After this conference, the foreign affairs minister says, she will be heading to the G7 meeting to meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as European counterparts.

"In every single meeting, I will raise the issue of tariffs," she says, doing so in order to put pressure on the US.

Canada is hosting the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Quebec, from Wednesday to Friday.

Joly directy addresses the American people.

"I want you to remember this, Canada is your best friend, your best neighbour and your best ally," she says.

She adds that Canada is America's best and biggest customer.

Joly notes that the relationship between the nation's is one that has been built over generations and that it is not Canada driving up the cost of groceries, gasoline and constriction.

Canada is not the one that is "ultimately starting this war", she says, adding that it's Trump who is responsible.

Now we're hearing from Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, who says Canada is "holding strong" and "this is going to be a day-to-day fight".

She says the initial tariffs were sparked by "exaggerated claims about our border" and the latest excuse is national security.

She says there are threats of further tariffs on 2 April that are still looming and the excuse for those tariffs changes daily.

Trump has continued to repeat his "51st state rhetoric", she says.

It seems to stem from Trump wanting to annex our country with economic coercion, she adds.

"Well we will not back down."

More now from Canadian Minister of Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic LeBlanc.

He says the government is taking steps to mitigate the impact of these counter-measures on Canadian workers and businesses.

"We understand that these are challenging and uncertain times" and he says measures have been deployed to support people affected, including finding new markets for products and access financing to help.

"We will use every tool at our disposal to defend Canadian jobs and Canadian businesses and support workers through these challenging times."

LeBlanc then describes how the list of additional products now tariffed from the US includes sports equipment, computers and cast iron products.

LeBlanc adds the government may impose further tariffs in response to the US suggestion that products with steel and aluminium content is also to be tariffed.

Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc announces that as of 12:01 am EDT tomorrow there will be a 25% reciprocal tariff on an additional C$29.8bn worth of goods imported from the US.

Stick with us we'll bring you the latest.

Canada's government is announcing how it is hitting back after tariffs of 25% on steel and aluminium imports came into effect this morning.

The three government ministers are expected to say Canada will impose more than $20bn in retaliatory tariffs.

Canada is the biggest foreign supplier of steel and aluminium to the United States.

We'll bring you the details when we have them.

Image source, Getty Images

Meanwhile, we've heard from other political leaders recently with their response.

Speaking to reporters today, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticised the US tariffs.

He says he thinks the decisions taken by Trump are "wrong" and "we will react to them appropriately and quickly".

European Council President Antonio Costa, who spoke alongside Scholz, says they "don't want to escalate, the good way is to de-escalate", as he emphasised the EU's offer to "negotiate with the United States" on the topic.

"I think we have enough war in the world, we need to stop the wars we have and not create a trade war," Costa adds.

We're about to hear from Canadian officials on how they will react to the US tariffs on metals.

We'll hear from Minister of Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic LeBlanc, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne.

You can watch their remarks live at the top of the page.

Michelle Fleury
BBC World News Correspondent

Michael DiMarino runs Linda Tool, a 17-person Brooklyn company that makes parts for the aerospace industry. Everything he makes involves some kind of steel, much of which comes from American mills.

Even so, since the tariff announcements, he has seen his costs rise.

He says he supports the call for increased manufacturing in the US, but he warns that the president’s moves risk backfiring, and ending up hurting the industry.

“It’s a hard equation. If I have higher prices, I pass them onto my customers," he says.

"They have higher prices, they pass it onto the consumer. Does the consumer have the money to pay those higher prices, or do they reduce their demand?”

Delaware Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat, has just been speaking on CNN about the trade war. And he had some very pointed comments for President Trump.

“I think we are heading towards a recession because of Trump’s on again, off again, let’s hit all of our allies, let’s tariff everything that comes into the United States approach,” Coons said.

“He is driving a wedge between the United States and our closest allies and trading partners.

“My state of Delaware exports more to Canada than any other place in the world and imports more from Canada than any other place in the world. And the on again off, again double-digit massive tariffs… is creating chaos in the markets.”

Chris Page
Ireland correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

A leader of an EU member state will be visiting President Trump in the White House today, hours after Brussels announced it will impose counter tariffs on US goods.

The Irish Prime Minister, the Taoiseach Michéal Martin, is expected to focus on the ties between his country and the US – from the ancestral to the economic.

The meeting is part of a range of annual events traditionally hosted in Washington around St Patrick’s Day on 17 March.

Ireland’s economy is heavily reliant on investment from American multinational corporations. In 2024, Ireland’s goods exports to the US amounted to around €50bn (£41.6bn) more than imports from the US.

There are some concerns in Ireland that the Trump administration could try to reduce what it may see as a trade imbalance.

But in advance of his meeting in the Oval Office, Martin has emphasised what he describes as an “increasingly two-way” trade relationship – pointing out that Ireland is the sixth-largest source of foreign direct investment in the US.

We can now bring you the latest reaction from the UK as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says he is "disappointed" that steel and aluminium exports to the US are now subject to tariffs.

Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, he says he isn't planning to retaliate and instead is trying to negotiate a trade deal with the US.

"I'm disappointed to see global tariffs in relation to steel and aluminium, but we will take a pragmatic approach," he tells MPs.

He adds the government is "negotiating an economic deal which covers and will include tariffs if we succeed, but we will keep all options on the table".

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

The talk of tariffs has many in the US worried about prices going up.

But the latest official figures showed that inflation – the pace of price increases – was actually cooler than expected last month.

On average prices rose 2.8% over the 12 months ended in February, driven largely by housing costs according to the Labor Department. That was down from 3% in January.

And now for a moment of wonkery: Economists expect tariffs to push up prices. But a one-time rise in the price-level is not the kind of sustained increase in prices that is technically considered inflation.

Image source, Reuters

Marco Rubio says tariffs are not there to "punish” other countries, but steel and aluminium are "national security concerns" for the US.

Speaking to reporters at an airport in Ireland, he says President Trump introduced tariffs because he wants to "develop a domestic capability”.

“If you don’t have steel and aluminium, you can’t build warships, you can't build airplanes,” he says.

He adds that there were “a lot of unfair trade practices – a lot of countries out there who subsidise their industries so that they can gain global market share…that’s why you can't produce aluminium, and that really threatens our national security in the long term”.

Previous US trade policy "left us deeply vulnerable", Rubio claims, "to any sort of interruptions in global supplies and or it being used to extort us".

Image source, EPA

It's just passed midday in the London newsroom and 08:00 in Washington. As of today, US businesses importing steel and aluminium into the country will have to pay a 25% tax.

Donald Trump claims the new levies will encourage companies to manufacture in the US, boosting the economy - but others strongly disagree.

Let's take a look at some of the key reaction to the steel and aluminium tariffs so far:

• The EU immediately said it will impose counter-measures on €26bn (£21.9bn, $28.3bn) worth of US goods, from boats to bourbon to motorbikes
• It's a measure the EU "deeply regrets", Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, who called the response "strong but proportionate"
• Meanwhile, the UK's Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the tariffs are "disappointing" and the government will push for a trade deal with the US
• Canada's high commissioner to the UK hit back at the "lawless trade world of Donald Trump” and told the BBC the government will target "particularly sensitive" products in the US in response
• China's foreign ministry spokesperson said it will take "all necessary measures" to protect itself, and suggested the US had violated World Trade Organisation rules after the tariffs came into effect

Stick with us for further developments and reaction.