Global financial markets have been plunged into turmoil as Donald Trump’s escalating trade war knocked trillions of dollars off the value of the world’s biggest companies and heightened fears of a US recession.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni said trade tariffs announced by the US are a mistake, but their impact should not be overestimated and the reaction needed to be carefully considered.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin has said the US may not have understood the complexity of tariffs on EU pharmaceuticals when it was first suggested.