US President Donald Trump expanded his offensive against trading partners on Tuesday, threatening 25 percent tariffs on imported cars, and similar or higher duties on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

Trump has announced a broad range of levies on some of the biggest US trading partners since taking office in January, arguing that they will help tackle unfair practices -- and in some cases using the threats to influence policy.

He recently pledged 10 percent duties on all goods coming from China, and 25 on steel and aluminum imports.

At his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, he told reporters that tariffs on the automobile industry will "be in the neighborhood of 25 percent," with specifics to come around April 2.

Asked about threatened tariffs on pharmaceuticals and chips, Trump said: "It'll be 25 percent and higher, and it'll go very substantially higher over (the) course of a year."

He added he wanted to give affected companies time to bring their operations to the United States, saying that he had been contacted by major firms that "want to........

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