The U.S.’s closest security allies in Asia, along with six Southeast Asian countries, have been given another three weeks to negotiate trade deals — or face higher tariffs.

US President Donald Trump, apparently impatient with the slow progress of negotiations, on Monday slapped 25 per cent unilateral tariffs on Japan and South Korea and equal or higher import taxes on several other nations ahead of a self-imposed Wednesday deadline.

The country’s new president, in office for a little over a month, had just dispatched his senior deputies to Washington to try to work out a trade deal.