US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imports from over 90 countries took effect today, prompting reproaches from Washington's adversaries and allies alike.

Mr Trump’s chances of using taxes on trade to force foreign governments to obey his wishes seem slim, however, with major global South economies remaining defiant.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva told the Reuters news agency that he would call his Indian and Chinese counterparts to plan a joint response by the Brics bloc.

Members of Brics, named after its founders Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, have been a target of Mr Trump’s ire, with the US leader threatening additional 10 per cent tariffs on countries that “align” with them — yet US tariffs appear to have brought their co-operation, which Washington sees as a threat to its hegemony, to a new level.

Lula, as the Brazilian president is known, said that Mr Trump intended “to dismantle multilateralism, where agreements are made collectively within institutions, and replace it with unilateralism, where he negotiates one on one,” but that Brazil would not be bullied. He would call his US counterpart when he believed he was ready to talk but had no intention of doing so currently as he was not prepared to be humiliated, Lula added.

The Indian government said the tariffs — raised to 50 per cent like Brazil’s, in its case because of its purchase of oil from Russia — were “unfair and unfortunate.” It would not negotiate its own energy security, it added, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi told farmers in New Delhi yesterday that he would “never compromise” on their interests to secure a trade deal with the United States.

Though Mr Trump struck a jubilant tone as the tariffs kicked in, bragging that the US was “taking in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs,” they amount to a heavy tax on imported goods for US customers, with Yale University’s Budget Lab calculating US residents will pay an average 18.3 per cent more on imports — the highest rate since 1934.

Switzerland’s Federal Council was due to meet tonight after President Karin Keller-Sutter returned empty handed from the US, where she had hoped to avert 39 per cent tariffs. Products from the European Union, Japan and South Korea will be taxed at 15 per cent.