Japan industry minister Yoji Muto said on Wednesday the nation has requested that the United States exempt Japan from steel and aluminium tariffs.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Wednesday Japan has formally asked the United States for an exemption of Trump administration 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum.

President Donald Trump has ordered a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium entering the US in a major expansion of existing trade barriers. The tariffs, which will increase the costs of importing the metals into the US,

President Donald Trump is likely to dust off a 1930 trade law largely forgotten for decades to back his new reciprocal U.S. tariffs that will match other countries' higher import taxes, trade and legal experts say.

Donald Trump's trade advisers were finalizing plans on Wednesday for the reciprocal tariffs the U.S. president has vowed to impose on every country that charges duties on U.S. imports, ratcheting up fears of a widening global trade war.