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Diplomats familiar with talks said Greece and Italy did not want the language changed. "They say that there's no smoking gun, or at least not yet," said an EU diplomat to Politico. Greece has denied calling for alterations but admitted it lobbied for a more "clear" text.

Theresa May's team has been hoping for unequivocal world backing, but has not received it. She expelled 23 Russian diplomats from London last week, and has threatened further punishment.

The UK said it was not a snub by Brussels that the language is cooler than last week, especially that used by Germany and France, but said getting 27 countries to agree is difficult. It is especially damaging for Theresa May after President Putin was praised by Trump in a call after his re-election on Sunday, despite her hopes the special friendship between the UK and the US would see Trump backing her fully.

Jean-Claude Juncker also upset the UK after sending a congratulatory letter to Putin. EU leaders will discuss the new text over dinner at the European Council summit Thursday. Despite Britain's allegations against Moscow, Russia has repeatedly insisted that the Kremlin had nothing to do with the attack on former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.

Trump has signed a Section 301 trade action with China that could be about $60 billion in tariffs, he said adding that he asked China to reduce trade surplus immediately by $100 billion.

"We have right now an $800 billion dollar trade deficit with the world," he said before signing a memorandum. "It is the largest deficit of any country in the history of our world. It's out of control."

"We're gonna get it taken care of. Frankly it's going to make us a much stronger, much richer nation."

"Just use the reciprocal. If they charge us, we charge them the same thing."

Washington is targeting more than 100 types of Chinese goods, from clothing to electronics. The value of the tariffs is based on US estimates of economic damage caused by intellectual-property theft by China, an anonymous source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The announcement comes after the Trump administration accused China of "state-led, market-distorting efforts to force, pressure, and steal US technologies and intellectual property," according to a statement by principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah on Wednesday.

In the statement, China's US Embassy said the country doesn't want a trade war, but "will not recoil from one" should it come to it. It also accused the US of "ignoring rational voices," and of disregarding "the mutually-beneficial nature of China-US trade relations and the consensus reached by the two countries of managing differences constructively through consultations."

"If a trade war were initiated by the US, China would fight to the end to defend its own legitimate interests with all necessary measures," it added. China strongly opposes what it described as a "typical unilateral trade protectionist action" taken by the Trump administration on Thursday. It said the US action will "directly harm the interests of US consumers, companies, and financial markets."

The embassy urged the US to "cease and desist, make conscious decisions and avoid placing China-US trade relations in danger," as it could "end up hurting itself."
...
"I have tremendous respect for President Xi," Trump said, after signing the new measures on Thursday. "We have a great relationship. They're helping us a lot in North Korea and that's China. But we have a trade deficit, depending on the way you calculate, of $504 billion."

"It is the largest deficit of any country in the history of our world. It's out of control," he added. "We're gonna get it taken care of. Frankly it's going to make us a much stronger, much richer nation."

US stocks dropped after Trump's announcement. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 722 points, almost 3 percent, and the Nasdaq fell 2.4 percent. Shares in US exporters, including Boeing, also dropped, on foot of the feared trade war with China.

"China needs to import very, very large amounts of LNG and, from their point, it would be very logical to import more of it from us, if for no reason other than to diversify their sources of supply," said US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in an interview with Bloomberg. "It would also have the side effect of reducing the deficit."
...
However, Washington's demand for China to buy more American gas is unlikely to cut the deficit, according to a Bloomberg-polled analyst Anastacia Dialynas. Beijing has commitments with other countries, and only 40 million tons of China's 2030 imports aren't already under contract, which accounts only for $13.5 billion at current prices.