President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden leads Trump by 36 points nationally among Latinos: poll Trump dismisses climate change role in fires, says Newsom needs to manage forest better Jimmy Kimmel hits Trump for rallies while hosting Emmy Awards MORE told British Prime Minister Theresa May this week that he has not made a final decision on whether to put tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, according to The New York Times.

Trump reportedly made the comments during a phone call with May on Sunday.

A Downing Street spokeswoman on Sunday said the prime minister told the president that “multilateral action was the only way to resolve the problem of global overcapacity in all parties’ interests."

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A source told the Times that Trump said he disagreed with May.

Trump caught the international community off guard last week when he said he would slap a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum.

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Critics have said the action, which has put the U.S. at odds with some of its major allies, could lead to a trade war.

The issue is of concern to the United Kingdom due to the country's steel industry.

“This would be a unilateral, and extremely blunt, approach to what is a complex global problem of overcapacity in the steel sector,” Richard Warren, head of policy at U.K. Steel, said in a statement.

The European Union also responded, saying they would consider placing tariffs on U.S. goods such as Levi's jeans, Harley-Davidson motorcycles and bourbon.

Trump responded in a tweet last week.

If the E.U. wants to further increase their already massive tariffs and barriers on U.S. companies doing business there, we will simply apply a Tax on their Cars which freely pour into the U.S. They make it impossible for our cars (and more) to sell there. Big trade imbalance! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2018

The World Trade Organization's Director-General Roberto Azevêdo condemned the move, saying it could result in a trade war.

"In light of recent announcements on trade policy measures, it is clear that we now see a much higher and real risk of triggering an escalation of trade barriers across the globe. We cannot ignore this risk and I urge all parties to consider and reflect on this situation very carefully," Azevêdo said.