*EU SLAPS REVENGE TARIFFS*

EU slaps tariffs on US as trade war erupts.

The European Union slapped revenue tariffs on iconic US products including bourbon, jeans an motorcycles on Friday in its opening Salvo in a trade war with President Donald Trump.

The tariffs which took effect midnight - 2200 GMT Thursday, according to the  EU's official journal, will further fuel jitters on world  stock markets  that are already alarmed by trade tensions between the  United States and China,

Custom agents across Europe's colossal market of 500 million people will now impose the duty, hiking prices on US-made products in supermarkets and across factory floors.

''These measure are the logical consequences of the  US decision,'' French Finance Minister Bruno-Le Maire told AFP.

''They reflect a  Europe  that is resolute and principled,'' he said.

Brussels imposed the raft of duties on US products worth Euros 2.8 billion [$3.3 billion] in a tit-for-tat response to Trump's decision to slap stiff tariffs on European steel and aluminum exports.

Global markets on Friday took the  development in stride, with stocks in Europe firm after weeks of instability on trade worries.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said, this week that the  28-nation block was  ''left with no other choice'' but to impose tariffs of its own after the  ''unilateral and unjustified decision of the US.''

Together with US tariffs against Mexico and Canada, the trade battles have raised the spectre of a global trade war, spooking financial markets that fear major consequences to the global economy.

''We have a trade war - and it's an escalating trade war,'' SEB chief economist Robert Bergqvist told AFP in an interview.

The Honor and Serving of the latest Global Operational Research on Trade War continues.