By Jeff Mason and Leika Kihara WASHINGTON/TOKYO (Reuters) -Powerhouse Asian economies Japan and South Korea said on Tuesday they would try to negotiate with the U.S. to soften the impact of sharply higher tariffs that President Donald Trump now plans to impose from the start of August.

BRICS leaders issued a statement warning that "the proliferation of trade-restrictive measures, whether in the form of indiscriminate tariff increases and non-tariff measures or in the form of protectionism under the pretext of environmental objectives, threatens to further reduce global trade," without directly referencing the U.S.