Australian shares are set to open lower on Friday after US President Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on Chinese imports next month, stoking worries about further escalation of a trade war.

Trump in a tweet said he would impose a 10% tariff on a remaining $300 billion list of Chinese imports starting Sept. 1, which rattled markets and drove US stocks lower.

China is Australia's largest trading partner and disruptions to the Chinese economy are likely to spill over into the region as well.

The local share price index futures fell 0.2% or 15 points by 2209 GMT, a 76.9-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close. The benchmark fell 0.4% on Thursday.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.2% to 10,841.71 in early trade.