LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Asian spot liquefied natural

gas (LNG) prices remained at their lowest level in nearly six

months on Friday as U.S. President Trump's "liberation day"

tariffs pulled global markets down amid fears of a global

recession.

The average LNG price for May delivery into north-east Asia

remained unchanged from last week at $13.00 per million

British thermal units (mmBtu), the lowest level since October

11, industry sources estimated.

"The risk of a global trade war and economic slowdown is

pulling down global stock markets and fears of slower growth

will impact energy prices too," said Alex Froley, senior LNG

analyst at data intelligence firm ICIS.

Countries around the world threatened to retaliate against

Trump's sweeping tariffs.

China announced additional tariffs of 34% on U.S. goods on

Friday, the most serious escalation in a worsening trade war

between Beijing and Washington.

"This is obviously not the best environment to get

confronted by unseen import tariffs up to 34% for China, and

24-26% for India, South Korea and Japan," said Klaas Dozeman,

market analyst at Brainchild Commodity Intelligence.

"The widely shared opinion is that this will harm global

trade and industrial production, reducing the demand for LNG

even further," he said.

Earlier tariffs have already had an impact on U.S. LNG flows

to China, with no cargoes arriving in China since February 6,

ICIS's Froley said.

In Europe, Dutch and British gas prices plunged to their

lowest level in over six months on Friday afternoon in line with

sharp declines in oil and stock markets.

"Hedge funds with exposure to both commodities and equities

sold gas heavily on Thursday to de-risk their portfolios, with

oil and equities also falling," said Martin Senior, head of LNG

pricing at commodities pricing agency Argus.

"Stop losses also kicked in when the TTF (Dutch title

transfer facility) fell below certain price thresholds,

exacerbating losses," he added.

The European Union, which is facing 20% tariffs, is

preparing for countermeasures in response to Trump's duties, but

analysts said Europe has no choice but to keep importing U.S.

LNG, ruling out that retaliatory tariffs would cover the

commodity.

An indirect effect of the tariffs was a weakening of the

dollar against other currencies, meaning U.S. LNG cargoes are

quickly becoming cheaper compared to other origins, increasing

the incentive for Europe to buy more U.S. LNG to maximize

storage filling in the coming months, Dozeman said.

S&P Global Commodity Insights assessed its daily North West

Europe LNG Marker (NWM) price benchmark for cargoes delivered in

May on an ex-ship (DES) basis at $12.071/mmBtu on April 3, a

$0.75/mmBtu discount to the May gas price at the Dutch TTF hub.

Argus assessed the price for May delivery at $12.07/mmBtu,

while Spark Commodities assessed the April price at

$12.044/mmBtu.

The U.S. arbitrage to north-east Asia via the Cape of Good

Hope continues to incentivise U.S. cargoes to deliver to Europe,

said Spark Commodities analyst Qasim Afghan.

In the LNG freight market, Atlantic rates dropped for the

second week to $23,500/day on Friday, while Pacific rates rose

to $26,750/day, Afghan added.