US to start sending tariff rates letters to trading partners
The Guardian :
Donald Trump has said the US will start sending letters to trading partners setting out tariff rates that countries will have to pay from the beginning of next month.
The US president told the media that about “10 or 12” letters would be sent out on Friday, with further letters sent out over the “next few days”.
His administration is expected to write to all of its trading partners without a deal in place before 9 July, the end of a 90-day pause on Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs”.
“I think by the ninth they will be fully covered,” he said, referring to the deadline the US set for countries to reach bilateral trade deals to avoid higher duties. “They will range in value from maybe 60% or 70% tariffs to 10% and 20% tariffs.”
Trump did not provide further details on which countries would get the tariffs, or whether they would be targeted at certain goods and services.
The Trump administration has so far announced deals with the UK and Vietnam, and agreed a truce with China after tariffs imposed on the world’s second largest economy sparked a trade war.
On Thursday, Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, hinted that the US was close to a high-level “framework” deal with the EU that would avert 50% tariffs on all exports from the bloc next Wednesday.
Trump initially revealed his programme of global tariffs on 2 April, “liberation day”, but later announced the 90-day pause to allow countries time to negotiate.
Trump put more pressure on those countries still negotiating, saying that while a “couple” more trade deals were close to completion his “inclination is to send a letter out and say what tariffs they are going to be paying”.
Earlier this week Trump said he would not extend the 9 July deadline for deals to be struck.
“We’re going to do what the president wants,” Bessent said in an interview on Thursday. “And he’ll be the one to determine whether they’re negotiating in good faith.”
On Thursday, Trump secured passage of his controversial tax and spending bill, after the House of Representatives approved it.