President Trump said that letters to trading partners will be going out soon to establish tariff rates, ahead of the July 8 expiration on the pause on his hefty “reciprocal” tariffs.
“Basically, and I’m for doing it right now, we send letters out to all of the countries explaining to them— we’ll look at the deficit we have, or whatever it is with the country. We’ll look at how a country treats us. Are they good? Are they not so good? Some countries, we don’t care, we’ll just send a high number out,” Trump said on Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo.
“But we’re going to be sending letters out starting pretty soon,” he added. “We’re going to say, ‘Congratulations, we are allowing you to shop in the United States of America. You’re going to pay a 25 percent tariff, or a 35 percent or a 50 percent or a 10 percent.”
The administration has been working on trade deals during the 90-day pause, with only agreements with China and the United Kingdom having been announced, despite the self-imposed ambitious goals of 90 deals in 90 days.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that the July 8 deadline is “not critical” and left the day open for it to be extended.
Officials, though, have insisted for months that talks are progressing with trading partners like India, Japan and Vietnam but have not made any announcements.
White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Tuesday the administration is waiting to announce trade deals until after Trump’s megabill passes Congress. Senate Republicans narrowly voted on Saturday to advance the bill to enact Trump’s agenda.