President Trump said administration officials are likely to begin informing dozens of countries in the coming weeks of the tariff rate they will have to pay after a 90-day pause.
Trump, speaking at a roundtable in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, acknowledged there was not enough time to meet with every country that the U.S. had hit with tariffs in early April.
He said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would begin outreach to those nations soon.
“So at a certain point over the next two to three weeks, I think Scott and Howard will be sending letters out essentially telling people — and we’ll be very fair — but we’ll be telling people what they will be paying to do business in the United States,” Trump said.
“I guess you could say they could appeal it, but for the most part I think we’re going to be very fair,” he added. “But it’s not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us.”
The president on April 2 levied a 10 percent tariff on all imports and higher additional tariffs on dozens of countries that had larger trade imbalances with the U.S.
The higher rates hit major economies like South Korea, Japan, the European Union, China and Thailand, as well as smaller nations like Lesotho, Laos, Botswana and Fiji.
The president later announced a 90-day pause on those higher tariffs, while the 10 percent baseline import tax remained in place. The pause is set to end in early July.
The Trump administration plans to abandon a felony criminal charge against Boeing and instead pursue a nonprosecutorial settlement with the aircraft-making juggernaut over two fatal 737 Max plane crashes that killed 346 people, according to the victims’ families.
Fiscal hawks on the House Budget Committee on Friday sunk a key vote on advancing the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that encompasses President Trump’s legislative agenda, marking a stunning setback for the legislation.
Business SALT change would affect doctors, lawyers, accountants, entertainers
Tax lawyers are raising an alarm over a rule change for the state and local tax (SALT) deduction for businesses within the GOP tax cut bill that they say is flying under the radar and would increase taxes on medical, legal, financial and other types of companies.
The provision pertains to entity-level taxes on passthrough entities such as S-corporations, partnerships and LLCs.
“If you’re in any of those fields and you have an S-corp, partnership or LLC/LLP, then your ability to deduct your state and local taxes paid on the profits of your business, which today you can do, is taken away by this bill,” IRS enrolled agent and tax specialist Ryan Ellis told The Hill.
The business SALT change comes on top of an already roiling controversy surrounding the individual SALT deduction cap, which was raised in the GOP bill from $10,000 to $15,000 and to $30,000 for couples.
Republicans seeking to increase the cap have said that number isnot high enough to secure their vote.
— Tobias Burns
Tax Watch is a regular feature focused on the fight over tax reform and extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts this year. Email a tip
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The Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote on stablecoin legislation Monday evening.
The Trump administration and the United Arab Emirates are partnering to build a massive data center in Abu Dhabi that is expected to be the largest artificial intelligence (AI) campus outside the United States.
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