Trump steps up pressure for deals as US tariff deadline nears

WASHINGTON (AFP): Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policy faces a critical week as the US president races to secure the bilateral deals he promised, ahead of a shifting deadline for re-imposing steep tariffs on dozens of economies.

Trump is due to send a first batch of letters to up to 15 trading partners from noon local time (1600 GMT), warning that US levies on imports will snap back to elevated levels if foreign governments fail to reach agreements with Washington.

The duties will not bounce back until August 1, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said over the weekend, a move that appears to give more room for dealmaking.

Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff on imports from almost all trading partners in early April, but some economies including the European Union were slated to have this rate increase further.

As markets plunged at the time, Trump halted the steeper levies to allow for talks. That pause expires on Wednesday.

“We are going to have several announcements in the next 48 hours,” Bessent told CNBC in an interview Monday.

“We’ve had a lot of people change their tune in terms of negotiations. So my mailbox was full last night with a lot of new offers, a lot of new proposals,” Bessent said.

He reiterated that higher tariff rates for countries would not return until August 1.

There was no immediate response from the White House on whether Trump would formally extend the Wednesday deadline.

Asked about the letters Trump plans to send out, Bessent said these would inform partners of the tariff rate their products face when trading with the United States, unless they want to “come back and try to negotiate.”

Limited results?

While the Trump administration has signaled hopes of striking dozens of deals by early July, there have been limited results so far.

Washington has unveiled pacts only with Britain and Vietnam, while the United States and China agreed to temporarily lower tariff levels on each other’s products that earlier reached three-digits.

Bessent told CNBC Monday that he would “be meeting with my Chinese counterpart sometime in the next couple of weeks.”

The two sides have so far held high-level talks in Geneva and London.

But Washington and Beijing’s pause on tit-for-tat tariffs is due to expire in mid-August.

On whether he was disappointed in the number of trade deals achieved so far, Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro maintained that he is “happy with the progress we’ve had.”

“Every country that we run a major deficit with is fully engaged,” he told CNBC on Monday.

On Sunday night, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that Washington would deliver “tariff letters” or deals to various countries on Monday.

In a separate post that night, Trump threatened another 10 percent tariff on countries aligning themselves with the emerging BRICS nations, accusing them of “Anti-American policies” after they slammed his duties at a summit.

For now, partners are still rushing to avert Trump’s tariffs altogether.

The European Commission said that EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had a “good exchange” with Trump on trade when the pair spoke Sunday.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, however, said Sunday that he “won’t easily compromise” in trade talks with Washington.