Trump announced plans to notify countries that they can continue trading with the United States but will face substantial tariffs.
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump said Sunday he will soon send letters to trading partners detailing the tariffs to be imposed on their exports to the United States.
“What I will do just sometime prior to the 9th is, we’ll send a letter to all these countries,” Trump said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo.
In April, Trump gave countries a 90-day window to negotiate better trade deals with the United States or face steep reciprocal tariffs. That deadline expires on July 9.
The president said that he is not considering any extensions to the deadline.
“I‘d rather just send them a letter—very fair letter—saying, ’Congratulations, we’re going to allow you to trade in the United States of America. You’re going to pay a 25 percent tariff, or 20 percent, or 40 or 50 percent.’ I would rather do that.”
Trump noted that the United States trades with around 200 countries, making it impossible to negotiate with all of them individually.
“And we‘ll say ‘We would consider it a great honor. And this is what you’ll have to do to shop in the United States. … We wish you a lot of luck.’ And that’s the end of the trade deal.”
He said the United States has so far reached trade agreements with India, China, and the United Kingdom. Deals with key partners such as Canada, Mexico, the European Union, and Japan are pending.
“We have a big deficit with Japan, and they understand that too. Now we have oil. They could take a lot of oil, they could take a lot of other things,” Trump said.
The letters will explain the tariff amount based on the U.S. trade deficit with that country and how they treat the United States.
“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, but we’re going to be sending letters out starting pretty soon.”
By Emel Akan
