The United States is close to finalising several trade agreements before a 9 July deadline when higher tariffs are set to take effect, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, according to Reuters.
Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union programme on Sunday, Bessent said that announcements on the deals would be made in the coming days.
“We’re going to see a lot of deals very quickly,” Bessent said, as quoted by Reuters.
He also said that President Donald Trump’s administration plans to send letters to around 100 smaller countries with which the US has limited trade, warning them of the return of higher tariffs.
According to Bessent, the tariffs were initially set on 2 April but later suspended. If no progress is made, these countries could face the same tariff levels again starting 1 August.
“President Trump’s going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that, if you don’t move things along, then on August 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level,” Bessent said.
Leading up to July 9, Trump administration threatened to simply return to April tariff rates, or possibly even higher levies. They also floated the possibility of extending the pause for countries “negotiating in good faith,” without defining what that means or which it includes.
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Trump seems uncertain about the direction of trade agreements, stating, “We can do whatever we want. We could extend it; we could make it shorter,” Trump recently said. “I’d like to make it shorter. I’d like to just sent letters out to everybody, ‘Congratulations, you’re paying 25%.’”
“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, as reported by CNN.
He plans to send letters to around 100 countries, including India, outlining their new tariff rates, which could range from 10 per cent to 70 per cent. These tariffs are set to take effect on August 1, giving countries a chance to negotiate before then.
