Trump said he would set rates of U.S. tariffs through letters rather than wait for trade agreements with individual countries. The letters started going out this week.
US tariffs set to take effect August 1st in new deadline
The president said most tariff deals should be done by July 9th, but won’t take effect until August 1st.
- Trump threatened Canada with a 35% tariff on imports starting Aug. 1.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced a 35% tariff on goods from Canada, one of the USA’s largest trading partners and which got hit with a higher rate than threatened for other close allies.
The announcement July 10 came amid a flurry of letters going out this week dictating tariff rates for each of more than a dozen countries. Trump has offered to continue trade talks before the rates go into effect Aug. 1.
“We’re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay, whether it’s 20% or 15%. We’ll work that out now,” Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in a phone call.
Trump had already released other letters, such as a 50% rate for Brazil because he said that country was treating his ally, former president Jair Bolsanaro, unfairly. Close allies such as Japan and South Korea face 25% tariffs.
The threatened tariff was the latest in Trump’s on-and-off tax on imports from around the world. But among the three largest U.S. trading partners, Trump reached a framework for talks with China and still doesn’t have agreements with Canada or Mexico.
Trump cut off trade talks with the northern neighbor on June 27, complaining about Canada’s triple-digit tariffs on dairy products.
Trump had announced tariffs on countries worldwide on April 2. Then because of market jitters, he extended the deadline April 9 to July 9 so trade talks could continue. Wall Street reacted to the delays with a derisive nickname TACO, for Trump Always Chickens Out.
But Trump insisted the latest deadline will stand. He had announced over the weekend that talks with 170 countries were too complicated so that he would simply send out letters announcing the tariffs for each country. The letters began trickling out this week.
