TMTPOST -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested he is open to extending a July 8 deadline for trade talks with major trading partners, and indicated he’s getting ready for tariff-setting for some countries to skip negotiations with them.
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Credit：Xinhua News Agency
Trump said he was willing to extend the deadline for countries to reach trade deals with the U.S., but he doesn’t feel that would be necessary. "I would," Trump replied when asked if he would be willing to extend the deadline. "But I don't think we're going to have that necessity," the president continued, speaking to reporters "we're rocking in terms of deals" right now.
Trump made the remarks a performance of "Les Miserables" at the Kennedy Center. Earlier Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent became the first senior Trump official that has indicated some flexibility for the tariff pause when he testified before the House Ways and Means Committee.
Bessent said trade are approaching the U.S. with “unimaginably good trade deals” that include steps to reduce non-tariff barriers. He cited researches that proved non-tariff barriers are as harm as tariffs.
Bessent emphasized throughout the hearing that he’s focused on negotiations with the 18 US trading partners who account for 90% of the trade and suggests that regional deals are possible with smaller countries. Questioned about whether the so-called reciprocal tariffs would enter effect when a 90-day pause ends, Bessent responded the Trump administration is “highly likely” to delay tariffs for countries involved in good-faith trade talks.
"It is highly likely that those countries - or trading blocs as is the case with the EU - who are negotiating in good faith, we will roll the date forward to continue the good-faith negotiations," Bessent told House of Representatives. ”If someone is not negotiating, then we will not.”
Trump on Wednesday also told reporters trade negotiations were continuing with about 15 countries, including South Korea, Japan and the European Union. He said the United States would send out letters in one to two weeks outlining the terms of trade deals to dozens of other countries, which they could embrace or reject.
Trump announced on April 9 in a post he has authorized a 90-day pause and “a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff” of 10% during this period, both effective immediately. The White House clarified that Trump’s announcement of a 90-day pause on tariffs means that the “tariff level will be brought down to a universal 10% tariff” during that time, while “negotiations are ongoing.”
More than a month later, Trump acknowledged the administration was unable to handle tariff talks with so many trading partners by a self-imposed deadline early July. The president on May 16 said he would set tariff rates for other countries “over the next two to three weeks”, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would send letters to these nations “telling people what they will be paying to do business in the United States.”
Trump didn’t specify which countries would receive letters about his proposed tariff rates and which would have the opportunities to start negotiations, but stated there are 150 countries seeking to make a deal. "I guess you could say they could appeal it, but for the most part I think we're going to be very fair. But it's not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us," said the president.
Bessent warned in interviews on May 18 that the Trump administration would resume its higher reciprocal tariffs on trading partners if they fail to make trade deals within the 90-day period of tariff pause.
Tariff rates will soon return the a “April 2 level” if countries don’t reach trade agreements during the aforementioned pause, Bessent told CNN. “President Trump has put them on notice that if you do not negotiate in good faith, you will ratchet back up to your April 2 level,” said Bessent, without specifying how fast the tariff rates could return the planned reciprocal level that the White House unveiled on April 2, a date U.S. President Donald Trump proclaimed “Liberation Day”.
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