US President Donald Trump has said he would release letters regarding tariffs and trade deals with seven more countries on Wednesday morning (US time). He also said that the United States may release more letters by noon.
The US President’s announcement comes a day after he released letters to 14 countries for revised and hiked tariffs.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote, “We will be releasing a minimum of 7 Countries having to do with trade, tomorrow morning, with an additional number of Countries being released in the afternoon.”
On Monday, Trump sent letters to 14 countries outlining higher tariffs they’ll face if they don’t make trade deals with the US by August 1.
In the letters, which were posted on Truth Social, Trump warned countries that they would face even higher tariffs if they retaliated by increasing their own import taxes.
The letters were not the final word from Trump on tariffs, so much as another episode in a global economic drama in which he has placed himself at the centre, news agency PTI reported.
His moves have raised fears that economic growth would slow to a trickle, if not make the US and other nations more vulnerable to a recession.
However, Trump is confident that tariffs are necessary to bring back domestic manufacturing and fund the tax cuts he signed into law last Friday.
He mixed his sense of aggression with a willingness to still negotiate, signalling the likelihood that the drama and uncertainty would continue and that few things are ever final with Trump.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump was setting the rates himself, creating “tailor-made trade plans for each and every country on this planet, and that’s what this administration continues to be focused on.”
Following a now well-worn pattern, Trump plans to continue sharing the letters sent to his counterparts on social media and then mail them the documents, a stark departure from the more formal practices of all his predecessors when negotiating trade agreements.
The letters are not agreed-to settlements but Trump’s own choice on rates, a sign that the closed-door talks with foreign delegations failed to produce satisfactory results for either side.
- Agencies
