Donald Trump has said the US will unilaterally send letters to some of its trading partners to impose new tariff rates, suggesting that Washington is not capable of reaching individual trade deals.
Emphasizing the challenge of the White House negotiating deals with many countries at once, Trump said he “can’t meet the number of people he wants to see.”
During a meeting with UAE business leaders on the US presidential tour of the Gulf, he said:
The president said his Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were to “sentially send letters” of what would be the tariff rates imposed on exporting goods to the US market.
“At some point in the next two or three weeks, I think Scott and Howard will essentially send letters to people – that’s very fair – but we tell people what they’re going to pay to do business in the US,” he said.
Trump’s comments reveal the difficulties of the tasks the president has set for his administration after he imposed cleaning on imports from all US trading partners on the “liberation date” on April 2nd.
Washington has withdrawn some of its toughest measures after a backlash in the bond market, including suspending “mutual” tariff rates for many trading partners, including the EU, attacking trade contracts to lower tariffs with the UK, and agreeing to a 90-day suspension with China. Universal tariffs of 10% on all imported foreign goods remain.
Earlier this week, Trump welcomed a “full reset” of China-US relations after the country agreed to a suspension. This would reduce US goods duties to 10% while lowering US taxes on Chinese goods to 30%.
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The White House shows that negotiations with the EU are ongoing, while prioritizing consultations with dozens of the US’s largest trading partners, including India, South Korea and Japan.
However, his comments suggest that Washington lacks the bandwidth to negotiate with hundreds of countries at once, but that the president will instead push for dictating terms.