President Donald Trump is set to resume tariffs of up to 70 percent on dozens of countries as many trade deals have not materialized.
Trump said the White House would be sending out letters, starting Friday, to 10 countries at a time where trade deals are not yet in place, ahead of the July 9 deadline.
The president didn’t specify which countries in his remarks to reporters Thursday, but acknowledged it was “complicated” to negotiate with over 170 countries.
“So we’re going to start sending letters out to various countries starting tomorrow,” Trump told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base after returning from a rally in Iowa.
“They’ll range in value from maybe 60 or 70 percent tariffs to 10 and 20 percent tariffs.”
“We have more than 170 countries, and how many deals can you make?” Trump added. “They’re very much more complicated.”
Trump said “by the ninth they will be fully covered,” referring to the deadline the administration set for countries to reach a deal in order to swerve higher duties.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that about 100 countries could see 10 percent reciprocal tariffs.
“We’re going to do what the president wants,” Bessent told Bloomberg Television Thursday. “And he’ll be the one to determine whether they’re negotiating in good faith.”
In April, Trump put a 90-day pause on the “reciprocal” tariffs he had announced on so-called “Liberation Day” after the move spooked the stock market.
Trump and his team then promised “90 trade deals in 90 days,” but so far only deals with the U.K. and Vietnam have been announced.
The U.S. and China called a truce after Trump initially slapped tariffs as high as 145 percent on the world’s second largest economy. Goods from China are currently subject to 30 percent tariffs.
The president said he was not likely to extend the July 9 deadline, adding that a deal with Japan was unlikely.
“We’ve dealt with Japan. I’m not sure we’re going to make a deal. I doubt it,” Trump said Tuesday.
Bessent said that a “’framework” deal with the EU to avert 50 percent tariffs on all exports was close.
Skeptics say little progress has been made on making trade deals, leaving American businesses to grapple with economic uncertainty.
“We were promised ‘90 deals in 90 days.’ What we have at this point are ‘general frameworks’ for the U.K. and China,” Marc Short, who served in Trump’s first administration as legislative affairs director, told Politico last month.
