Trump officials unveil new, delayed deadline for tariffs
President Trump is set to send out the first batch of letters on Monday to other nations informing them of new tariff rates, but those tariffs won’t go into effect until Aug. 1, White House officials said.
Trump has in recent days teased that his administration will begin informing countries of the tariff rate they will pay to do business in the United States, essentially punting on efforts to broker trade deals with dozens of other nations after he paused “reciprocal” tariffs for 90 days.
But his top economic officials said Sunday that the new tariff rates would not go into effect for a few weeks still, once again providing potential wiggle room for further negotiations.
“President Trump's going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners, saying that, if you don't move things along, then, on Aug. 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level. So I think we're going to see a lot of deals very quickly,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Bessent noted that the administration will be sending out “probably 100 letters to small countries where we don’t have very much trade.”
Trump announced Sunday that letters would begin going out at noon on Monday informing countries of the tariff rates they will have to pay to do business with the United States. He suggested some letters could be announcing “deals,” though the U.S. has only announced trade agreements or a framework of an agreement with the United Kingdom, China and Vietnam.
“We're going to be sending letters out on Monday, having to do with the trade deals. It could be 12, maybe 15…And they'll be going out on Monday, and a couple on Tuesday and Wednesday,” Trump told reporters Sunday. “And we've made deals also, so we can have a combination of letters, and some deals have been made.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick chimed in at one point to clarify the timeline.
“But they go into effect on Aug. 1. Tariffs go into effect Aug. 1, but the president is setting the rates and the deals right now,” Lutnick said.
The timing and severity of tariffs on other nations has been a constantly shifting target since Trump took office after vowing on the campaign trail to aggressively impose duties on imports. Trump has reportedly threatened tariffs on other nations, only to back off or delay their imposition.
The president on April 2 announced “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of other countries, using trade deficits to help calculate the tariff rate. But a week later, he lowered those rates to 10 percent for 90 days as markets reacted negatively, giving time for negotiations. The 90-day window is set to expire on Wednesday.