US to set new tariff rates for scores of countries
US President Donald Trump has announced he will unilaterally impose new tariff rates for partner nations, telling them “what they’ll be paying to do business in the United States.” The latest announcement indicates the adminration’s limited capacity to handle a large number of simultaneous trade negotiations after Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement.
Speaking during a meeting with business leaders in the United Arab Emirates during his ongoing Gulf tour, Trump on Friday said: “We have, at the same time, 150 countries that want to make a deal, but you’re not able to see that many countries.” He added: “It’s not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us,” The Guardian quoted him as saying.
The US president said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would be tasked with informing certain countries of the new tariffs letter. “At a certain point over the next two or three weeks, I think Scott and Howard will be sending letters out essentially telling people – it will be very fair – but we’ll be telling people what they’ll be paying to do business in the United States,” he said.
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The move comes in the wake of the sweeping border taxes Trump imposed on 2 April, dubbed “Liberation Day,” which applied tariffs to goods from all of America’s trading partners. Since then, the White House has had to backtrack on some of the more aggressive measures after market volatility, including a significant sell-off in the bond market.
Among the revised actions: a temporary 90-day pause in tariff escalation with China, a bilateral trade deal with the UK to lower tariffs, and suspension of “reciprocal” tariffs on a number of partners including the EU. Nevertheless, a blanket 10 per cent tariff on all foreign imports remains in place.
The agreement with China this week was hailed Trump as a “total reset” in bilateral relations. Under the deal, China has agreed to lower its duties on US goods to 10 per cent, while the US will reduce its tariffs on Chinese imports from 60 per cent to 30 per cent.
The adminration has signalled its intention to prioritise major trading partners such as India, South Korea and Japan, with negotiations underway with the EU.
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