By Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu and Bart H. Meijer
WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The United States will make several trade announcements in the next 48 hours, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday, adding that his inbox was full of last-ditch offers from countries to clinch a tariff deal before a July 9 deadline.
The clock is ticking down for countries around the world to conclude deals with the U.S. after President Donald Trump unleashed a global trade war that has roiled financial markets and sent policymakers scrambling to protect their economies.
Bessent did not say which countries could get deals and what they might contain. Trump has kept much of the world guessing on the outcome of months of talks with countries hoping to avoid the hefty tariff hikes he has threatened.
“We’ve had a lot of people change their tune in terms of negotiations. So my mailbox was full last night with a lot of new offers, a lot of new proposals,” Bessent said in an interview with CNBC. “So it’s going to be a busy couple of days.”
TARIFF LETTERS TO START GOING OUT
Trump said the U.S. would start delivering tariff letters from 12 p.m. ET (1600 GMT) on Monday, but Bessent said they would not necessarily contain ultimatums.
“It’s just ‘thank you for wanting to trade with the United States of America,'” he said. “‘We welcome you as a trading partner, and here’s the rate, unless you want to come back and try to negotiate’.”
For its part, the European Union still aims to reach a trade deal by July 9 after Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Trump had a “good exchange”, a Commission spokesperson said.
It was not immediately clear, however, whether there had been a meaningful breakthrough in talks to stave off tariff hikes on the United States’ largest trading partner.
Adding to the pressure, Trump threatened to impose a 17% tariff on EU food and agriculture exports, it emerged last week.
Trump had on Sunday said the U.S. was close to finalising several trade pacts and would notify other countries by July 9 of higher tariff rates. He said they would not take effect until August 1, a three-week reprieve.
He also put members of the developing nations’ BRICS group in his sights as its leaders met in Brazil, threatening an additional 10% tariff on any BRICS countries aligning themselves with “anti-American” policies.
The BRICS group comprises Brazil, Russia, India and China and South Africa along with recent joiners Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.
Trump’s comments hit the South African rand.
EU SEEKS EFFECTIVE APPROACH TO TRUMP
More broadly, stocks drifted and the U.S. dollar held near multi-year lows after the U.S. flagged the tariff reprieve but failed to provide specifics.
The EU has been torn over whether to push for a quick and light trade deal or back its own economic clout in trying to negotiate a better outcome. It had already dropped hopes for a comprehensive trade agreement before the July deadline.
“We want to reach a deal with the U.S. We want to avoid tariffs,” the spokesperson told reporters at a daily briefing. “We want to achieve win-win outcomes, not lose-lose outcomes.”
Without a preliminary agreement, broad U.S. tariffs on most imports would rise from their current 10% to the rates set out by Trump on April 2. In the EU’s case, that would be 20%.
Von der Leyen also held talks with the leaders of Germany, France and Italy at the weekend, Germany said. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has repeatedly stressed the need for a quick deal to protect industries vulnerable to tariffs ranging from cars to pharmaceuticals.
The German spokesperson said the parties should allow themselves “another 24 or 48 hours to come to a decision”.
Germany’s Mercedes-Benz said on Monday its second-quarter unit sales of cars and vans had fallen 9%, blaming tariffs.
Russia said BRICS was “a group of countries that share common approaches and a common world view on how to cooperate, based on their own interests”.
“And this cooperation within BRICS has never been and will never be directed against any third countries,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu, Bart H. Meijer, Friederike Heine, Dmitry Antonov, Amir Orusov, Ilona Wissenbach; Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
