WASHINGTON — Countries around the world rushed Thursday to negotiate last-minute trade deals with the US before sweeping new tariffs take effect Friday — after President Trump already locked up major agreements accounting for about one-third of American trade.
As of Thursday evening, the US had secured framework agreements calling for a 15% tariff on the European Union, a 10% duty on the United Kingdom, a 20% rate for Vietnam, a 19% levy for the Philippines and Indonesia, and a 15% levy on Japan and South Korea — while securing $2.25 trillion in promised investments and purchases of US goods.
Trump also allowed extensions for China and Mexico — two of America’s top economic partners responsible for 27% of US trade, as he irons out the details and tries to open their markets to more American goods.
Countries who account for 40% of US trade were due to receive letters by midnight Eastern Time, informing them of new rates as high as 50%. Sectoral tariffs, including a 50% rate on foreign copper, aluminum and steel and a 20% on overseas pharmaceuticals, will also go into effect.
Notably, Canada — America’s second largest trading partner and a particular target of Trump’s ire — looks set for a new 35% duty.
But rates for more than 100 countries were still being negotiated with Trump’s trade team Thursday afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Post in her regular briefing.
“Upwards of 200 countries around the world have reached out to their trade and tariff team,” Leavitt told reporters of the conversations had throughout negotiations, noting that the White House will continue to “prioritize” key trading partners on the last stretch.
Leavitt wouldn’t reveal the exact rates countries will be charged — but said Trump’s team “has been working around the clock to try to be in correspondence with as many countries as possible.”
It looked unlikely a deal with Canada — which bought $350 billion in American goods last year while exporting $412 billion to the US — could be struck before the tariffs kicked.
“They have to pay a fair rate,” Trump told reporters of the holdup Thursday. “They have been charging very, very high tariffs to our farmers.”
Trump has also been leveraging America’s economic power in the trade war by invoking other geopolitical grievances.
India was threatened with a 25% tariff, plus an additional penalty for importing Russian weapons and energy. And even though the US has a trade surplus with Brazil, South America’s biggest economy will be hit with an astronomical 50% rate due to their treatment of Trump ally and former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Trump first announced tariff hikes as a part of his “Liberation Deal” announcement on April 2, threatening to impose high rates at a “reciprocal” level to account for trade discrepancies and levies charged by trading partners.
He then paused his high tariffs a week later and set most rates at 10%, with the expectation that “90 deals” would be done in “90 days.”
Since then, Trump has made a number of key deals with major trading partners, and the administration has predicted the Aug. 1 deadline will push others to follow suit in the coming weeks and months.
Trump first made a deal with the UK in May, locking in a 10% tariff and securing the promise that the country will “open up” their market to US goods, notably agricultural products like beef.
The president then struck a 20% tariff deal with Vietnam, a 19% rate with the Philippines and Indonesia, a 15% rate with Japan and South Korea — and then announced a 15% rate on the European Union Sunday.
The EU deal was particularly impressive, as it significantly raised rates from their previous levels and includes pledges for the EU to buy $750 billion in American energy, invest $600 billion in new money in the US and purchase additional military equipment.
China, America’s no. 3 trading partner, has separate ongoing negotiations and has a deadline of Aug. 12 to come to a final deal.
Mexico received a 90-day extension in a last minute phone call with Trump on Thursday, pushing their talks to a later date while keeping the 25% tariff as punishment for fentanyl crossing the border, a 25% tariff on cars and a 50% rate on the country’s aluminum, copper and steel.
Other world leaders were calling Thursday asking for possible extensions, Leavitt said, but the ultimate decision rests with Trump, who has indicated that the deadline is firm.
“I think he’s done really good work here to expand export opportunities for the US and our producers,” said Richard Stern, acting director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Stern said the preliminary frameworks for some of the deals will also ensure Americans’ intellectual property isn’t being stolen — and force a quicker decoupling from China critical for national security.
“We view tariffs as a good tool for statecraft negotiation,” he added. “The EU is really on this knife’s edge of moving closer to China or moving closer to us.”
“As of tomorrow, US tariffs will be higher than they have been in a century — and hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes will be paid for by American companies and consumers,” warned Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute.
Other unknown variables that could affect the tariffs were upcoming rulings by federal courts on Trump’s powers to tax imports without congressional approval.
“The way I’ve been trying to describe it is there’s a lot we still don’t know and a few things we know,” Lincicome said. “The US tariffs system has gone from, almost overnight, simple and transparent to a labyrinth of new requirements.”
Mark DiPlacido, a policy adviser at the trade protectionist think tank American Compass disagreed, saying: “The Trump administration’s trade strategy is working.”
“The trade deals struck in recent weeks will help reduce US trade deficits, reshore industry, and generate quality American jobs,” added DiPlacido, who worked in the Office of the US Trade Representative during the first Trump administration.
“While many predicted the worst when higher rates were announced in April, the administration has shown that tariffs can be used effectively to increase market access, revenue, and investment without major price increases, job losses, or economic instability.”
