In pausing his big reciprocal tariffs on most nations last month, President Donald Trump said countries were clamoring to negotiate trade deals.
The Republican president finally landed one of those deals on May 8 when he announced a trade agreement with the United Kingdom. Trump has a lot more deals to make, though, and in a relatively short time. They involve much larger trading U.S. partners such as China, Mexico and Canada, and potentially tougher negotiations.
Trump announced the reciprocal tariffs on April 2 and paused them for 90 days on April 9, except for China, amid plummeting financial markets and other troubling economic signs. Markets recovered their losses after the pause, with the S&P 500 now back around where it was more than a month ago and inching higher after the U.K. announcement.
More: Live updates: Trump announces trade deal with UK
“This is just the beginning,” Trump said on May 8 when asked about his message to Wall Street, which has been rattled by his economic agenda.
But the economic uncertainty surrounding Trump’s tariff plans remains pronounced, increasing speculation about whether potential off ramps are imminent or trade wars could ramp up again with various nations.
The biggest concerns revolve around China, which still faces 145% tariffs and has responded with big levies of its own on U.S. goods. The first signs of de-escalation are just starting to show between the world’s two largest economies.
A month into Trump’s 90-day reciprocal tariff pause, here’s what to know about where things stand with the GOP-led administration’s trade agenda:
Trump lands a deal
Under immense pressure to show his trade agenda is paying dividends, Trump celebrated the first tangible results with an announcement on May 8 in the Oval Office that included his economic team, the U.K. ambassador and the U.K. prime minister joining by telephone.
Trump touted the deal as “very big” and “maxed out” despite skepticism around its significance.
More: Stocks jump, bonds swoon after Trump unveils UK trade deal and Goldman warns on inflation
A universal 10% tariff on U.K. goods will remain, but under the agreement, the United States is lowering automobile tariffs from 25% to 10% on U.K. vehicles. The U.K. also said that 25% steel tariffs imposed by the U.S. were reduced to zero.
In exchange, U.S. officials said they are getting billions of dollars in access for U.S. agricultural products such as beef and ethanol.
Is this a template for future deals?
Trump indicated future deals may be less favorable for foreign nations than the one he made with the U.K., suggesting that instead of maintaining the universal 10% tariff, they could result in higher tariffs.
“The template of 10 is probably the lowest,” he said.
More: How will Trump’s tariffs affect grocery store prices? We explain.
The United States and the U.K. historically have had a close relationship. Trump never levied reciprocal tariffs on the U.K. In announcing the trade deal, he praised the U.K.’s luxury automobiles ‒ including Bentley, Jaguar and Rolls-Royce – and talked about his golf courses in the country.
What deals could be next?
Trump said during the U.K. announcement that there are “numerous deals” in the works but didn’t go into details.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers during a May 6 committee hearing that, except for China, negotiations have begun with the 18 countries he described as “major trading partners.” Bessent flew to Switzerland on May 8, where he will meet with Chinese economic officials for the first time.
When it comes to signing trade deals with the major trading partners, Bessent said, “I would be surprised if we don’t have more than 80% or 90% of those wrapped up by the end of the year, and that may be much sooner.”
“Many of our trading partners have approached us with very good offers, and we are in the process of renegotiating those,” he said.
Trump is traveling abroad next week to the Middle East, where the United States has significant trade and security interests, and economic issues will be a major focus.
Trump says ‘We don’t have to sign deals’
Before the U.K. deal was announced, Trump expressed frustration about the constant questions about trade negotiations.
“I wish they’d stop asking how many deals are you signing this week,” he said during a May 6 meeting with the prime minister of Canada.
The president said he’ll sit down in the next two weeks to consider potential trade deals. But his comments also seemed to indicate that some deals may never materialize.
“Everyone says: ‘When, when, when are you going to sign deals?” Trump said. “We don’t have to sign deals. We could sign 25 deals right now… if we wanted. We don’t have to sign deals. They have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market.”
What about China?
After Bessent said on May 6 that the United States wasn’t negotiating with China, the two sides appeared to make a breakthrough.
Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer traveled to Switzerland, where they will meet with China’s “lead representative on economic matters.”
Trump said he expects the discussions with Chinese leaders to be “very substantive.”
Trump escalated his trade war with China at the same time he paused reciprocal tariffs on every other nation. The standoff threatens to dramatically disrupt trade between the world’s two largest economies and hurt both economies.
More: President Trump says tariffs on China will ‘come down substantially’
The meeting in Switzerland could be the first step toward de-escalating the trade battle, and Trump said May 8 that the tariffs on China will come down.
“You can’t get any higher, it’s at 145, so we know it’s coming down,” he said.
However, the president also suggested in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired on May 4 that Americans could just buy fewer goods amid the tariff fight and expected consumer price hikes, using children’s toys as an example.
“I don’t think that a beautiful baby girl needs – that’s 11 years old – needs to have 30 dolls,” Trump said. “I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable. We had a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars with China.”
What else has the administration said about trade deals?
Trump said in announcing the 90-day reciprocal tariff pause that more than 75 countries contacted U.S. officials “to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs.”
Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” after the pause: “We’ve got 90 deals in 90 days possibly pending here.”
On April 15, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration has 15 trade deals on paper. Leavitt upped that number to 18 on April 22, adding that more than 100 countries had contacted the U.S. to discuss trade negotiations.
More: Empty shelves and high prices? What will happen if Trump doesn’t pivot on tariffs
“I spoke to our entire trade team this morning. There is a lot of progress being made. We now have 18 proposals on paper that have been brought to the trade team,” Leavitt said, noting Trump’s trade team was meeting with 34 countries that week.
Leavitt added: “We are moving at Trump speed to ensure these deals are made on behalf of the American worker and the American people.”
Those comments raised expectations that deals would start being finalized.
Why are deals taking so long?
Negotiating comprehensive trade deals can be a long, complicated process and some experts have questioned Trump’s short timeline for getting so many deals done.
Trump criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico when he first ran for president in 2016 and pushed to renegotiate it after he won. That process began on May 18, 2017, when Trump’s trade representative formally notified Congress of the administration’s intent to renegotiate the deal.
Leaders of the three nations signed the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in November 2018, more than a year later, and it didn’t take effect until 2020, after being approved by lawmakers in each nation.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump scores first big trade deal. What’s next? Here’s what to expect.
