President Trump said Thursday his administration would begin sending letters out to other countries this week informing them of tariff rates they would have to pay to do business in the United States, downplaying his desire to strike dozens of individual trade deals.
“My inclination is to send a letter out and say what tariff they’re gonna be paying. It’s just much easier,” Trump told reporters as he departed for Iowa. “We have far more than 170 countries, and how many deals can you make? And you can make good deals, but they’re very much more complicated.”
“I’d rather send out a letter saying this is what you’re going to pay to do business in the United States,” Trump continued. “And I think it will be well received.”
The president said the letters would begin going out Friday to roughly 10 countries per day.
Trump threw out 20 percent, 25 percent and 30 percent as potential tariff rates, but it was not clear if those would be the numbers applied to other nations.
The president’s announcement comes ahead of a July 9 deadline imposed by the White House to broker trade agreements with other countries after the president had paused “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of other nations.
The pause was intended to give room for negotiations, and White House officials had for weeks touted progress on talks with various countries. Ultimately, the U.S. struck an agreement with the United Kingdom and Vietnam and agreed on a framework for a deal with China.
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