Trump to start informing countries of US tariff rates as EU yet to reach deal
'My inclination is to send a letter out and say what tariff they're going to be paying,' he told reporters on Thursday. 'It's just much easier.'
He added: 'We're going to be sending some letters out, starting probably tomorrow.'
His comments come days before steeper duties are set to take effect on dozens of economies – customised to each of them – ranging from Taiwan to the European Union.
The tariffs were announced in April, where Trump imposed a 10% duty on goods from almost all trading partners, with a plan to step up these rates for a select group within days.
But he swiftly paused the hikes until 9 July, allowing for trade talks to take place.
Advertisement
Since then, countries have been pushing to strike deals that would help them avoid the tariff rates.
US officials have signaled that there could be a flurry of trade pacts announced in the coming days.
But so far, the Trump administration has only unveiled deals with the UK and Vietnam, while Washington and China agreed to temporarily lower staggeringly high levies on each other's products.
As his July deadline approaches, Trump has repeatedly said he plans to inform countries of US tariff rates by sending them letters.
'The work continues'
The Republican leader had threatened to
impose a 50% tariff on 9 July on the EU if it cannot secure a deal
.
Negotiations, at the time, had stalled, but European leaders say there has been a positive change and remain ongoing.
The EU's trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic was in Washington this week in an attempt to negotiate a deal. Tánaiste Simon Harris was among those last week to back a zero-tariff trade agreement.
Wrapping up a productive week of work in Washington, DC. It was good to meet with
@USTradeRep
@jamiesongreer
, Secretary
@howardlutnick
, and
@SecScottBessent
.
Heading back to Brussels - the work continues. Our goal remains unchanged: a good and ambitious transatlantic trade deal.
pic.twitter.com/kqbk1VNShI
— Maroš Šefčovič🇪🇺 (@MarosSefcovic)
July 4, 2025
Related Reads
'We need an agreement': Tánaiste Harris calls on EU to reach tariff deal with US
Ireland seeking that EU avoid implementing counter tariffs on the US, cabinet to hear
But a deal has yet to be struck. Posting on social media late last night, Sefcovic said he was 'wrapping up a productive week in Washington'.
'Heading back to Brussels – the work continues,' he wrote.
'Our goal remains unchanged: a good and ambitious transatlantic trade deal.'
Should a mutual agreement not be reached, the EU has said it will impose its countermeasures on the US on 14 July.
There are serious concerns that the US's response to the EU's countermeasures
could impact Ireland's lucrative aviation, pharma, drinks and agri-food industries
.
With reporting from
© AFP 2025
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
Learn More
Support The Journal
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
35 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Irish rents rise by 115% since 2010, more than four times EU average
Average rents in Ireland rose by 115 per cent between 2010 and 2025, according to new figures from Eurostat. The cumulative increase was more than four times the European Union (EU) average (27.8 per cent). Eurostat said rents increased in 26 EU countries between the first quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2025, with the highest increases registered in Estonia (220 per cent), Lithuania (184 per cent), Hungary (124 per cent) and Ireland (115 per cent). Greece was the only country where rent prices decreased (-11 per cent). READ MORE Eurostat also assessed the changes in house prices over the same 15-year period. Average prices in Ireland were found to have risen by just over 80 per cent compared to an EU average of 57.9 per cent. [ Private rental sector has lost more than 43,000 properties over past five years Opens in new window ] The figures show Irish house price have been on something of a rollercoaster since the depths of the financial crisis in 2010 when they fell by 12.5 per cent. That was followed by declines of 17.8 per cent, 14.7 per cent and 0.5 per cent in 2011, 2012 and 2013. However, they rebounded in 2014, rising by 15.2 per cent and rose every year, barring 2023, since. How the wealthy are buying up land to avoid inheritance tax Listen | 22:03 When comparing the first quarter of 2025 with 2010, house prices increased more than rents in 21 of the 26 EU countries for which data are available, Eurostat said. They more than tripled in Hungary (260 per cent) and Estonia (238 per cent) and doubled or more than doubled in nine EU countries: Lithuania (194 per cent), Latvia (154 per cent), Czechia (147 per cent), Portugal (130 per cent), Bulgaria (125 per cent), Austria (113 per cent), Luxembourg and Poland (both 102 per cent) and Slovakia (100 per cent). [ Landlords rail against rent control reforms Opens in new window ] Italy was the only country where house prices decreased, falling 4 per cent. Eurostat noted that house prices and rents in the EU followed a similar pattern between 2010 and the second quarter of 2011 'but have since evolved differently'. 'While rents have increased steadily, house prices have followed a more variable pattern, showing a staggering increase between Q1 2015 and Q3 2022, followed by a small drop and stabilisation, before increasing again since 2024,' it said.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Ryanair to increase size of free cabin baggage allowance
Ryanair is to increase the size of it free cabin baggage allowance. The low-cost Irish carrier is now granting a more generous allowance, just as lawmakers in Europe debate how much baggage passengers can bring on board for free. It's an amount equal to the size of a six-inch cube — enough for customers to bring a couple of extra T-shirts along. Currently, Ryanair passengers are allowed to take a free bag measuring 40x25x20cm onboard and place it under the seat in front. This will increase to 40x30x20cm — an extra 5cm (two inches) along one side — a Ryanair spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Airlines' varying luggage-size requirements have long led to customer confusion and frustration, as some get charged extra at the gate if their bag is oversized. Members of the European Parliament, the EU's legislative body, have proposed requiring two free cabin bags. On Wednesday the airlines' trade body, Airlines for Europe (A4E), announced standards for the free under-seat bag that its members will roll out by the end of summer. The group, which includes Ryanair and network carriers like Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Air France-KLM and British Airways parent IAG SA, will adhere to minimum dimensions of 40x30x15cm, it said. EasyJet Plc said it will also exceed A4E's minimums by maintaining its free luggage allowances. This is the first time a framework has been set out for smaller bags that passengers can take onboard as part of the fare. A4E has objected to a two-bag minimum, saying such requirements strip passengers of choice and force services on them that they don't need. 'What's next? Mandatory popcorn and drinks as part of your cinema ticket?' Ourania Georgoutsakou, A4E's managing director, said in a June statement. - Bloomberg
Irish Post
2 hours ago
- Irish Post
The Ireland that still works
THIS Ireland might be a small island on the edge of Europe. An often wet, windy, place facing out into the Atlantic. It's beautiful and, if you ever leave and come back you realise just how it is very, very green. It's distinctively itself with a long cultural history. The world is more different now though than even twenty years ago. Due to communication advancements and technology what happens in New York happens in Newtownmountkennedy too. For good or for bad, take your pick, we're interconnected in ways unimaginable even a decade ago. Loud, noisy, insistent, the modern world is in rural Cork as much as it is in Chicago. Which is why, in an increasingly tense, unstable world, even apparently slight things can take on a much larger echo. We are, much to our detriment, becoming increasingly inured to the crass and rash things the President of the United States says. He has clearly operated along the principle of saying the unsayable so often that it becomes everyday. He utters the shocking thing so much that we are no longer shocked. With a world teetering on God-only-knows-what one more little cruel aside from a man dedicated to such sayings can appear utterly trivial. It shows, though, the bar at which we now operate. Not only that but this casual cruelty leaks everywhere now. It sets the tone. In response to the shocking shooting dead of two politicians in Minnesota Trump was asked if he would call the Governor there to, presumably, sympathise and offer support. This was his response. 'I think the Governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I'm not calling him. Why would I call him? The guy doesn't have a clue. He's a mess. So I could be nice and call him. But why waste time?' What is most disturbing about this is not that Trump would say such a thing, such an utterly cruel thing, but that we now think so little of it that it doesn't even come anywhere near a headline. One of the enduringly fine things about Ireland is the way society works. We have problems, of course, prejudice, bigotry, we have unpleasant people, people you just want to avoid. We're not the Hollywood Ireland of smiling leprechauns and rainbows. Ireland is a just a country like any other country. A place like every other, full of the whole gamut of humanity. What we do have, though, is a society that works. Yes, we have enormous housing problems, enormous health inequalities, we do a lot of things in a way that I would disagree with intensely. But on an everyday level society works. It works because people treat each other with understanding and patience and kindness. Of course, there are exceptions to this too but the overall impression you get from interactions in Irish society is that people are friendly and considerate. It might sound trivial but it is the very thing that oils society along, that makes it work, that makes life pleasant. It is not trivial but essential. In everyday discourse, for instance, people are calm and obliging. It is not nothing. If, for instance, we conducted ourselves the way people do online, the President of the United States, for instance, who behaves like an online troll, what would that be like? If we engaged in endless petty resentments and regurgitated vitriol and an inability to display civility even at the most extreme moments, what would that be like? Isn't that the worry? Our culture is now so influenced by outside, technologically inspired, behaviours it has to be a concern that one of the planet's most influential men is like this. Not so long ago teachers expressed concern about the influence of online influencers on young Irish men in particular. What if our culture becomes open to the idea that this casual cruelty and arrogance is the way we should conduct ourselves? Ireland's smallness and geography has shaped the country and the people. Technology makes so much of that irrelevant. It makes us vulnerable to things we wouldn't have imagined. How ironic that people fear the country will be changed by the immigrant family down the road working hard for a better life but not by the loudmouths yelling awfulness through the devices they always have with them.
