Trump's country-specific tariffs to kick in after monthslong pause
"Tomorrow, August 1, the reciprocal rates will be going into effect," White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at a press conference, confirming that the pause will not be extended further.
Leavitt said countries that have not struck a trade agreement with the United States or have not received a letter with a new tariff rate will be informed by the deadline.
Trump announced sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs on April 2, targeting dozens of countries with which the United States runs trade deficits, before pausing them for 90 days to create time for negotiations.
The Trump administration later extended the pause to Aug. 1 amid little progress in its talks with major trading partners. But it managed to clinch trade deals with some of them in the last couple weeks.
Last week, the administration reached a trade deal with Japan under which Trump's so-called reciprocal tariff rate for the country was lowered to 15 percent from 25 percent in return for Tokyo committing to massive investment in the United States in the coming years.
As Japan promised to buy more energy and farm products from the United States, the agreement also resulted in Japanese autos being subject to a 15 percent tariff, down from the whopping 27.5 percent rate that took effect in April.
After Japan, the United States struck similar deals with the European Union and South Korea, with each securing tariff rates of 15 percent for the reciprocal and auto tariffs.
Although there will be no further delay in implementing country-specific tariffs, the administration has decided to grant several exceptions.
On Thursday, Trump said he will continue with the current 25 percent tariff on some Mexican goods imported to the United States for 90 days, avoiding the higher 30 percent tariff that he has threatened while the two countries negotiate during the period.
With China, the United States has a different 90-day tariff truce that is set to expire Aug. 12. In May, the two countries suspended most of the hefty tariffs levied on each other's goods for that duration.
Trump could extend the pause as early as this week following trade talks between senior U.S. and Chinese officials in Stockholm.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nikkei Asia
4 minutes ago
- Nikkei Asia
India's Reliance in bind over Trump's Russian oil pressure
Energy Top Indian buyer of Russian crude has ramped up purchases even as state entities pull back Reliance Industries bought 519.6 million barrels of crude oil from Russia from March 2022 through Aug. 4, roughly 20% more than the next biggest Indian importer. (Nikkei montage/Source photos by Reuters) SAYAN CHAKRABORTY BENGALURU -- U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff broadside against India over its trade ties with Moscow has put the spotlight on Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, which has procured more Russian crude than any local refiner since Russia invaded Ukraine over three years ago.
Asahi Shimbun
4 minutes ago
- Asahi Shimbun
VOX POPULI: Abrupt swerve in the government's rice policy is unnerving
Most passengers must have felt something was wrong when their bus started slowing down, running behind schedule. But the bus driver maintained that he was 'going fast enough' and didn't want to exceed the speed limit. He even braked repeatedly. And now, the driver says he is going to step on the gas. Huh? On Aug. 5, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced a major change in the nation's rice policy—from 'don't produce (rice)' to 'produce (rice).' His call for increased rice production signified a de facto switch from the government's long-established policy of curtailing rice production. Since last summer, the farm ministry has repeatedly insisted that there was 'enough rice.' However, an inspection reportedly revealed that rice was in short supply. Until the price of white rice doubled, the government remained unable to assess the volume of rice in circulation and estimate the demand. What a surprise. To return to the bus analogy, I suppose that the speed displayed on the driver's speedometer differed from the actual speed of the bus. In the first place, the government's traditional rice production curtailment policy always benefited rice farmers who minimized their output. And this served, without a doubt, to 'distort' their relationship with the free market. And now, the government is suddenly telling them to produce more rice. Things could certainly get a bit difficult in the days ahead. An old Chinese saying goes to the effect, 'For the emperor, the people are everything; for the people, food is everything.' It is probably a timeless and universal truism that the people will turn their backs on the rulers who fail to solve food-related issues. Where is our bus going? A fight has already begun over who is going to sit in the driver's seat, making the journey quite precarious. Is the bus going straight ahead, or will it swerve to the right or the left? We, the passengers, are growing really anxious. —The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 7 * * * Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
Yomiuri Shimbun
4 minutes ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
How RFK Jr.'S Mrna Crackdown Affects Vaccine Making and Future Pandemics
The Trump administration's decision to terminate hundreds of millions of dollars to develop mRNA vaccines and treatments imperils the country's ability to fight future pandemics and is built on false or misleading claims about the technology, public health experts said. Vaccine development is typically a years-long process, but mRNA technology paired with massive injections of federal funding during the coronavirus pandemic drastically slashed the timeline. The first covid shots, based on mRNA, were in people's arms less than a year after the United States recorded its first coronavirus case – a signature achievement of the first Trump administration. The flexible technology provided a road map for how to quickly respond to pathogens that are constantly evolving, including H5N1 avian bird flu, a candidate to spark the next pandemic. But research into H5N1 mRNA vaccines were among nearly two dozen mRNA projects supported by the government's biodefense agency that were terminated or altered, according to a Department of Health and Human Services statement released Tuesday. The moves affect $500 million in projects, according to HHS, including covid and flu therapeutics and vaccines. 'This represents a significant setback for our preparedness efforts in responding to infectious-disease outbreaks,' said Dawn O'Connell, the former assistant secretary of preparedness and response at HHS during the Biden administration. If viruses change, mRNA can be quickly rebooted and manufactured. But HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized mRNA vaccines, arguing that they are ineffective at fighting upper respiratory infections and keeping up with the mutations of a virus. Kennedy has a history of disparaging the mRNA coronavirus vaccines, in 2021 falsely calling them the 'deadliest vaccine ever made.' He has also said there was a 'poison' in it – claims refuted by medical experts. He has also been under pressure from anti-vaccine activists who say he has not done enough to remove mRNA vaccines from the market. The full scope of mRNA projects terminated was not immediately clear. Multiple companies mentioned by HHS did not immediately respond to questions. A spokesman for Moderna, which previously lost funding to develop an mRNA bird flu vaccine, said the company was not aware of new contract cancellations. The AstraZeneca program that HHS is restructuring is an RNA-based pandemic influenza vaccine that is in early stages of development. The company is exploring options for next steps, a spokeswoman said. An inhaled mRNA treatment for flu and covid being developed at Emory University was terminated. Some late-stage projects are proceeding, such as early human testing of an mRNA-based H5N1 candidate being developed by Arcturus Therapeutics 'to preserve prior taxpayer investment,' according to HHS. Gritstone Bio, which HHS said had a project proposal rejected, already ceased operating earlier this year after declaring bankruptcy. A terminated contract to Tiba Biotech was for a H1N1 flu treatment that was not based on mRNA, but a different RNA technology. The company received a stop work order late Tuesday afternoon. 'This comes as a surprise given the Department's stated goal of winding down mRNA vaccine development,' Jasdave Chahal, Tiba's chief scientific officer, said in an email. 'Our project does not involve the development of an mRNA product and is a therapeutic rather than a vaccine.' 'It's going to deter innovations,' said Dorit Reiss, a professor at the University of California College of the Law at San Francisco, whose research focuses on vaccine law and policy. 'Why invest in new technologies if the government can not only refuse to fund them, but if it's going to cancel already promised contracts?' HHS said in its statement that 'other uses of mRNA technology,' such as cancer treatments, are not affected by the announcement. But researchers worried that the Trump administration's criticism of the mRNA technology would have a chilling effect on one of the most promising fields in medicine. In 2023, Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman shared the Nobel Prize in medicine for fundamental work on mRNA that enabled the development of coronavirus vaccines. 'It's absolutely perplexing why this is happening,' said Jeff Coller, a professor of RNA biology and therapeutics at Johns Hopkins University who has studied mRNA for more than three decades. 'You have to sort of scratch your head to wonder why the secretary is directing these sort of actions against probably one of the most powerful platforms in medicine that has come along in the last 20 years.' Six scientific and medical experts said Kennedy and HHS offered misleading assessments of mRNA technology as they announced the termination of research. Here are the issues they flagged with some of the statements: 'The data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,' Kennedy said in a statement. It's true that mRNA vaccines can be ineffective at preventing coronavirus infections, although data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows they still offer some protection. But several scientific experts noted the primary purpose of vaccination is to prevent hospitalizations and death, which the mRNA vaccines have effectively done, according to CDC data. The FDA has not approved an mRNA flu vaccine, so experts said it was premature to make sweeping claims about its potential efficacy. 'One mutation and the vaccine becomes ineffective,' Kennedy said in a video. The coronavirus keeps evolving in a way that makes it easier to infect people who have some immunity from vaccination or prior infection. But medical experts said the mRNA vaccines have been resilient in maintaining protection against severe outcomes. Manufacturers have also been able to update formulas annually to better target new variants. 'That is actually one of the most powerful aspects of mRNA vaccines: that you can, in real time, develop new mRNAs against the virus as the virus changes,' Coller said. 'I'm not sure why that would be considered a bad thing.' 'We've seen now these epidemics of myocarditis,' Kennedy said at a news conference. Coronavirus vaccines designed using mRNA carry a very small risk of myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart, from the coronavirus vaccine, particularly in young men. However, medical experts said the data shows there is not an 'epidemic' of the condition; in fact, the rates of myocarditis and other heart illness are much higher from the virus instead of the vaccine. Jessica Malaty Rivera, an infectious-disease epidemiologist, said this rhetoric was part of the pandemic revisionist 'revenge tour.' 'Calling it an epidemic is absolutely misleading,' she said. 'Technologies that were funded during the emergency phase but failed to meet current scientific standards will be phased out in favor of evidence-based, ethically grounded solutions – like whole-virus vaccines and novel platforms' – HHS statement Scientific experts said a variety of vaccine types are often required to fight emerging infectious diseases. In some cases, whole-virus vaccines have been known to have serious side effects. Peter Hotez, a physician and co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, said he was surprised to hear HHS tout whole-virus vaccines because China had used a whole-virus vaccine for coronavirus that was 'pretty mediocre,' Hotez said. Kennedy is 'pushing a technology that is actually probably the most problematic of all vaccines we could pick,' Hotez said.
