Trump says countries will face tariffs ranging from 15% to 50%
'We will have a straight, simple tariff of anywhere between 15 per cent and 50 per cent,' Trump said on Wednesday (Jul 23) at an AI summit in Washington. 'A couple of – we have 50 because we haven't been getting along with those countries too well.'
Trump's comment declaring that the tariffs would begin at 15 per cent represented the latest twist in his effort to impose duties on nearly every US trading partner, and the latest indication that Trump was looking to more aggressively impose the levies on exports from countries outside the small group that so far has been able to broker trade frameworks with Washington.
Trump earlier this month said that more than 150 countries would receive a letter including a tariff rate of 'probably 10 or 15 per cent, we haven't decided yet'. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CBS News on Sunday that small countries, including 'the Latin American countries, the Caribbean countries, many countries in Africa', would have a baseline tariff of 10 per cent. And at the first announcement of the tariffs in April, Trump unveiled a universal tariff of 10 per cent on nearly every country.
While Trump and his advisers initially expressed hopes of securing multiple deals, the president has been touting the tariff letters themselves as 'deals' and suggesting that he is uninterested in back-and-forth negotiations. Still, he has left the door open for countries to make agreements that could lower those rates.
On Tuesday, Trump announced he was reducing a threatened 25 per cent tariff on Japan to 15 per cent in exchange for the country removing restrictions on some US products as well as offering to back a US$550 billion investment fund. Other nations, including South Korea, India, and members of the European Union, are still pushing for an agreement before the heightened tariffs go into effect.
On Wednesday, Trump said that he would 'have a very, very simple tariff for some of the countries' because there were so many nations that 'you can't negotiate deals with everyone'. He said talks with the European Union were 'serious'.
'If they agree to open up the union to American businesses, then we will let them pay a lower tariff,' Trump said. BLOOMBERG
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