Trump struck huge trade deals — but tariffs are about to go up on a huge swath of imports as Liberation Day tariffs hit
As of Thursday evening, the US had secured framework agreements calling for a 15% tariff on the European Union, a 10% duty on the United Kingdom, a 20% rate for Vietnam, a 19% levy for the Philippines and Indonesia, and a 15% levy on Japan and South Korea — while securing $2.25 trillion in promised investments and purchases of US goods.
Trump also allowed extensions for China and Mexico — two of America's top economic partners responsible for 27% of US trade, as he irons out the details and tries to open their markets to more American goods.
Countries who account for 40% of US trade were due to receive letters by midnight Eastern Time, informing them of new rates as high as 50%. Sectoral tariffs, including a 50% rate on foreign copper, aluminum and steel and a 20% on overseas pharmaceuticals, will also go into effect.
Notably, Canada — America's second largest trading partner and a particular target of Trump's ire — looks set for a new 35% duty.
But rates for more than 100 countries were still being negotiated with Trump's trade team Thursday afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Post in her regular briefing.
3 White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said tariffs will be imposed at midnight Eastern Time on Aug. 1, upon an executive order from Trump.
REUTERS
'Upwards of 200 countries around the world have reached out to their trade and tariff team,' Leavitt told reporters of the conversations had throughout negotiations, noting that the White House will continue to 'prioritize' key trading partners on the last stretch.
Leavitt wouldn't reveal the exact rates countries will be charged — but said Trump's team 'has been working around the clock to try to be in correspondence with as many countries as possible.'
It looked unlikely a deal with Canada — which bought $350 billion in American goods last year while exporting $412 billion to the US — could be struck before the tariffs kicked.
'They have to pay a fair rate,' Trump told reporters of the holdup Thursday. 'They have been charging very, very high tariffs to our farmers.'
Trump has also been leveraging America's economic power in the trade war by invoking other geopolitical grievances.
India was threatened with a 25% tariff, plus an additional penalty for importing Russian weapons and energy. And even though the US has a trade surplus with Brazil, South America's biggest economy will be hit with an astronomical 50% rate due to their treatment of Trump ally and former president Jair Bolsonaro.
3 Trump has threatened countries with tariffs as high as 50%.
AP
Trump first announced tariff hikes as a part of his 'Liberation Deal' announcement on April 2, threatening to impose high rates at a 'reciprocal' level to account for trade discrepancies and levies charged by trading partners.
He then paused his high tariffs a week later and set most rates at 10%, with the expectation that '90 deals' would be done in '90 days.'
Since then, Trump has made a number of key deals with major trading partners, and the administration has predicted the Aug. 1 deadline will push others to follow suit in the coming weeks and months.
Trump first made a deal with the UK in May, locking in a 10% tariff and securing the promise that the country will 'open up' their market to US goods, notably agricultural products like beef.
3 Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he won't accept a 'bad deal' from Trump, so the 35% rate may go forth.
REUTERS
The president then struck a 20% tariff deal with Vietnam, a 19% rate with the Philippines and Indonesia, a 15% rate with Japan and South Korea — and then announced a 15% rate on the European Union Sunday.
The EU deal was particularly impressive, as it significantly raised rates from their previous levels and includes pledges for the EU to buy $750 billion in American energy, invest $600 billion in new money in the US and purchase additional military equipment.
China, America's no. 3 trading partner, has separate ongoing negotiations and has a deadline of Aug. 12 to come to a final deal.
Mexico received a 90-day extension in a last minute phone call with Trump on Thursday, pushing their talks to a later date while keeping the 25% tariff as punishment for fentanyl crossing the border, a 25% tariff on cars and a 50% rate on the country's aluminum, copper and steel.
Other world leaders were calling Thursday asking for possible extensions, Leavitt said, but the ultimate decision rests with Trump, who has indicated that the deadline is firm.
'I think he's done really good work here to expand export opportunities for the US and our producers,' said Richard Stern, acting director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Stern said the preliminary frameworks for some of the deals will also ensure Americans' intellectual property isn't being stolen — and force a quicker decoupling from China critical for national security.
'We view tariffs as a good tool for statecraft negotiation,' he added. 'The EU is really on this knife's edge of moving closer to China or moving closer to us.'
'As of tomorrow, US tariffs will be higher than they have been in a century — and hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes will be paid for by American companies and consumers,' warned Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute.
Other unknown variables that could affect the tariffs were upcoming rulings by federal courts on Trump's powers to tax imports without congressional approval.
'The way I've been trying to describe it is there's a lot we still don't know and a few things we know,' Lincicome said. 'The US tariffs system has gone from, almost overnight, simple and transparent to a labyrinth of new requirements.'
Mark DiPlacido, a policy adviser at the trade protectionist think tank American Compass disagreed, saying: 'The Trump administration's trade strategy is working.'
'The trade deals struck in recent weeks will help reduce US trade deficits, reshore industry, and generate quality American jobs,' added DiPlacido, who worked in the Office of the US Trade Representative during the first Trump administration.
'While many predicted the worst when higher rates were announced in April, the administration has shown that tariffs can be used effectively to increase market access, revenue, and investment without major price increases, job losses, or economic instability.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Old trees and ageing farmers worsen outlook for top palm oil exporters
By Ashley Tang, Naveen Thukral and Bernadette Christina PONTIAN, Malaysia (Reuters) -Malaysian farmer Suratmen Mosman faces a dilemma that threatens to sap supply from the world's top palm oil exporters and drive up prices of the vegetable oil essential to billions of consumers worldwide in the next five years. The ageing trees on his plantation 300 km (185 miles) south of Kuala Lumpur are bearing less fruit, but the 85-year-old is holding off replacing them as he doesn't want to lose income while waiting the three to five years it takes for new trees to start yielding a crop and the years beyond that it will take for them to reach peak production. Government subsidies to encourage replanting are not as high as they once were and he needs to support his family. Used mostly as a cooking oil, but also to make cakes, cosmetics and cleaning products, palm oil makes up more than half of the world's vegetable oil supply and 85% of the crude product comes from Malaysia and Indonesia. But after decades of soaring output, the market is now at a tipping point as combined exports from the two producers are set to slow sharply, the result of stagnating production and efforts by Indonesia to divert more palm oil into the production of biodiesel. While financial markets have factored in the slowdown, there is growing evidence that plantations run by smallholders like Suratmen may be in worse condition than previously thought as ageing and lower-yielding trees are not replaced, which will add to the decline. Smallholders make up 40% of the plantations across Malaysia and Indonesia, so they play a vital role in the supply chain. Supplies to global markets from Indonesia and Malaysia could fall as much as 20% over the next five years, according to Reuters' calculations based on government and industry projections, some previously unpublished. Future output from smallholders may well be over-estimated because the condition of trees and the rate of planting new trees is worse than estimates by the governments in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, according to veteran industry figures Dorab Mistry and M.R. Chandran. That view is backed up by Reuters interviews with more than a dozen farmers and officials in Malaysia. And other previously unpublished data shows the acreage of plantations where trees are older than 20 years - a point at which they are considered beyond their peak - is growing fast. Mistry, a director of Indian consumer goods firm Godrej International and a long-term palm oil analyst who has been in the industry for more than 40 years, and Chandran, the former head of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association, estimated that more than half of the trees on Malaysian smallholder plantations are well past peak production. The estimate is significantly higher than Malaysian government data, which shows 37% of smallholder plantations are past their peak yielding phase. "Palm oil supplies are getting tighter," said Mistry, who bases his estimate on site visits to plantations, data analysis, and engagement with producers, traders, and other key industry players. "This is not just a problem in Malaysia but also in Indonesia. Though Indonesia's industry is younger, it will face the same problems in the next five years," he said. In Indonesia, just 10% of a 2016 government target to replant 2.5 million hectares (9,653 square miles) by 2025 had been met as of last October, publicly available government data showed. As a result, over one-third of oil palms among both smallholders and industrial plantations are either at or past their most productive years. Acreage for trees older than 21 years is set to rise 11% next year in Indonesia, according to previously unreleased data from state research firm Riset Perkebunan Nusantara (RPN). Reluctance in Malaysia and Indonesia to replace old trees, plus Indonesia's increased biodiesel mandates, point to a sharp drop in palm oil exports in the coming five years. Calculations based on Malaysian and Indonesia palm oil body estimates suggest combined exports are likely to drop to about 37 million metric tons by 2030, down by a fifth since 2024. Indonesia is likely to have around 20 million tons available for export, down by nearly a third from last year, according to forecasts from RPN and the Indonesia Palm Oil Association (GAPKI). There are no official forecasts for Malaysian palm exports by 2030, but Mistry said expectations are now that they will remain steady or decline slightly, reflecting a lack of consistent replanting and in contrast to earlier estimates of modest annual increases. Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture did not respond to requests for comment on the estimates for output and exports to drop. State-run industry regulator the Malaysian Palm Oil Board said it did not agree with the assessment that over 50% of smallholders' oil palm trees are beyond peak yielding age. "According to MPOB's 2024 data, only 36.2% of smallholders' oil palm trees are over 18 years old, and many smallholders have already begun replanting with government support," the board said in a response to questions from Reuters. To ease replanting costs, the government offers a 50% grant and 50% loan, it added. "The government values smallholders' contributions and continues to refine support schemes based on ongoing feedback to ensure long-term sustainability and inclusivity," it said. DEMAND RISING Industry projections indicate global demand will rise by 50 million tons by 2050, requiring minimum annual supply growth of 2%, Chandran said. However, he estimates production is on track to grow at just 1.5% annually, he said, based on ageing trees and slow replanting rates in both countries. The contrast to palm's earlier growth is stark. Palm doubled its share of the global vegetable oils market to 30.6% in the three decades to 1995, with Indonesian production growing an annual 8.1% and Malaysian output rising 3% over the same period. "There will be growing tensions between rising global demand and the challenge of expanding production sustainably," said Chandran, who is also chairman of IRGA, an agritech firm specialising in data analysis and field research. Already, strained palm oil supplies are pushing up costs for alternatives including soybean, rapeseed and sunflower oil. Last year, crude palm oil traded at a $39/ton premium to soybean oil compared to a $160 discount in 2023, according to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. Top buyer India's annual palm oil imports are set to drop below other edible oils for the first time this year as rising palm costs push refiners toward alternatives. RELUCTANT REPLANTERS Interviews with 11 small-scale Malaysian farmers found most were reluctant to replant as mature trees are their main income source amid two-year high prices. "I did not replant my trees as I do not have any other sources of income," Suratmen said, standing among his five acres of oil palms in Johor state's Pontian district. Some of his newer trees were planted on unstable peatland and lean at angles. "My replanting efforts are limited to replacing fallen trees or planting new ones in between existing trees," he said. Most smallholders converted rubber plantations to palm in the early 1990s and 2000s, so their trees have now reached the 25-year mark and are due for replanting, said National Association of Smallholders Malaysia president Adzmi Hassan. The challenge is compounded by mostly ageing landowners, many of whose children have moved to cities, leaving planters without the labour or physical capacity to replant. "You have to consider the plantation cost, the work to replant, and there are many independent smallholders who do not want to be tied down to a bank debt," said Mohd Sharul Haizam Shafei, 42, who owns 50 acres of plantation in Banting. In Malaysia, the replanting rate averaged about 2% over the past five years, half the government's 4% target, according to Malaysian Palm Oil Board data. REPLANTING COSTS DETER FARMERS While the Malaysian government provides a grant for half of replanting expenses, many smallholders are unwilling to take on debt to cover the rest, said Adzmi from the smallholders' association. He is lobbying the government to fully subsidise replanting, as it did before 2019, but that is seen as unlikely as the government is cutting subsidies elsewhere, including for fuel. Indonesia last year doubled replanting funding for smallholders, but Gulat Manurung, chairman of planters' group APKASINDO, said farmers struggle to access the funds due to land legality issues and complicated terms. With ageing trees, fresh fruit bunch yields for smallholders in Indonesia last year averaged 9.6 tons per hectare, Indonesia Palm Oil Board data showed, less than half the yields produced at larger state-owned and private plantations. The industry is in a bind to boost output as Malaysia caps total planted area while Indonesia, under pressure from the European Union and environmental groups, has a moratorium on new forest clearing for palm plantations. Suratmen, the farmer in Pontian, said without a full subsidy, he's not replanting. "Waiting for new trees to mature and produce fruit takes too long. We cannot support our families during those years without income from the trees," he said.
Los Angeles Times
7 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Texas Democrats leave the state to block vote on gerrymandered congressional map
Democrats in the Texas House left the state Sunday in a last-resort bid to block new congressional maps sought by President Trump that would give Republicans a better chance of preserving their narrow U.S. House majority in the 2026 midterm elections. The dramatic revolt came before the GOP-controlled House was set to vote Monday on the proposed maps, which would give Republicans five more winnable congressional seats. In response to Texas' rare mid-decade political gerrymander, Democratic governors in other states have floated the possibility of redrawing their own maps in retaliation, but their options are limited. Many of the Texas Democrats were bound for Illinois and a welcoming from Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender, who in recent weeks has offered them support. It was unclear how long they were prepared to stay out of Texas or whether the maneuver would succeed. Four years ago, House Democrats left Texas for 38 days in protest of new voting restrictions that still wound up passing once the holdout ended. 'This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,' Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement. Lawmakers can't pass bills in the 150-member Texas House without at least two-thirds of them present. Democrats hold 62 of the seats in the Republican-majority chamber, and at least 51 were leaving the state, said Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus. In addition to the Illinois group, five lawmakers headed to New York and another group went to Boston, Rush Nisenson said. Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows said the chamber would meet as planned Monday afternoon. 'If a quorum is not present then, to borrow the recent talking points from some of my Democrat colleagues, all options will be on the table,' he posted on X. Republican Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate, said on X that Democrats who 'try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.' A refusal by Texas lawmakers to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules. The Texas Supreme Court held in 2021 that House leaders had the authority to 'physically compel the attendance' of missing members, but no Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served that year. Two years later, Republicans pushed through new rules that allow daily fines of $500 for lawmakers who don't show up for work. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday. The quorum break will also delay votes on flood relief and new warning systems in response to last month's catastrophic floods in Texas that killed at least 136 people. Democrats had called for votes on the flooding response before taking up redistricting and have criticized Republicans for not doing so. Texas Republicans last week unveiled their planned U.S. House map that would create five GOP-leaning seats. Republicans currently hold 25 of the state's 38 seats. Pritzker, who has been one of Trump's most outspoken critics during his second term, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about offering support if they chose to leave the state to break quorum. Last week, the governor hosted several Texas Democrats in Illinois to publicly oppose the redistricting effort, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom held a similar event in his state. Pritzker also met privately with Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder in June to begin planning for the possibility that lawmakers would depart for Illinois if they did decide to break quorum to block the map, according to a source with direct knowledge who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations. Now, with many Texas Democrats holed up in Illinois and blocking the gerrymandered map proposal, the stage may be set for a high-profile showdown between Pritzker and Trump. The Republican president is looking to avoid a repeat of his first term, when Democrats flipped the House two years into his presidency, and he hopes the new Texas map will aid that effort. Trump officials have also looked at redrawing lines in other states, such as Missouri, according to a person familiar with conversations but unauthorized to speak publicly about them. Cappelletti and DeMillo write for the Associated Press. AP writer Nadia Lathan in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
Wall Street Journal
26 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Video: What's in the U.S.-South Korea Trade Deal?
A 15% headline tariff on South Korean goods. The deal removes uncertainty for Seoul, and tariffs are the same or lower than those on major trading peers, said President Lee Jae Myung. Plus the same rate for cars. Autos from the likes of Hyundai face a 15% tariff—similar to the levies on Japanese and EU vehicles—and down from a proposed 25%, according to a senior Seoul official. Duty-free treatment for the U.S. President Trump said U.S. exports to South Korea 'will not be charged a tariff.' A $350 billion U.S. investment commitment. South Korea has pledged some $200 billion of funding for chips, nuclear power, batteries and biotech, and $150 billion for shipbuilding, the Seoul official said. Trump said investments would be 'owned and controlled' by the U.S. Status quo for rice and beef. Seoul won't open its market further to U.S. rice or beef—moves that would have sparked significant backlash inside South Korea. Safeguards for semiconductors and pharma. Trump has threatened extra tariffs on these industries, but South Korea has received 'most-favored nation' treatment, the official said. This means South Korea won't face higher tariffs than other countries on those products.
