Trump says 25% tariffs coming for Japan and South Korea as trade war escalates again

Yahoo

6 days ago

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he's imposing a 25% tariffs on goods from Japan and South Korea beginning on August 1 as the Republican continues his pressure campaign on longtime U.S. allies who have not yet entered into new trade agreements with his administration.
Trump broke the news on July 7 via Truth Social, which is where he posted letters to the leaders of the two Asian economic powerhouses that warn of retaliatory and identical reciprocal increases "If for any reason you decide to raise your tariffs" on the United States.
Other letters from Trump are expected to focus on smaller U.S. trading partners. As many as 100 could go out in total before July 9, when the president's pause on higher tariff rates is due to expire. The administration said the rates would take effect on August 1, if countries did not come to another arrangement with the United States before that time.
The new date marks a delay by several weeks for the current deadline for the reciprocal tariffs to take effect. Trump unveiled his tariffs in early April, and then paused them after market turmoil. Last week, the president acknowledged a White House pledge was proving to be complicated that would see 90 different deals cut in 90 days with American's trading partners.
The administration ultimately spent much of the time negotiating with large nations and countries with which it has the most substantial trade deficits. The president and his advisers were also focused on pushing through Congress the massive tax and spending bill Trump signed into law on July 4.
Trump initially said he would put higher tariffs on a slew of nations on April 2 but paused them until 12:01 a.m. EDT on July 9 for most countries while his administration sought new trade deals. The so-called 'Liberation Day' tariffs rocked financial markets. They have since recovered, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq setting new records.
Since then Trump has announced trade deals with Vietnam and the United Kingdom and a framework agreement with China. He left in place a baseline tariff of 10% on most other nations and also increased tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and introduced exemptions for some foreign-made car parts and automotives. He also threatend
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The president said July 3 that because the process was easier he would soon begin sending out regular batches of tariff letters dictating rates to sell products in the United States, rather than negotiating scores of individual trade deals.
'How many deals can you make?' Trump told reporters. 'You can make more deals, but they're very much more complicated.' He added: 'It's just so many countries."
Disputes remained with major trading partners such as Canada, Mexico, India and the European Union heading into this week, although Trump's Treasury secretary said new proposals were flooding in with less than 48 hours until the July deadline.
As of early afternoon on July 7, the only letters Trump had published were directed at South Korea and Japan, which he hit with roughly the same reciprocal tariff rates as what had been announced before.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on CNN's "State of the Union" on July 6 that Trump would send out letters to 100 smaller countries with whom the U.S. doesn't have much trade, notifying them that they would face the tariff rate that Trump set in April and then suspended.
"President Trump's going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don't move things along, then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level. So I think we're going to see a lot of deals very quickly," Bessent told CNN.
Bessent denied that August 1 was a new deadline for negotiations. "We are saying this is when it's happening. If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to go back to the old rate, that's your choice," he told CNN.
Kevin Hassett, who heads the White House National Economic Council, in an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation" offered some wiggle room for countries engaged in earnest negotiations.
Contributing: Bart Jansen, Joey Garrison
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says 25% tariffs coming for Japan and South Korea