Trump Administration once again has shifted the tariff kick off date to August 1, as Donald Trump is still on discussion with several countries to sign trade deals. The previous deadline was set on July 9.
Trump Moves Tariffs Date
While the August 1 deadline had been mentioned before, there had been some uncertainty about whether previous set deadline would extended or not. Clearing all those noises Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters that the increased tariffs will indeed take effect on August . He added that Trump is currently finalising both the trade agreements and the new tariff rates. The president also plans to send letters to around 100 smaller countries that don’t have significant trade.
“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 stated CNN as per Reuters.
Deal With 18 Key Partners
Bessent also said that the Trump administration is prioritising negotiations with 18 key trading partners, which together responsible for 95% of the US trade deficit. However, he noted that many of these countries have been slow to finalise agreements, calling it “a lot of foot-dragging.”
Bessent confirmed that countries like Taiwan and those in the European Union could see tariffs reinstated on their exports to the US starting August 1 if no bilateral deals are in place. The levies were part of a broader trade measure announced by Trump on April 2, but the administration temporarily paused them to give negotiations a chance.
Trump has frequently said that a deal with India is nearly complete and remains optimistic about reaching an agreement with the European Union, though he appeared less confident about the chances of a deal with Japan.
