President Trump seemed to pour cold water Sunday on the possibility of extending the July deadline he gave countries to cut lightning trade deals with the US or face the wrath of his “Liberation Day” tariffs.
Trump had implemented a 90-day extension on his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, and since then, his administration appears to have cut agreements with a few nations, such as the United Kingdom.
The president last week indicated that he would be flexible on the deadline for the rest — but then Sunday, appeared to pull back on that.
“It’s so simple,” Trump told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” in a pre-taped interview. ” We’re sending letters out. I’d rather do it now. We made deals. But I’d just rather send them a letter — a very fair letter — saying, ‘Congratulations, we’re going to allow you to trade in the United States of America.’
” ‘You’re going to pay a 25 percent tariff or 20 percent or 40 or 50 percent.’ I would rather do that.”
Trump had set a July 8 deadline for many countries and a July 9 date for Europe specifically to cut a deal or else the trading bloc would face 50% tariffs.
When pressed by Fox about whether he will extend the July deadline, Trump replied, “I don’t think I’ll need to because I could, no big deal.”
Trump then compared the tariff situation to his 90-day extension involving his demand that ByteDance, the Chinese-owned parent company of TikTok, divest its American version of the popular video-sharing platform.
“It’s like TikTok. I’m extending that, you know, but no big, we have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” Trump said, adding there is a group of “very wealthy investors” looking to buy the US version. “I think I will need probably China approval, and I think President Xi will probably do it. Who’s the buyer? I’ll tell you in about two weeks.”
Last week, when asked whether the tariff deal deadline was carved in stone, Trump told reporters, “No, we can do whatever we want.
“We could extend it. We could make it shorter.
“We’ve made a deal with probably four or five different countries,” Trump added.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the Trump administration has been focused specifically on its top 18 trading partners.
Since the beginning of the year, Trump has implemented a 10% baseline rate on all imports, 25% tariffs on most automobile parts and on foreign-made automobiles, 25% on foreign steel and aluminum and a 25% rate on imports from Canada and Mexico that aren’t subject to the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Trump also has threatened to impose 55% tariffs on China: the 10% baseline, 20% imposed over the fentanyl crisis and 25% of preexisting tariffs.
Last week, Trump revealed that he was ending trade talks with Canada in response to its tax on US digital services.
