Washington, DC: Despite announcing tariffs on 14 countries, President Donald Trump said Monday night (local time) that the United States is nearing an agreement on trade with India.
Trump told reporters that the United States has struck an agreement with China and the United Kingdom while hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday (local time). He said he had written to the countries he thought would not negotiate with the United States.
Trump said, “We’ve spoken to everybody….it’s all done,” in response to a question about tariffs. As I already said, we will negotiate, but primarily, we will issue a letter. If you want to take part in the greatest, most prosperous nation in history, we’re going to say, welcome to the United States. We’re doing better than ever, really. Numbers like these have never been seen before. This is the largest investment we have ever had. In fact, we have a lot more than ninety. However, the majority of them will be forwarded to letters. I said just this. We have now reached an agreement with the United Kingdom. We have an agreement with China. We are on the verge of reaching an agreement with India. We met with others, but we don’t believe we can reach an agreement. We just write them a note.
“You must pay this amount if you want to play ball. In my opinion, we’re over. Letters informing different nations of the amount of tariffs they must pay are being sent out. Some people may make minor adjustments based on their purpose. We won’t treat it unfairly, because in reality, it’s a tiny portion of what we ought to get. We might be asking for much more, and we should be. However, we’re doing it the way I do for the benefit of our ties with many excellent nations. We could be receiving much more. We’re asking for a lot more than that,” he said.
His comments followed his announcement of increased tariffs that would go into effect on August 1 for 14 countries, including Bangladesh, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Myanmar.
On his social media site Truth Social, Trump earlier released letters his government wrote to 14 nations alerting them to the reciprocal tariffs that would go into force on August 1.
Trump first released the correspondence addressed to South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Two hours later, he said that identical letters had been dispatched to Myanmar, Laos, South Africa, Kazakhstan, and Malaysia.
He later revealed tariff letters that were addressed to the leaders of other nations, such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Tunisia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Thailand, and Serbia.
The letters state that Bangladesh and Serbia would each be subject to a 35 percent duty, while Thailand and Cambodia will each be subject to a 36 percent tariff. Trump said in the letters that Kazakhstan and Malaysia would each be subject to 25% tariffs.
Exports from Myanmar and Laos to the US will be subject to a 40% levy. Indonesia will be subject to a 32% tariff. On August 1, South African and Bosnian and Herzegovinian imports would be subject to 30% taxes. The letters state that Tunisia will be subject to a 25% tariff.
Trump announced that South Korea and Japan will be subject to a 25% tax starting on August 1 in letters to the prime minister of Japan and the president of South Korea.
Trump said in the letters that if the nations increased their taxes on importing American goods, he would raise the tariff rate by the same amount. The US president did, however, say that if these nations changed their trade practices, he would be prepared to lower these duties.
US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order postponing his tariff deadline from July 9 to August 1, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had said.
According to CNN, Trump gave countries 90 days to negotiate trade agreements with the US or risk hefty tariffs. The deadline is set for July 9. Trump announced new “reciprocal” tariff rates for important US trade partners on April 2. Some of the penalties might reach 50%.
According to CNN, Trump announced a three-month halt to allow countries more time to negotiate with the US after the tariffs caused a sell-off on Wall Street and a backlash from the bond market after they went into effect on April 9.