Trump says pause on global tariffs won't last beyond Jul. 9

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he is not planning to extend his 90-day pause on tariffs on most nations beyond Jul. 9, the deadline he set for trade negotiations to take place.

During an interview on Fox News broadcast Jun. 29, Trump said that letters will start going out “pretty soon” before the approaching deadline.

He added that those letters would say, “Congratulations, we’re allowing you to shop in the United States of America. You’re going to pay a 25 per cent tariff, or a 35 per cent, or a 50 per cent, or 10 per cent.”

Asked if he plans to extend the pause, he replied, “I don’t think I’ll need to. I could – I mean no big deal. It’s like TikTok, I’m extending that,” adding that the U.S. has found a buyer for TikTok, though he will only reveal the buyer in “about two weeks”.

Only struck one deal so far

Trump also noted the deals made between the U.S. and its trading partners during the pause on tariffs, saying, "We made a deal pretty much with India, we made a deal with China, we made a deal with the UK – great people. We made deals."

“It’s 200 countries. You can’t talk to all of them, no matter how many people you have,” he added.

According to Reuters, his administration aimed to strike 90 trade deals during the 90-day pause he announced back in April, less than a day after the "reciprocal" tariffs had come into effect.

However, with only slightly over a week to the deadline, the UK is the only country to have successfully negotiated a deal.

CNBC reported that in May, Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer agreed to reduce the 25 per cent U.S. tariffs on key UK exports.

Yet, even as the deal took effect on Jun. 30 and reduced tariffs on the UK’s auto trade, tariffs on metals, which remain at 25 per cent, were left as an unresolved issue.

Extended deadline

According to Bloomberg, China appears to have an extended pause on the "reciprocal" tariffs past the Jul. 9 deadline, through a separate 90-day agreement with the U.S. that took effect on May 14.

“I think getting along well with China is a very good thing,” Trump told Fox News. “China’s going to be paying a lot of tariffs, but we have a big deficit; they understand that.”

Racing against time

Other countries, however, are racing to hammer out trade deals.

Canada's trade talks faces delays and only resumed after it rescinded its Digital Services Tax on U.S. technology companies, which were collectively expected to pay over US$2 billion (S$2.5 billion) to Canada on Jun. 30.

According to Canada's finance ministry, the U.S. and Canada will resume trade talks to strike a deal by Jul. 21.

Meanwhile, Japan is struggling to make progress on a trade deal with the U.S. for exports from its auto industry – a key pillar of the Japanese economy.

“We’ll look at how a country treats us – are they good, are they not so good?” Trump said in his Fox News interview. “Some countries, we don’t care, we’ll just send a high number out.”

Top image via Brendan Smialowski/AFP