Trump to Begin Sending Letters to Countries to Set Tariff Rates

President Donald Trump said on July 3 that he would begin sending letters to U.S. trading partners “probably tomorrow” to set their tariff levels.

During a press briefing beside Air Force One after the House of Representatives finally passed his massive tax cut and spending bill, Trump said that his administration is working on a “couple of other deals” but that he is inclined to send letters out and “say what tariffs they’re going to be paying.”

“It’s just much easier,” he said. “We have far more than 170 countries. How many deals can you make?”

Trump had said on Sunday that he would soon send letters to America’s trading partners ahead of his July 9 deadline detailing what tariffs would be imposed on their exports into the United States.

“What I will do just sometime prior to [July 9] is, we’ll send a letter to all these countries,” Trump said on the Fox News program “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo.

Back in April, the president gave countries 90 days to negotiate trade deals with America or face varying levels of reciprocal tariffs. The window expires on July 9.

Trump told Fox News that he was not considering any extensions to his deadline, like he has done with the TikTok divest-or-ban deadline.

“I’d rather just send them a letter—very fair letter—saying, ‘Congratulations, we’re going to allow you to trade in the United States of America,'” he said. “‘You’re going to pay a 25 percent tariff, or 20 percent, or 40 or 50 percent.’ I would rather do that.”

Since the United States trades with roughly 200 countries, Trump said the number makes it difficult to negotiate with all of them separately.

“And we’ll say, ‘We would consider it a great honor,'” he said. “‘And this is what you’ll have to do to shop in the United States … We wish you a lot of luck.’ And that’s the end of the trade deal.”

So far, the United States has reached trade agreements with India, China, and the United Kingdom, Trump said. Other deals with Canada, Mexico, the European Union, and Japan are pending.

On Thursday, Trump reiterated how difficult it is to make deals with so many different U.S. trading partners.

“It’s just so many countries,” he said. “And then they go into specifics … beef, ethanol, I’d rather just do a simple deal where you can maintain it and control it. ‘You’re going to pay a 20 percent, or 25, or 30 percent tariff.'”

“We’re going to be sending some letters out, starting probably tomorrow, maybe ten a day.”

Trump had said on Sunday that the letters would detail each nation’s tariff amount based on its U.S. trade deficit and how it treats the United States.

Emel Akan contributed to this report.