Trump says Japan will receive trade letter
"I have great respect for Japan, they won't take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage," he said in a Truth Social post.
"We'll just be sending them a letter, and we love having them as a Trading Partner for many years to come."
Trump did not say what terms would be outlined in the letter.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters at the White House that Trump "is going to finalise the frameworks we negotiated with a whole bunch of countries after the weekend".
.@PressSec: "It was a mistake for Canada to vow to implement that [Digital Services Tax] that would've hurt our tech companies here in the United States... and the Prime Minister called the President last night to let the President know that he would be dropping that tax." pic.twitter.com/PJ0HjYwLX2
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 30, 2025
Trump has suggested that the US will be sending letters to many countries, informing them of the new tariff rates they will face from the US after a July 9 deadline when the president's 90-day pause on "reciprocal" tariffs expires.
Hassett said of tariff negotiations with Japan that there will "still be discussions right up to the end".
Hassett also confirmed on Monday that US-Canada trade negotiations would resume after Canada scrapped plans for a digital services tax targeting US technology firms.
"Absolutely," Hassett said on Fox News Channel when asked about the talks restarting.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called Trump on Sunday evening to tell him the tax was being dropped, calling it a big victory for US tech companies.
"Very simple. Prime Minister Carney in Canada caved to President Trump and the United States of America," she said, crediting Trump's hard-line negotiating style for the shift.
"President Trump knows ... that every country on the planet needs to have good trade relationships with the United States, and it was a mistake for Canada to vow to implement that tax that would have hurt our tech companies here in the United States," she said.
Trump had asked Canada to drop the tax at a G7 meeting in Canada earlier in June, Hassett said.
"It's something that they've studied, now they've agreed to, and for sure that means that we can get back to the negotiations."
Canada's finance ministry said late on Sunday that Carney and Trump would resume trade negotiations in order to agree on a deal by July 21.
"Thank you Canada for removing your Digital Services Tax which was intended to stifle American innovation and would have been a deal breaker for any trade deal with America," US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick responded in a post on X.
Stocks hit record highs on Wall Street on Monday morning as sentiment in the markets rose amid optimism about US trade negotiations with key partners including Canada.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also struck an optimistic tone over the potential for "a flurry" of trade deals ahead of a July 9 deadline, after which 10 per cent US tariff rates on imports from many countries are set to snap back to Trump's April 2 announced rates of 11 per cent to 50 per cent.
But Bessent, speaking on Bloomberg Television, warned that countries may not get extensions from that deadline even if they are negotiating in good faith as he suggested previously.
Any extensions would be up to Trump himself, Bessent said.
Leavitt said Trump was meeting his trade team this week to set tariff rates for those countries that were not negotiating.
"He is going to set the rates for many of these countries if they don't come to the table to negotiate in good faith, and he is meeting with his trade team this week to do that," she said.
with AP
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