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2 trade deals and 2 in the works: Was Trump forced to extend his deadline?

2 trade deals and 2 in the works: Was Trump forced to extend his deadline?

First Post6 hours ago
Trump has delayed his plan to impose new tariffs on trading partners until August 1, amid slow progress on trade talks and rising concerns about economic and diplomatic fallout. So far, only two trade deals have been reached, leaving many countries facing the threat of steep tariffs. read more
US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Morristown Airport as he departs for Washington, in Morristown, New Jersey, US, July 6, 2025. File Image/Reuters
President Trump has pressed ahead with plans to raise tariffs on America's trading partners, but his original July 9 deadline for imposing new 'reciprocal' tariffs has now been delayed to August 1 for most countries. The White House said the extension is meant to allow more time for negotiations, but limited progress so far suggests Trump may have been forced to push back the timeline to avoid economic turmoil and diplomatic backlash.
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Despite Trump's earlier pledge to secure '90 deals in 90 days,' only two preliminary agreements have been reached so far — one with Britain and one with Vietnam. Both are broad frameworks rather than full trade pacts and still require further negotiations.
The deal with Vietnam includes a 20 per cent minimum tariff, which is lower than the threatened 46% but higher than the previous 10 per centbase rate during the tariff pause.
A temporary truce has also been struck with China, where both sides agreed to roll back some tariffs for now.
Two more deals in works
Talks with India and the European Union are ongoing but remain unresolved: Negotiations with India are stuck over US demands for greater access to India's agriculture and dairy markets. The European Union is considering accepting a 10 per cent tariff on cars but wants exemptions for other sectors.
Trump has sent letters to 13 countries that haven't reached deals, warning that new tariffs ranging from 10% to 70% will start on August 1 if no agreements are reached. Major U.S. allies like Japan and South Korea were among the first to receive these notices.
On top of that, Trump has threatened an extra 10% tariff on countries aligning with 'anti-American' BRICS policies, though details remain unclear.
The looming tariffs have fueled uncertainty in global markets and heightened diplomatic tensions. Economists caution that sharp tariff increases could risk triggering a global recession, although US markets have stayed relatively stable during the current pause.
Ultimately, while the White House frames the delay as a negotiation tactic, the lack of finalized deals and growing international pressure strongly suggest that Trump was forced to extend his tariff deadline to avoid immediate economic and diplomatic fallout.
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Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel "But getting some reasonable framework is clearly going to be a relief for the Indian market because unpredictability is worse than predictability even if the predictability means a little more tariffs and frankly India opening up its economy in some sectors which it may not have been willing to otherwise is long-term very good for the Indian economy 's health in terms of making it more competitive and more open," says Arvind Sanger Well, clearly, the US markets were off a little bit today because of this news about new round of tariffs or reinstatement of the old tariffs in some countries. Luckily, there is time till August one, so the markets did not fall too badly. They fell a little bit 70 bps, 70 basis points in the US S&P from an Indian market standpoint, it is good news. It is now the second or third time in the last few days that President Trump has tweeted that a deal with India is closed. So, hopefully, there is some common ground quickly found and India becomes… There has been a couple of countries that have signed these are all not very detailed but broad outlines. UK has signed one a few weeks ago and then last week, I think, it was Vietnam that signed a deal and now India seems to be lining up and I will be good. It will remove some of the uncertainty, but the reality is with President Trump nothing seems to be permanent and even if India signs a deal now who knows what might come up in the getting some reasonable framework is clearly going to be a relief for the Indian market because unpredictability is worse than predictability even if the predictability means a little more tariffs and frankly India opening up its economy in some sectors which it may not have been willing to otherwise is long-term very good for the Indian economy's health in terms of making it more competitive and more I mean, there is no question in my mind that President Trump does not want the kind of tariff turmoil that we saw after the April 2nd, it was announcement. So, clearly, there is no desire to have that kind of uncertainty and market turmoil and economic what President Trump is doing is trying to put some numbers out there to as they say focus the mind of some of these countries like Korea and Japan to name the two most prominent ones, of the ones named in today's set of new tariffs announced and so if that helps focus the minds of both sides to try to get a deal, there is some my sense is what President Trump and his team are realising is that it is easy to announce these big negotiations, but these negotiations are tough and there is a reason why trade talks take years. And these guys are trying to compress it in weeks. So, I would not count on August one as the last final chance. Maybe it is, but maybe it is far, as we have discovered from the taco kind of name that Trump has been given, I do not think he is interested in causing huge economic turmoil. Short-term a little bit is okay, but he is now looking for assuming that there are deals coming from India and maybe EU and maybe a couple of other countries, then the US markets should settle down and not be too unsettled. But if these promised deals keep getting pushed and pushed to the right and the fear grows that who knows what is coming, then the markets could remain hope and assumption is that India and maybe EU are on track to do deals in the near future in the next few days, hopefully by the end of the week. And if that happens, then to be more specific about the Indian markets should do focus really tariffs is in my opinion a sideshow once we get whatever the tariffs are, some deal on the table, the real issue for the Indian markets is going to be the monsoons are fine, but the economic fundamentals whether it is auto sales growth or other short duration factors that we look at, the data is not extremely encouraging in terms of a strong earnings quarter ahead of I think that the earnings will and the commentary from the corporates will be determining more importantly in my opinion as to what Indian markets do in the coming weeks rather than the tariff news.

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