TACO Trump Backs Away From Trade Deal Deadline
After promising to 'liberate America' and secure '90 deals in 90 days,' the Trump administration now says it will write letters to holdout nations in the hope that they fall into line.
'My inclination is to send a letter out and say what tariff they're going to be paying. It's much easier,' he told reporters on Thursday.
'I mean, we have far more than 170 countries and how many deals can you make? And you can make the deals, but they're very much more complicated.'
The comments come as the 90-day pause—which was intended to allow time for agreements to be reached—is due to expire on July 8 next week. Only three countries have made deals with the U.S. so far: the UK, China, and Vietnam.
But the 'take it or leave it' approach the president is now advocating for risks reigniting trade wars that could potentially drive up costs for businesses and raise prices for consumers.
Tensions with Canada escalated last week after they announced a digital service tax on American tech firms, prompting Trump to declare he was immediately 'terminating ALL discussions' with the country.
But talks resumed on Sunday after Canada announced it was rescinding the tax 'in anticipation of a mutually beneficial comprehensive trade arrangement with the United States.'
While Trump's trade team has been working to fulfill his bold promise to liberate America from tariff rip-offs, securing so many agreements within the 90-day pause was always going to be a tough goal to achieve.
Administration officials recently suggested the deadline might be pushed back, but the president now says this is unlikely.
'We'll be sending some letters out, starting probably tomorrow, maybe 10 a day, to various countries saying what they're going to pay to do business in the U.S,' he said.
Some observers mocked the president online, with one calling the '90 deals in 90 days' claim 'bulls--t.'
'Is that the art of the deal? A letter?' another critic asked.
Others invoked the nickname Wall Street gave the president earlier this year as it struggled to make sense of his on-again-off-again trade wars: TACO, or 'Trump Always Chickens Out.'
But Trump insisted that his letters would be 'very well-received' by the holdout nations.
'There's just so many countries, and then they go specific, saying: let's do this, let's do that, with beef, ethanol,' he said, explaining the complicated art of cutting an agreement with more than 170 countries.
'I'd rather just do a simple deal where you can maintain it and control it.'
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