Trump issues more letters to countries in push for tariff deals
The Philippines, however, saw a 20 percent levy, up from 17 percent announced previously.
While the president in April imposed a 10 percent levy on almost all trading partners, he unveiled -- and then withheld -- higher rates for dozens of economies.
The deadline for those steeper levels to take effect was meant to be Wednesday, before Trump postponed it further to August 1.
Instead, countries who face the threats of elevated duties began receiving letters spelling out US tariff rates on their products.
Trump said Wednesday that he decided on the levies based on "common sense" and trade deficits.
He added at an event that he would release more letters later in the day -- including for Brazil, which does not currently face a tariff hike come August.
Trump's latest messages were near-identical to those published earlier in the week, and justified his tariffs as a response to trade ties that he says are "far from Reciprocal."
They urged countries to manufacture products in the United States to avoid duties, while threatening further escalation if leaders retaliated.
For now, over 20 countries have received Trump's letters including key US allies Japan and South Korea, as well as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Thailand.
Analysts have noted that Asian countries have been a key target so far.
But all eyes are on the state of negotiations with major partners who have yet to receive such letters, including the European Union.
For now, the Trump administration is under pressure to unveil more trade pacts. So far, Washington has only reached agreements with Britain and Vietnam, alongside a deal to temporarily lower tit-for-tat levies with China.
Trump on Tuesday said that his government was "probably two days off" from sending the EU a letter with an updated tariff rate for the bloc.
"They're very tough, but now they're being very nice to us," he added at a cabinet meeting.
An EU spokesman said Wednesday that the bloc wants to strike a deal with the United States "in the coming days," and has shown readiness to reach an agreement in principle.
EU diplomats say the European Commission, in charge of trade policy for the 27-country bloc, could continue talks until August 1.
The EU expects Trump to keep a 10 percent baseline tariff on its goods, with exemptions for critical sectors such as airplanes, spirits and cosmetics, diplomats told AFP this week.
Legal challenges to Trump's sweeping tariffs are continuing to work their way through the US court system.
Apart from tariffs targeting goods from different countries, Trump has also rolled out sector-specific duties on steel, aluminum and autos since returning to the White House in January.
On Tuesday, Trump said levies were incoming on copper and pharmaceuticals.
The planned rate for copper is 50 percent, he added, while pharmaceutical products face a levy as high as 200 percent -- but manufacturers would be given time to relocate operations.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
2 hours ago
- LeMonde
To fight fires from the air, France has only 12 Canadair planes, which are 'an average of 30 years old'
As happens every summer, wildfires are raging across France, particularly in the southern regions along the Mediterranean coast. And as every summer, the question of strengthening firefighting capabilities − especially aerial resources − has returned to the forefront. During a joint purchase organized by the European Union, six member states – France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Croatia – placed an order for 22 next-generation Canadair aircraft at the Paris Air Show (June 16-22). The contract, signed under the aegis of the European Union as part of the RescEU project, stipulates that only two water bombers will be added to the aging fleet of 12 Canadair aircraft operated by French authorities. All of them are "an average of 30 years old," explained Jean-Philippe Côté, vice president of the De Havilland Canada program; their heavy use, especially in marine environments, has accelerated their aging. According to a parliamentary report published on July 2, this has reached the point where none of the 12 Canadair planes "were able to fly on certain days during the summer of 2024."
France 24
6 hours ago
- France 24
Canada just can't win in trade war with Trump
The giant North American neighbors are rushing to conclude a new trade accord by July 21 but the process is proving painful for Canada. Overnight Thursday, Trump threatened to slap a 35 percent tariff on imports from Canada starting August 1. But products complying with an existing accord, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), are expected to remain exempt, a Trump administration official and a source in Canada told AFP. "An agreement is of course possible but that shows how difficult it is for the Canadian government to negotiate with the US president," said Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, referring to Trump's sudden announcement. -Six months of ups and downs- Canada has been a key trading partner and ally of the United States for decades. But along with Mexico, it now wears a bull's eye for Trump in his second stint in the White House as he tries to reorder the global system of largely free trade by slapping tariffs on friends and foes alike to address what he calls unfair trading practices. Trump has also spoken frequently of his idea of absorbing Canada to make it the 51st US state, a concept most Canadians find repugnant. Canada was rocked by Trump's first attacks after he took power in January. And bad blood between him and then-prime minister Justin Trudeau seemed to pour gas on the fire. Some degree of hope emerged when Mark Carney was elected in late April to replace Trudeau, pledging to stand up to Trump and defend Canada, its jobs and its borders. Since then, Carney and Trump have held two more or less cordial meetings -- at the Oval Office in May and at a Group of Seven summit in western Canada last month. Many people thought a new era was opening, and Carney won praise for his diplomatic and negotiating skills. During the second of those meetings, the two sides agreed to sign a new trade agreement by July 21. But in late June Trump angrily called off the trade talks, citing a new Canadian tax on US Big Tech companies. Canada scrapped the tax two days later so the trade talks could resume. Now they have been rocked again by Trump's new threat of 35 percent tariffs on Canadian goods. -Stay calm- Canada has taken to not reacting to everything Trump says. After Trump's latest outburst, Carney simply said, "the Canadian government has steadfastly defended our workers and businesses." But among Canadian people, Trump's threat-rich negotiating style elicits contrasting reactions, said Beland. "There are people who want a firmer response while others want to keep negotiating," he said. Since the beginning of this tug of war, Canada has responded to US action by imposing levies of its own on certain American products. Philippe Bourbeau, a professor at HEC Montreal, a business school, said people have to realize Trump has an underlying strategy. "You can criticize the aggressiveness of the announcements and the fact that it is done out in the open, but it is a negotiating tactic," said Bourbeau, adding that the relationship between the two countries is asymmetrical. "It is illusory to think this is a negotiation between parties of the same size. Canada will surely have to give up more to reach an agreement," he said. Before Trump came to power, three quarters of Canada's exports went to the United States. This was down to 68 percent in May, one of the lowest such shares ever recorded, as shipments to other countries hit record levels. "We are Donald Trump's scapegoats," said Genevieve Tellier, a professor of political science at the University of Ottawa. "He sees us as vulnerable, so he increases the pressure. He is surely telling himself that it is with us that he will score the big win he wants on tariffs," Tellier said. © 2025 AFP
France 24
6 hours ago
- France 24
US State Department begins mass layoffs
Diplomats and other staff clapped out departing colleagues in emotional scenes at the Washington headquarters of the department, which runs US foreign policy and the global network of embassies. Some were crying as they walked out with boxes of belongings. A State Department official said 1,107 members of the civil service and 246 Foreign Service diplomatic employees were terminated. The layoffs at the department came three days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to begin carrying out its plan to gut entire government departments. The conservative-dominated top court lifted a temporary block imposed by a lower court on Trump's plans to lay off potentially tens of thousands of employees. The 79-year-old Republican says he wants to dismantle what he calls the "deep state." Since taking office in January, he has worked quickly to install fierce personal loyalists and to fire swaths of veteran government workers. His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, says the foreign policy department is too cumbersome and requires thinning out of some 15 percent. The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) -- the union representing State Department employees -- condemned the "catastrophic blow to our national interests." "At a moment of great global instability -- with war raging in Ukraine, conflict between Israel and Iran, and authoritarian regimes testing the boundaries of international order -- the United States has chosen to gut its frontline diplomatic workforce," AFSA said in a statement. "We oppose this decision in the strongest terms." The State Department employed over 80,000 people worldwide last year, according to a fact sheet, with around 17,700 in domestic roles. The US Agency for International Development, long the primary vehicle to provide US humanitarian assistance around the world, has already been mostly dismantled. According to The Washington Post, State Department employees were informed of their firings by email. Foreign Service officers will lose their jobs 120 days after receiving the notice and will be immediately placed on administrative leave, while civil service employees will be separated after 60 days, the newspaper said. Ned Price, who served as State Department spokesman under Democratic former president Joe Biden, condemned what he called haphazard firings. "For all the talk about 'merit-based,' they're firing officers based on where they happen to be assigned on this arbitrary day," Price said on X. "It's the laziest, most inefficient, and most damaging way to lean the workforce." Former ambassador Barbara Leaf, Biden's top Middle East diplomat, said the move "will have terrible consequences for our ability to protect American citizens abroad, pursue and defend the national interest and our national security." "This is not a re-org. This is a purge," Leaf said in a post on LinkedIn.
