Pressure from Trump for trade deals before Wednesday deadline, but hints of more time for talks

WASHINGTON AP The Trump administration is stepping up pressure on trading partners to fast make new deals before a Wednesday deadline with plans for the United States to start sending letters Monday warning countries that higher tariffs could kick in Aug That furthers the uncertainty for businesses consumers and America s trading partners and questions remain about which countries will be notified whether anything will change in the days ahead and whether President Donald Trump will once more push off imposing the rates Trump and his top business advisers say he could extend the time for dealmaking but they insist the administration is applying maximum pressure on other nations Kevin Hassett director of the White House National Economic Council narrated CBS Face the Nation on Sunday that Trump would decide when it was time to give up on negotiations The United States is invariably willing to talk to everybody about everything Hassett stated There are deadlines and there are things that are close so maybe things will push back past the deadline or maybe they won t In the end the president is going to make that judgment Stephen Miran the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers likewise reported countries negotiating in good faith and making concessions could sort of get the date rolled The steeper tariffs that Trump broadcasted April threatened to overhaul the global market and lead to broader bargain wars A week later after the financial markets had panicked his administration suspended for days the greater part of the higher taxes on imports just as they were to take effect The negotiating window until July has led to publicized deals only with the United Kingdom and Vietnam Trump imposed elevated tariff rates on dozens of nations that run meaningful commerce surpluses with the U S and a baseline tax on imports from all countries in response to what he called an economic emergency There are separate tariffs on steel and aluminum and a tariff on autos Since April sparse foreign governments have set new transaction terms with Washington as the Republican president demanded Trump notified reporters Friday that his administration might be sending out letters as early as Saturday to countries spelling out their tariff rates if they did not reach a deal but that the U S would not start collecting those taxes until Aug On Sunday he stated he would send out letters starting Monday could be could be to foreign governments reflecting planned tariffs for each We ve made deals also Trump narrated reporters before heading back to the White House from his home in New Jersey So we ll get to have a combination of letters and particular deals have been made He and his advisers have declined to say which countries would receive the letters Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rejected the idea that Aug was a new deadline and declined to say what might happen Wednesday We ll see Bessent declared on CNN s State of the Union I m not going to give away the playbook He stated the U S was close to several deals and predicted several big announcements over the next sparse days He gave no details I think we re going to see a lot of deals very hastily Bessent commented Trump has revealed a deal with Vietnam that would allow U S goods to enter the country duty-free while Vietnamese exports to the U S would face a levy That was a decline from the tax on Vietnamese imports he proposed in April one of his so-called reciprocal tariffs targeting dozens of countries with which the U S runs a agreement deficit Required if he expected to reach deals with the European Union or India Trump revealed Friday that letters are better for us because there are so plenty of countries involved We have India coming up and with Vietnam we did it but much easier to send a letter saying Listen we know we have a certain deficit or in specific cases a surplus but not too plenty of And this is what you re going to have to pay if you want to do business in the United States Canada however will not be one of the countries receiving letters Trump s ambassador Pete Hoekstra explained Friday after bargain talks between the two countries in recent times resumed Canada is one of our biggest trading partners Hoekstra informed CTV News in an interview in Ottawa We re going to have a deal that s articulated Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has disclosed he wants a new deal in place by July or Canada will increase agreement countermeasures Hoekstra would not commit to a date for a contract agreement and noted even with a deal Canada could still face particular tariffs But we re not going to send Canada just a letter he noted