President Donald Trump announced on Monday (7) his first measures against countries that did not negotiate trade agreements with the United States. The first affected are Japan and South Korea, which will face new 25% rates on exports from August 1st.
Trump made the announcement on Truth Socialwhere he exposed letters sent to both nations. “Please understand that the 25% number is much lower than necessary to eliminate the disparity of the commercial deficit we have with your country,” says an excerpt from the document.
The Republican leader added that tariffs could be avoided if both countries began to manufacture products within the United States. “There will be no tariff if South Korea or Japan or companies in their country decide to build or manufacture products in the United States and, in fact, we will do everything possible to get approvals quickly, professional and routinely – in other words, in a matter of weeks.”
On the 2nd, the president had already anticipated that Japan could be charged 30% to 35%, describing the Asian country as “spoiled” at the time.
Last week, the US president also anticipated that he would start sending letters to nations that did not sign agreements with the United States. Trump gave a deadline until next Wednesday (9) for countries to finalize their proposals, however US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday (6) that all taxes announced in April will come into force on August 1, implying that they will not be valid this week.
In an interview with CNBCOn Monday, Bessent added that the White House will make several ads about its business partners in the next 48 hours. “President Trump will send letters to some of our business partners indicating that if they do not advance, they will return to the tariff level of April 2 on August 1,” said the Treasury Secretary.
