Trump open to extending July 9 trade talks deadline, to send out letters

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (local time) said that he was willing to extend the July 9 deadline for completing trade talks with countries before his sweeping tariffs take effect.

 

Trump made these remarks at the Kennedy Center before a performance and added that he does not believe that extending the deadline would be necessary, Reuters reported. He further added that trade negotiations were ongoing with 15 countries, including South Korea, Japan as well and the European Union.

 

"We're rocking in terms of deals. We're dealing with quite a few countries, and they all want to make a deal with us," Trump said, adding that he did not believe a deadline extension would be "a necessity".

 

The US President also announced that they would soon start sending out letters, possibly in the coming weeks, mentioning the terms of trade deals to dozens of other countries. "At a certain point, we're just going to send letters out ... saying, 'This is the deal. You can take it, or you can leave it. So at a certain point, we'll do that. We're not quite ready," Trump noted.

 

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent informed lawmakers about the willingness of the Trump administration to extend the 90-day deadline, which ends on July 9, or "roll the date forward" for countries negotiating in good faith, in certain cases. 

This is the first time that a Trump administration official has indicated some flexibility in regards to the expiration date of the tariff pause. Bessent told the House Ways and Means Committee, "It is highly likely that those countries-or trading blocs, as is the case with the EU-who are negotiating in good faith, we will roll the date forward to continue the good-faith negotiations."

 

He further added, "If someone is not negotiating, then we will not."

 

    Trump announced sweeping tariffs on more than 100 countries on April 2, in a move he said would "level the playing field" for American businesses and workers. Before the tariffs could go into effect, Trump announced a 90-day pause on April 9, providing the countries a chance to negotiate deals with the US.  

The Trump administration has only agreed to one trade deal, with the UK, so far. The report suggests that negotiations are underway with some 17 others.    

The remarks by the Trump administration come a day after an appeals court allowed the administration to keep 'collecting tariffs' for now.  On Tuesday (local time), a separate deal between the US and China was also agreed upon in London to de-escalate the bilateral trade war, with an August 10 deadline set last month.