{"id":60893,"date":"2025-07-13T00:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T00:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/60893\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T00:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T00:20:15","slug":"trump-patience-on-tariffs-runs-thin-as-nations-jostle-for-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/60893\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump patience on tariffs runs thin as nations jostle for deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

US trading partners<\/a> trying to navigate the final weeks of negotiations before President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s so-called reciprocal tariffs<\/a> hit are facing a leader who has made clear he\u2019s lost patience with talks.<\/p>\n

Even as negotiators from Brussels to New Delhi are racing to find a way out of the punishing levies he\u2019s floated, Trump continued to send letters unilaterally setting rates \u2014 while still allowing for a little wiggle room.<\/p>\n

Early Saturday, Trump posted letters sent to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, declaring a 30% rate for Mexico and the European Union<\/a> beginning Aug. 1.
He said Mexico had failed to do enough to stop the flow of fentanyl into the US and complained that the EU\u2019s trade deficit with the US was unfair. He suggested both partners could take steps to mitigate the rates \u2014 or he could increase them further if he didn\u2019t like their responses.<\/p>\n

Efforts by those countries and others to find an escape from the punishing levies are expected to intensify next week ahead of a new Aug. 1 deadline for many of the import taxes to kick in.<\/p>\n

\"ETLive Events
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent<\/a> is heading to Japan and EU negotiators are focusing their attention on cars and agricultural tariffs in hopes of securing at least a provisional agreement.The days ahead could also bring a fresh flurry of unilateral missives from the White House setting tariff levels on countries the president has determined no longer worthy of talks.Summer of Drama<\/strong>
A dramatic stretch in Trump\u2019s trade war<\/a> has seen some of the biggest developments yet in his tariff campaign, underscoring the risks for trading partners and raising the stakes before what the president insists is his final deadline.<\/p>\n

His impatience erupted over recent days as he teed up a frenzied wave of tariffs for Aug. 1, hitting longtime allies like Japan and South Korea, which had struggled with negotiations because of internal political pressures, raising some rates on neighboring Canada despite Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s charm offensive, and slapping an eye-popping 50% rate on goods from Brazil over unrelated political disputes.<\/p>\n

The message was clear: Trump intends to make good on his threat to abandon painstaking negotiations and just set unilateral rates \u2014 and that a fresh barrage of tariffs are coming, not unlike the April announcement that spurred a market selloff.<\/p>\n

For nations dependent on US trade, the window is quickly closing to determine how best to negotiate the impossible choice presented by Trump\u2019s maximalist stance: bend the knee or dig in for a fight. The president himself has repeatedly said he\u2019d prefer unilateral rates and the only thing stopping him was pleas from Bessent and other aides for patience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real question is will Trump accept what they have on the table? Will they put a little more on the table? Where will it come out?\u201d Wilbur Ross, Trump\u2019s first-term commerce secretary, told Bloomberg Television Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut worse comes to worst, he is fully prepared to go through with the tariffs and have that be the end of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump opened the week by extending the July 9 tariff deadline<\/a> to Aug. 1 and renewing his threat to Japan and South Korea, where talks have dragged. At a cabinet meeting, Bessent boasted about the flood of taxes being collected from importers.<\/p>\n

The president has bristled at what\u2019s been called the \u201cTACO trade,\u201d with markets betting that \u201cTrump always chickens out\u201d on tariff threats, and insisted this extension would be the last. He also announced his long-simmering copper tariff, setting it at 50% and saying it would be enacted Aug. 1 \u2014 a levy poised to capture a wide range of derivative products. He also threatened a 200% pharmaceutical levy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI assume that what we are seeing here is a negotiating tactic,\u201d said Lars Suedekum, a personal economic adviser to German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil. \u201cWe have seen this many times in recent weeks: customs announcements followed by suspensions and customs breaks. It\u2019s been quite a back and forth. I see no reason why it should be any different this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the extension set off another frenzied struggle with nations hopeful they could sway a president whose tariff agenda has moved in fits-and-starts and reversals.<\/p>\n

India has been making progress on an interim trade deal that could reduce its proposed tariffs to below 20%, people familiar with the matter said, adding that New Delhi does not expect to receive a tariff demand letter. Even with Bessent headed to Japan, the prospect of a breakthrough is unclear and the US is awaiting a better offer from Tokyo, an American official said.<\/p>\n

\"Bloom-1\"Bloomberg<\/p>\n

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro<\/a> on Friday encouraged another country facing higher tariffs, Canada, to keep talking, underscoring that the door remains open to negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would urge the Canadian citizens to urge their leaders to negotiate fairly with us,\u201d he told Bloomberg Television on Friday.

Widening Clashes<\/strong>
Trump\u2019s letters announcing tariffs to individual countries were initially boilerplate, distributed to partners he\u2019d hit with elevated tariffs in his April 2 \u201cLiberation Day\u201d announcement, all of which run trade surpluses with the US.<\/p>\n

But his targets have widened: He threatened a 50% rate on Brazil, pressuring that country to stop legal proceedings against his ally, Jair Bolsonaro, a major escalation demonstrating how Trump has weaponized trade powers for unrelated disputes. The move also signaled that Trump would apply elevated rates even to countries, like Brazil, with which the US runs a goods trade surplus.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also been stepping up his threats against BRICS nations, vowing extra levies even if they reach some kind of accord with him.<\/p>\n

Where Does President Trump\u2019s Tariff Campaign Stand? QuickTake<\/p>\n

The 35% tariff on Canada hit one of the biggest American trading partners and a country that was not facing an imminent tariff hike, like other recipients of his letters. That increase, though, is not poised to apply to energy products, which will remain at a 10% rate, or goods compliant with the USMCA trade pact.<\/p>\n

Trump also signaled to NBC in an interview that he might simply raise blanket tariffs to 15% or 20%, up from 10% now for nearly all trading partners, though it\u2019s not clear how widely that move would apply.

Uncertain Deals<\/strong>
Trump\u2019s White House once pledged 90 deals in 90 days, but has so far only reached agreements with the UK, Vietnam and a truce lowering tariffs with China \u2014 all with caveats.<\/p>\n

The China deal allowed the two economies to de-escalate but left many issues unresolved, while the agreement with the UK faces uncertainty over metals tariffs.<\/p>\n

While Trump touted a deal with Vietnam, that announcement surprised the country\u2019s leadership with a higher rate than they expected, making it more akin to his unilateral letters than a mutually agreed pact.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry that we could have a situation \u2014 and I don\u2019t know that it\u2019ll be on Aug. 1 or the future \u2014 but we\u2019d have a situation where he\u2019s not bluffing, but everyone thinks he is bluffing,\u201d said Michael Strain, director of economic policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. \u201cThe more times that happens, the more worried I get that the next up will be a real deadline.\u201d

–With assistance from Kamil Kowalcze.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US trading partners trying to navigate the final weeks of negotiations before President Donald Trump\u2019s so-called reciprocal tariffs…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":60894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,69,79,8697,43986,5188,18244,43985,8304,36732,43983,67,132,68,43984],"class_list":{"0":"post-60893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-peter-navarro","13":"tag-reciprocal-tariffs","14":"tag-scott-bessent","15":"tag-tariff-deadline","16":"tag-trade-war","17":"tag-trump-tariffs","18":"tag-trumps-tariff-campaign","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-us-trading-partners"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114843066292034578","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}