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

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and MICHELLE L PRICE Associated Press WASHINGTON AP The Trump administration is stepping up pressure on trading partners to promptly 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 contract 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 described CBS Face the Nation on Sunday that Trump would decide when it was time to give up on negotiations The United States is perpetually willing to talk to everybody about everything Hassett reported 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 declared April threatened to overhaul the global market system and lead to broader deal wars A week later after the financial markets had panicked his administration suspended for days most of of the higher taxes on imports just as they were to take effect The negotiating window until July has led to released deals only with the United Kingdom and Vietnam Trump imposed elevated tariff rates on dozens of nations that run meaningful exchange surpluses with the U S and a baseline tax on imports from all countries in response to what he called an economic exigency There are separate tariffs on steel and aluminum and a tariff on autos Since April minimal foreign governments have set new contract terms with Washington as the Republican president demanded President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown N J Sunday July en trail to Washington AP Photo Jacquelyn Martin Trump stated 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 mentioned 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 reported 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 several 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 mentioned on CNN s State of the Union I m not going to give away the playbook Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent talks to reporters about his lunch meeting with Republican senators and the schedule for getting the Republican megabill to President Donald Trump s desk by July at the Capitol in Washington Tuesday June AP Photo J Scott Applewhite He stated the U S was close to several deals and predicted several big announcements over the next scarce days He gave no details I think we re going to see a lot of deals very swiftly Bessent explained Later Sunday Trump vowed to impose more tariffs against the BRICS bloc of emerging nations which had condemned tariffs increases at its summit in Brazil Trump revealed in a post on his social media platform that any country aligning itself with what he termed the Anti-American policies of BRICS would be levied an added tariff Trump has disclosed 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 Related Articles Business confidence up in June but still pessimistic survey shows Suspended cannabis testing lab has appealed and will sue regulators owner says Musk forms new party after split with Trump UN atomic watchdog s Iran exit deepens inspections blackout Battles over population lands loom even after sell-off proposal fails Requested if he expected to reach deals with the European Union or India Trump disclosed Friday that letters are better for us because there are so several 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 selected cases a surplus but not too a multitude 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 stated Friday after bargain talks between the two countries in the past few days resumed Canada is one of our biggest trading partners Hoekstra explained CTV News in an interview in Ottawa We re going to have a deal that s articulated Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has commented he wants a new deal in place by July or Canada will increase business countermeasures Hoekstra would not commit to a date for a exchange agreement and noted even with a deal Canada could still face several tariffs But we re not going to send Canada just a letter he mentioned Price broadcasted from Bridgewater New Jersey AP Business Writer Matt O Brien in Providence Rhode Island contributed to this record