Trump Keeps July 9 as Cutoff to Avoid Tariffs Without New Trade Agreements

New developments in the tariff war. U.S. President Donald Trump has stated that he does not believe a further extension of the July 9 date for imposing tariffs on countries that have not reached a new trade agreement with the United States will be necessary.

“I don’t think it’s going to need it,“ he said during an interview with Fox News taped Friday and aired Sunday. “I could, it’s OK,“ he has immediately added more along the lines of last Friday’s public statements in which he said he could do “whatever he wants” with the deadline.

On Sunday’s interview he has repeated the same idea. “We have reached agreements, but I would like to send them a letter, a very nice letter saying congratulations, we are going to allow you to trade with the United States and you are going to pay tariffs of 25%, or 20%, or 40% or 50%,“ he has pointed out.

Donald Trump is confident that an extension of the trade truce will not be necessary

Trump has stressed that these letters are the end of the negotiation and that they will be sent “very soon”. Thus, he has given Japan as an example. “Dear Mr. Japan. Here it goes: You’re going to have to pay a 25% tariff on your cars,“ he has posed.

Trump has previously referred to the aforementioned letters on May 16 and June 11, and in both cases the missives were to be sent in between two and three weeks, although in the end they have not materialized.

The US president’s statements come after several months of truce, since the beginning of April, when the mandatary first announced the increase of tariffs to almost all countries in the world. Since then, Trump has signed at least several agreements, including a new trade framework with the United Kingdom, details of which have not yet been released.