US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant said on Sunday that if there is no agreement with other countries in the coming days, tariffs of up to 50% announced in April by Donald Trump and postponed to allow time for negotiations will take effect on August 1.
The July 9 deadline for imposing these punitive tariffs was in effect until Friday when Donald Trump clarified that countries would start paying from August 1.
Asked what would happen on Wednesday, Scott Bessant told CNN: "We're going to be very busy over the next 72 hours."
"President Trump will send letters to some of our trading partners saying that if things don't move forward, then on August 1st, they will boomerang back to the April 2nd tariffs.", explained the US Treasury Secretary.
"So I think you'll see a lot of deals very soon.", he said, predicting that "There will be many important announcements in the coming days despite high resistance.".
Citing the European Union as an example, Bessant added that “The American strategy is to exert maximum pressure.".
"The European Union was very slow to sit down at the negotiating table. Until three weeks ago, on Friday morning, President Trump threatened 50% tariffs. In the next few hours, five European leaders called him and Ursula von der Leyen called him as well. The EU is making very good progress," he declared.
According to Scott Bessant, about a hundred letters will be sent to small countries "with whom we have a lot of trade", but the administration is “focuses on 18 major relationships that account for 95% of our trade deficit”. (A2 Television)
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