President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. would begin unilaterally informing many of its trading partners of new tariff rates, acknowledging for the first time that his administration will be unable to negotiate deals to lower tariffs with more than 50 trading partners by a self-imposed early July deadline.
After his sweeping April tariff plan sent markets spiraling and set in motion a global trade war, Trump reversed course and issued a 90-day pause on the new duties for every affected country except China, opening the door for individual countries to negotiate deals with his trade team.
But in remarks at a business roundtable in the United Arab Emirates, the final stop on a multi-day Middle East trip, Trump said that while “150 countries” were seeking to make deals with the U.S., it was “not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us.”
Instead, Trump said U.S. trading partners should expect individual letters from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick “at a certain point over the next two to three weeks,” in which they would be “telling people what they will be paying to do business in the United States.”
