US to make several trade announcements in next 48 hours

WASHINGTON: The United States will make several trade announcements in the next 48 hours, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday, ahead of a US deadline on Wednesday to finalize trade pacts.

“We’ve had a lot of people change their tune in terms of negotiations. So my mailbox was full last night with a lot of new offers, a lot of new proposals,” Bessent said in an interview with CNBC. “So it’s going to be a busy couple of days.”

President Donald Trump said the United States would start delivering tariff letters from 12:00 pm ET (1600 GMT) on Monday.

Trump calls for Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s immediate resignation

The letters would not necessarily provide an ultimatum, according to Bessent.

“It’s just ‘thank you for wanting to trade with the United States of America. We welcome you as a trading partner, and here’s the rate, unless you want to come back and try to negotiate,'” he said.

Bessent declined to comment on whether negotiations on new ownership of the TikTok short video app, which President Donald Trump said would start this week, would be linked to trade talks.

He said he would meet with his Chinese counterpart in the next couple of weeks.

“I think there are things for us to do together if the Chinese want to do it, so we will discuss whether we are able to move beyond trade into other areas,” he told CNBC.

Meanwhile, US tariffs will kick in on August 1 if trading partners from Taiwan to the European Union do not strike deals with Washington, Bessent said Sunday.

The rates will “boomerang back” to the sometimes very high levels which President Donald Trump had announced on April 2 — before he suspended the levies to allow for trade talks and set a July 9 deadline for agreement, Bessent told CNN.

Bessent confirmed comments by Trump to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday in which he also cited a new deadline: “Well, I’ll probably start them on August 1. Well, that’s pretty early. Right?”

The president said he had signed 12 letters to be sent out, likely on Monday.

The tariffs were part of a broader announcement in April where Trump imposed a 10 percent duty on goods from almost all trading partners, with a plan to step up these rates for a select group within days.