In testimony before the House Committee on Ways and Means, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers on June 11 that a deadline for countries to reach deals with the United States could be extended beyond July 9. He said:
“There are 18 important trading partners. We are working toward deals on those and it is highly likely that those countries — or trading blocs, as in the case with the EU — who are negotiating in good faith, we will roll the date forward to continue the good-faith negotiations. If someone is not negotiating, then we will not.”
Later that day, President Trump told reporters such an extension would likely not be necessary. The June 15-17 G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada, is likely to feature some additional bilateral meetings between the president and foreign leaders.
Post-Liberation: On April 2, the president announced plans to subject all goods from a group of 57 major trading partners with tariffs ranging as high as 50%, with goods from all WTO members other than Canada and Mexico facing at least a 10% “baseline” tariff. Those higher tariffs were later suspended for 90 days to allow for negotiations to avert them.
In the subsequent bilateral talks, U.S. negotiators have focused on seven areas: tariffs, non-tariff barriers, digital trade, rules of origin (with a particular focus on limiting Chinese content), bilateral trade deficits (to include goods purchases), implementation of existing trade commitments, and economic security.
The Elite 18: The priority countries engaged in talks with the United States reportedly include Argentina, Australia, Cambodia, Ecuador, the European Union, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Vietnam. To date the bilateral trade talks have yielded a framework with the United Kingdom dubbed the “Economic Prosperity Deal,” which the U.S. Chamber assessed here.
The rest of the countries in the group of 57 are expected to be sent individualized letters from the administration establishing a new U.S. tariff rate for their exports. As President Trump told reporters on June 11:
“We have about 150-plus, and you can’t do that. So we’re going to be sending letters out in about a week and a half, two weeks, to countries telling them what the deal is, like I did with the EU.”
For further information, please contact Senior Vice President and Head of International John Murphy (jmurphy@uschamber.com) and Executive Director for International Policy Isabelle Icso (iicso@uschamber.com).