The Trump administration’s 90-day tariff pause is set to come to an end on Wednesday, July 9, 2025.
Donald Trump has announced that tariff letters “and/or Deals”, would be sent out to scores of countries from today, Monday, July 7, 2025, ahead of a key deadline.
In April, Trump announced a 90-day pause, until July 9, on tariffs ranging from 10% to 50% on dozens of countries, including most major trading partners.
Trump suggested that the letters would include duty rates at the current 10% baseline, or as extensive as 70%.
So far, Trump has only announced deals with three countries: the United Kingdom, which maintained a 10% tariff rate; China, which temporarily paused sky-high duties on most goods from 145% to 30%; and a minimum 20% tariff on goods from Vietnam.
US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent told a news agency that Trump’s going to be sending letters to some of US trading partners “saying that if you don’t move things along, then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level.”
Bessent previously said that tariffs could return to April levels, if countries failed to strike a deal with the US.
He added that the United States would not impose 70% tariff rates on major trading partners.
Bessent asserted that about 100 letters will be sent to small countries where the US doesn’t have very much trade, many of which are “already at the baseline 10%.”
He noted that the upcoming letters will set their tariff rates “so we will have 100 done in the next few days.”
He added that many of these countries never even contacted the US, saying, “We have the leverage in this situation,” as the country facing a trading deficit.
Also, the US Treasury Secretary pushed back against August 1 as a new deadline. He described the administration’s plan as applying “maximum pressure.”
“It’s not a new deadline. We are saying, ‘This is when it’s happening. If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to back to the old rate, that’s your choice.’”
Scott Bessent
He used the European Union as an example of countries coming to the table after Trump threatened 50% tariffs on EU imports.
US Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick also confirmed that tariff rates would go into effect on August 1, 2025.
Following Bessent’s comments, Trump disclosed that letters will continue to go out on Tuesday and Wednesday. “We’ll have most countries done by July 9 — either a letter or a deal,” he stated.
Trump Threatens New Tariffs On Nations Supporting ‘Anti-American’ Policies Of BRICS Group
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on any nation supporting “anti-American” policies of the BRICS group of emerging economies.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said that the US would impose an additional 10% tariff on “any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS” with “no exceptions,” though it was not immediately clear which policies Trump was referring to.
The BRICS group, an acronym of founding members; Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has long stood as a disparate body of countries united by a shared view that global power-sharing should be redistributed to reflect current global economic realities for a “multipolar” as opposed to a West-led world order.
The group has recently expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates as members, and has ten lower-level partner countries – including Belarus, Nigeria, Thailand and Vietnam.
Brazil is currently hosting a BRICS summit, with leaders releasing a joint declaration on Sunday voicing “serious concerns” about the “rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures” – an apparent a veiled jibe at the Trump administration’s trade policy.
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