The Trump administration wants to see plans to remove non-tariff trade barriers and promises to purchase U.S. factory and farm products.
The U.S. trade representative is sending “friendly reminders” that a trade negotiation deadline is coming due, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Leavitt, at a June 3 press briefing, confirmed a report by Reuters about a new trade deadline.
The Reuters report published on Tuesday morning said the letters demand that countries engaged in trade talks with the United States send their “best offer” by June 4 to “accelerate” talks. A draft copy of the letter seen by Reuters said the United States wants to see plans to remedy nontariff trade barriers and promises that foreign nations will purchase industrial and agricultural products.
Additionally, the Reuters article said, the U.S. is asking for digital trade and economic security commitments.
“[President Donald Trump] expects good deals, and we are on track for that,” Leavitt said.
The Wednesday deadline for the “best offer” comes well ahead of the closure of the 90-day reprieve on so-called reciprocal tariffs announced by the president earlier in the year.
After initially announcing steep tariffs on nearly every country that exports goods to the United States, Trump changed course and said all of those countries would instead be assessed a 10 percent baseline tariff for 90 days to allow for bilateral trade negotiations. That reprieve is set to expire in early July.
While representatives from numerous countries, most importantly Japan, India, and Vietnam, have spoken with Washington about establishing new, bilateral trade deals, so far only one has materialized. The United States and the United Kingdom came to terms on a new bilateral trade deal in May.
On Tuesday, Leavitt said the U.S.’s chief trade negotiators—led by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent—are “in talks with many key trading partners around the globe.”
New tariffs and trade measures announced since Trump was inaugurated in January have become a defining issue of the second Trump administration. Along with the reciprocal tariffs, the U.S. government has issued steep levies on imports from China as well as new duties on steel, aluminum, automobiles, and on items imported from Mexico and Canada.
In May, the United States and China announced they had reached an initial trade deal that would bring tariffs from above 100 percent down to about 10 percent while the two countries pursue a long-term bilateral agreement that will address trade and other geopolitical issues.
Additionally, the authority of the executive branch to assess tariffs has been challenged in federal courts. As of June 3, a stay issued on May 29 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has paused a May 28 ruling from the U.S. Court of International Trade that would have stopped the tariffs assessed under the authority granted by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
