President Donald Trump holds a chart as he pronounces a plan for tariffs on imported items throughout an occasion April 2, 2025, within the Rose Backyard on the White Home.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Put up by way of Getty Photographs
At the least seven international locations’ imports are set to face steep blanket tariffs beginning Aug. 1, President Donald Trump revealed Monday.
The president, in a sequence of social media posts, shared screenshots of kind letters dictating new tariff charges to the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos and Myanmar.
Items imported to the U.S. from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Kazakhstan at the moment are set to face 25% tariffs, in response to the letters Trump posted. South African items might be topic to a 30% U.S. tariff, and imports from Laos and Myanmar will face a 40% obligation, Trump’s Reality Social posts confirmed.
The letters signed by Trump add that the U.S. will “maybe” contemplate adjusting the brand new tariff ranges, “relying on our relationship together with your Nation.”
The letters are the primary to be despatched earlier than Wednesday, the day his so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of nations have been scheduled to snap again to the upper ranges he had introduced in early April.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt advised that 14 letters might be despatched out Monday, with much more set for the approaching days. She additionally stated that Trump would signal an government order to delay the Wednesday deadline till Aug. 1.
U.S. monetary markets hit new session lows after Trump launched the extra letters. The Dow Jones Industrial Common shed 637 factors, or 1.4%. The S&P 500 sank 1.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 1.2%.
President Donald Trump’s letter to the prime minister of Japan.
Donald Trump by way of Reality Social
U.S. President, Donald Trump’s letter to President of the Republic of Korea.
Donald Trump by way of Reality Social
For many of the seven international locations, the brand new U.S. tariff charges hew pretty near what they’d confronted after Trump introduced his “liberation day” tariffs on April 2.
As an example, below these preliminary charges, U.S. imports from Japan have been assigned a 24% tariff and South Korean imports confronted a 25% obligation.
Following a chaotic week of losses throughout world markets, nevertheless, Trump issued a 90-day pause on April 9, which lowered the assorted tariff charges to a flat 10%. That pause was set to run out Wednesday, earlier than Leavitt introduced that Trump would lengthen it by greater than three weeks.
The entire letters say that the blanket tariff charges are separate from extra sector-specific duties on key product classes.
The letters additionally observe, “Items transshipped to evade the next Tariff might be topic to that larger Tariff.” Transshipping on this case seems to consult with the apply of transferring items to an interim nation previous to their ultimate cargo to the U.S., so as to skirt tariffs.
The shape letters assert that the brand new tariff charges are obligatory so as to right for persistent U.S. commerce deficits with the seven international locations.
Trump, an avowed tariff fan and a skeptic of free commerce offers, commonly factors to these deficits as proof that the U.S. is being taken benefit of by its commerce companions. Consultants have criticized the view that commerce deficits are inherently dangerous and questioned whether or not the U.S. can or ought to search to shut them.
Not all the international locations focused Monday have massive commerce surpluses with the U.S.
Whereas the U.S. in 2024 had a $68.5 billion items deficit with Japan and a $66 billion items deficit with South Korea, its deficit with Myanmar was $579.3 million, in response to the Workplace of the US Commerce Consultant.
The U.S. is a significant purchaser of automobiles, equipment and electronics from Japan and South Korea. Kazakhstan exports crude oil and metallic alloys to the U.S., whereas Malaysia sells America digital parts and South Africa largely sends treasured metals. Key U.S. imports from Laos embody optical fibers, glasses and clothes, whereas Myanmar’s largest exports class is mattresses and bedding.
Monday’s letters preemptively warn the seven international locations not to reply to the brand new U.S. tariffs by imposing retaliatory duties on their very own imports of American items.
“If for any motive you resolve to boost your Tariffs, then, regardless of the quantity you select to boost them by, might be added onto the 25% that we cost,” the letters say.
If the international locations “eradicate” their “Tariff, and Non Tariff, Insurance policies and Commerce Limitations,” then the U.S. “will, maybe, contemplate an adjustment to this letter,” in response to the letters.
“These tariffs could also be modified, upward or downward, relying on our relationship together with your Nation,” they are saying. “You’ll by no means be disenchanted with The USA of America.”
After Trump imposed his three-month reciprocal tariff pause in April, his administration claimed that it may strike as many as 90 offers in 90 days.
However as that pause was set to run out, the U.S. has solely introduced broad frameworks with the UK and Vietnam, in addition to a preliminary settlement with China.
Trump stated the Vietnam deal places a 20% tariff on the nation’s imports to the U.S. and a 40% “transshipping” obligation, whereas the U.S. would get tariff-free entry to Vietnam’s markets.
Trump’s reciprocal tariffs have been struck down in late Might by a federal district court docket, which dominated that he didn’t have the authorized authority to impose the sweeping duties below the emergency-powers legislation he had cited on the time.
The Trump administration appealed to the federal circuit, which allowed the tariffs to stay in impact whereas it opinions the lower-court’s resolution.
—CNBC’s Nick Wells contributed to this report.
