Trump Sets August 1st Start for Tariffs Ahead of Wednesday Deadline

President Donald Trump plans to announce trade deals and deliver tariff warnings on Monday, as countries negotiated through the weekend to avoid the highest punitive measures on their exports to the US before a Wednesday deadline.

The time line for the talks appeared to be reset after US officials signalled that trading partners will have until August 1st before the tariffs kick in. That gives them the option of three more weeks for deal-making.

For weeks, the administration warned that Trump would impose levies on July 9 for countries failing to secure an accord, reverting to the levels announced on so-called Liberation Day on April 2.

The European Union said that progress has been made toward securing a deal and that the bloc is still working toward the Wednesday deadline. Trump and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen spoke on Sunday and had a “good exchange,” a spokesman for the EU’s executive arm said Monday in Brussels.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz over the weekend discussed how to resolve the US trade dispute in separate phone calls with Von der Leyen as well as counterparts from France and Italy, a government spokesman told reporters in Berlin on Monday.

“Time is running out,” Merz’s chief spokesman Stefan Kornelius told a regular government news conference in Berlin, adding that Germany continues to support the Commission’s strategy in the negotiations with the US. “It’s a complex matrix of factors that need to be taken into account.”

Emboldened by a legislative win and a US stock market hitting a record high last week, Trump is flexing his tariff authority as a tool to pursue domestic economic gains and taunt geopolitical rivals. His latest threat was a 10 percent import tax on “any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS.”

“There will be no exceptions to this policy,” he said in a Truth Social post, just as BRICS nations led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were gathering in Rio de Janeiro for meetings starting Sunday.

After two months of gains amid trade war truces, tariff tensions were back in view for equity investors. S&P 500 futures fell 0.5 percent after cash equity markets were closed in the US on Friday for the July 4 holiday. European stocks were flat, while a gage for Asian equities declined 0.7 percent.

The dollar strengthened as much as 0.5 percent, hitting its highest against a currency basket in more than a week. The Australian and New Zealand dollars each sank roughly 1 percent on the view that higher tariffs could have a serious impact on the countries, which count China as a major trade partner. Shorter-dated US Treasuries gained modestly amid weaker risk appetite.

Heading into the final days before the July 9 end of Trump’s 90-day reprieve of so-called reciprocal tariffs, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said 18 major trading partners are the priority, with several big agreements expected to be announced. He also acknowledged the sheer number of ongoing discussions is complicating the final stages.

“There’s a lot of congestion going into the home stretch,” the Treasury chief said on Fox News Sunday while declining to characterise August 1st as the new official deadline. “If you want to speed things up, have at it,” he said on CNN about countries that receive a letter. “If you want to go back to the old rate, that’s your choice.”

In a social media post on Sunday, Trump said he’ll announce that “the United States tariff letters, and/or deals, with various countries from around the world, will be delivered starting” at noon Washington time.

Officials from economies including the European Union and Japan were in discussions with Washington through the US holiday weekend.

The Trump administration has stated for weeks that multiple accords are imminent, but so far only a limited framework with the UK, a truce with China and Trump’s brief outline of a pact with Vietnam have been announced.

By Brendan Murray

Learn more:

For Retailers, US-Vietnam Trade Deal Leaves Questions

New US tariffs on Vietnamese imports create uncertainty for sportswear and clothing retailers like Nike and Adidas.