BURSTPresident Trump said Friday that administration officials are likely to begin informing dozens of countries in the coming weeks of what tariff rate they will have to pay after a 90-day pause lowered the amount to just 10 percent across the board.
Trump, speaking at a roundtable in the United Arab Emirates, acknowledged there was not enough time to meet with every country that the U.S. had hit with reciprocal tariffs in early April. He said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would begin outreach to those nations soon.
“So at a certain point over the next two to three weeks, I think Scott and Howard will be sending letters out essentially telling people — and we’ll be very fair — but we’ll be telling people what they will be paying to do business in the United States,” Trump said.
“I guess you could say they could appeal it, but for the most part i think we’re going to be very fair,” he added. “But it’s not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us.”
The president on April 2 levied a 10 percent tariff on all foreign imports and higher reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries that had larger trade imbalances with the U.S. The higher rates hit major economies like South Korea, Japan, the European Union, China and Thailand, as well as smaller nations like Lesotho, Laos, Botswana and Fiji.
The president later announced a 90-day pause on those higher tariffs, allowing time for nations to negotiate trade deals. The U.S. has announced agreements with the United Kingdom and with China to lower tariffs, though Trump has signaled the 10 percent rate will be a floor.
At the same time, the president has imposed tariffs on various sectors such as automobile imports and steel and aluminum imports, with the threat to do the same on pharmaceutical imports.