Washington [US], June 12: US President Donald Trump said he would be willing to extend the July 8 deadline to complete trade negotiations with partners before higher US tariffs take effect.
Speaking to reporters at the Kennedy Center (USA), Mr. Trump said on June 11 that trade negotiations are still ongoing with about 15 economies, including South Korea, Japan and the European Union (EU).
"We're having trouble making a deal. We're working with quite a few countries and they all want to make a deal with us," Reuters quoted Mr. Trump as saying. Therefore, the US leader also emphasized that extending the negotiation deadline would be "unnecessary".
President Trump said the United States would send letters in the coming weeks to dozens of other partners outlining the terms of a trade deal, which those countries could then accept or reject.
"At some point, we're just going to send a letter out and say, 'Here's the deal. You can accept it or you can not.' So at some point, we're going to do it. We're not ready yet," the US president stressed.
Earlier, speaking before the US House Ways and Means Committee, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US was willing to extend the deadline so that good faith trade negotiations could continue. Mr. Bessent also noted that 18 major partners were participating in these discussions.
"Countries that are negotiating in good faith can get an extension," Mr. Bessent stressed. "If one side does not participate in the negotiations, we will not continue," he said.
The US official said the EU had previously been slow to come up with strong proposals, but was now showing "positive signals".
In April, President Trump announced a policy of imposing reciprocal tariffs on a series of US trading partners. However, just hours after this policy took effect on April 9, Mr. Trump decided to temporarily suspend implementation for 90 days and only impose a basic tax of 10% on most imported goods.
However, the US will reimpose these tariffs from July if other countries do not agree to lower trade barriers and address other concerns of the Trump administration. So far, the White House has only signed a trade deal with the UK.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
