\n<\/p>\n
Donald Trump revealed plans to step up his trade wars on Monday but delayed tariffs hikes on goods from key economies until next month, amid widespread confusion over his controversial economic strategy.<\/p>\n
The US president announced countries including Japan,<\/strong> South Korea and South Africa will face tariffs of up to 40% as part of a fresh wave of levies to kick in on 1 August. No increases will take place on Wednesday, however, after he extended a previous pause.<\/p>\n White House officials also signaled that new blanket rates \u2013 charged on all goods imported from certain markets \u2013 would incorporate, rather than be imposed on top of, existing duties charged on certain sectors, such as cars.<\/p>\n Posting copies of letters addressed to world leaders on social media, <\/strong>Trump announced <\/strong>the following new US tariff rates:<\/p>\n He also signed an executive order on Monday extending a 90-day pause for a slate of so-called \u201creciprocal\u201d tariffs first introduced in April \u2013 in effect pushing back the deadline of trade talks back to 1 August.<\/p>\n Asked if the deadline was firm, Trump said: \u201cI would say firm, but not 100% firm. If they call up and they say we\u2019d like to do something a different way, we\u2019re going to be open to that.\u201d<\/p>\n The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a press briefing that more letters would be sent later this week.<\/p>\n Trump was \u201cclose\u201d on other deals, she added, but \u201cwants to ensure these are the best deals possible\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump officials initially suggested they would strike dozens of deals with key economies by 9 July, but have since indicated that they would seek an extension to continue talks.<\/p>\n The letters were largely identical and informed the leaders that there will be no tariffs if their countries \u201cdecide to build or manufacture product within the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump also threatened higher tariffs if the countries place additional tariffs on US exports. \u201cIf for any reason you decide to raise your tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto that 25% we charge,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n In an earlier post on Truth Social, Trump also threatened an extra 10% levy on countries working with Brics nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) after the bloc\u2019s leaders issued a statement on Sunday expressing \u201cserious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff\u201d measures.<\/p>\n Trump initially announced a slate of so-called reciprocal tariffs in April, on what the White House dubbed \u201cliberation day\u201d, with some countries facing rates as high as 50%<\/p>\n The US has so far settled deals with three countries: the UK, China and Vietnam, and Bessent said there were over a dozen countries the US is still trying to negotiate with.<\/p>\n The new August deadline for countries without a deal amounts to a further three-week reprieve, but also triggers fresh uncertainty for importers because of the lack of clarity around the tariffs.<\/p>\n As the July deadline has approached, Trump\u2019s officials have been racing to broker deals.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to This Week in Trumpland<\/span><\/p>\n A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Simon Harris, the deputy Irish prime minister, confirmed the European Union, which Trump has threatened with 50% tariffs, had been granted an extension until 1 August to allow for talks.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to be clear that, while it is likely there will be some form of tariffs going forward, their imposition even at a lower rate is bad for consumers, jobs, economic growth and investment,\u201d said Harris. \u201cWe have consistently called for zero-for-zero tariffs in as many areas as possible, and I know the EU has advocated this course of action.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House reached an impasse in negotiations with Japan, despite initial optimism. Trump on Friday said it is \u201cmuch easier to send a letter\u201d and that the offers are \u201ctake it or leave it\u201d.<\/p>\n On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 sank by 0.8% after Trump posted his first letters on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 0.9%.<\/p>\n Though the US stock market has largely recovered from the uncertainty around Trump\u2019s trade war, the US dollar still remains weakened after months of trade fights. At the beginning of this year, the dollar had its worst six months in more than 50 years, falling 10.8% since the start of 2025.<\/p>\n British steelmakers face a nervous wait to discover if they will be hit by US tariffs, after the UK government said it was trying to complete a deal to protect the industry from Trump\u2019s trade war.<\/p>\n The US has set a 50% tariff on foreign steel and aluminum imports. While the UK has brokered a reduced rate of 25% and is trying to bring it down to zero, a deal has not yet been completed.<\/p>\n On Monday, Downing Street refused to confirm it was confident it could eliminate US tariffs on UK steel before Trump\u2019s deadline. A spokesperson for No 10 said: \u201cOur work with the US continues to get this deal implemented as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Donald Trump revealed plans to step up his trade wars on Monday but delayed tariffs hikes on goods from key economies until next month, amid widespread confusion over his controversial economic strategy. The US president announced countries including Japan, South Korea and South Africa will face tariffs of up to 40% as part of a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1631,1048,543,3250,520,2971,72,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-10324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-announces","9":"tag-countries","10":"tag-delays","11":"tag-hikes","12":"tag-rates","13":"tag-tariff","14":"tag-tariffs","15":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}