President Trump fired off another round of tariff letters to eight countries Wednesday, giving notice that the US will ramp up levies on their exports if they don’t reach a trade deal with Washington by Aug. 1.
Trump, 79, singled out Brazil by threatening a 50% levy, citing its “witch hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro and what he described as “insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans.”
“The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” Trump informed current Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “This Trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end ‘IMMEDIATELY!”
Bolsonaro is on trial in Brazil for his alleged role in a plot to overturn the results of his country’s 2022 election.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump warned the Philippines that it will face a 20% tariff rate, Brunei and Moldova a 25% rate, and Algeria, Iraq, Libya and Sri Lanka a 30% rate unless an agreement gets done.
“It is a Great Honor for me to send you this letter in that it demonstrates the strength and commitment of our Trading Relationship,” Trump began each of the letters.
“Please understand,” the president went on, “that these Tariffs are necessary to correct the many years of Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers, causing these unsustainable Trade Deficits against the United States.”
“This [trade] Deficit is a major threat to our Economy and, indeed, our National Security!”
Most of the tariff rates Trump dangled closely mirrored the figures he rolled out in his April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement, in which he unveiled customized levies against almost every country in the world.
A week later, on April 9, Trump delayed the “Liberation Day” tariffs for 90 days, before revising the deadline to Aug. 1. However, he left a 10% baseline rate on all imports and other tariffs in place.
The president has now publicly dispatched the letters to 22 countries.
“It is a Great Honor for me to send you this letter in that it demonstrates the strength and commitment of our Trading Relationship,” Trump’s letter to the Philippines begins.
The Philippines will be hit with a “tariff of only 20%,” Trump’s letter to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. reads.
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On Monday, Trump warned Japan and South Korea (prospective 25% tariff), Bangladesh (35%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (30%), Cambodia (36%), Indonesia (32%), Kazakhstan (25%), Laos (40%), Malaysia (25%), Myanmar (40%), Serbia (35%), South Africa (30%), Thailand (36%) and Tunisia (25%).
“They will take the letters seriously because they have taken the president seriously,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the time.
“That’s why the president’s phone, I can tell you, rings off the hook from world leaders all the time who are begging him to come to a deal.”
The letters warned recipient countries that tariff rates are subject to increases based on any retaliation from them and that the levies “may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country.”
“You will never be disappointed with The United States of America,” Trump added.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that the administration has prioritized roughly 18 of America’s top trading partners for negotiations since “Liberation Day.”
So far, Trump has reached provisional tariff deals with the United Kingdom and Vietnam as well as a truce with China.
Details of the agreements are sparse, and most of them largely appear to be frameworks with those countries ahead of a broader trade deal.
“We are close to several deals. As always, there’s a lot of foot-dragging on the other side, and so I would expect to see several big announcements over the next couple of days,” Bessent told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
Trump has also imposed 25% tariffs on automobiles, aluminum, steel and imports from Canada and Mexico that don’t comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The agreement with the UK keeps in place a 10% baseline tariff rate and the pact with Vietnam has a 20% levy on imports as well as a 40% rate on goods “transshipped” from China or elsewhere.
The trade truce with China entails what Trump has described as a 55% levy on Chinese imports — due to his 10% baseline rate, 20% fentanyl-related rate and 25% for preexisting tariffs.
China and the US are negotiating more specifics ahead of an Aug. 10 deadline before rates revert to a 145% US tariff on Chinese imports and a 125% Chinese rate on American imports.
The president has also dangled a 50% tariff threat against the European Union.
