CNN
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President Donald Trump sent letters to the leaders of six more countries Wednesday, adding to the growing list of US trading partners for whom he has threatened new tariff rates.
Among the latest recipients were the Philippines, Moldova, Brunei, Algeria, Libya and Iraq, with rates going as high as 30% on goods they ship to the United States. The new tariffs go into effect August 1, pending negotiations.
The rates Trump said would be imposed on goods from Moldova, Iraq and Libya were lower than those he announced in early April. The rates on goods from the Philippines and Brunei were higher, compared to April levels.
Collectively, the US imported $26 billion worth of goods from those six nations last year, according to US Commerce Department figures. That accounts for less than 1% of the $3.2 trillion of goods the US imported.
US stocks were unchanged after Trump’s posts. The Dow was up 75 points, or 0.17%. The S&P 500 was up 0.27% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.52%.
The US and various trading partners have been negotiating new trade agreements since Trump announced so-called “reciprocal” tariffs back in April. Yet few deals have come to fruition.
During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump said “a letter means a deal.” But that doesn’t appear to be how some countries are perceiving the missives.
In the letters, Trump wrote that he takes particular issue with the trade deficits the United States runs with other nations, meaning America buys more goods from there compared to how much American businesses export to those countries. Trump also said the tariffs would be set in response to other policies that he deems are impeding American goods from being sold abroad.
Trump has encouraged world leaders to manufacture goods in the United States to avoid tariffs. If they chose to retaliate by slapping higher tariffs on American goods, Trump threatened to tack that onto the rate charged on their country’s goods shipped to the United States.
Trump has sent 19 letters on tariff rates to heads of state this week, and said at least one more will be released Wednesday. The 25% tariff Trump threatened to impose on Japan and South Korea would be most likely to impact prices of goods Americans buy, since the two nations are America’s sixth- and seventh-top sources of foreign goods.
Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. ET was the initial deadline Trump set three months ago for countries to ink trade deals with the US or instantly face higher tariff rates. However, on Monday he extended that deadline to August 1.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
