President Trump has informed at least 21 nations that their exports will face tariffs of 20 percent or more starting in August unless they can broker new trade deals imminently with the United States.
The steep levies, communicated in letters to those nations’ leaders and posted on social media, marked a revival of Mr. Trump’s trade brinkmanship, with additional threats targeting other countries expected throughout the week.
The new tariff rates essentially replace the sky-high duties that the president announced in April. At the time, Mr. Trump quickly paused his so-called reciprocal levies for 90 days, mostly so his administration could broker favorable trade agreements around the globe.
But the White House has made minimal progress on what an official once described as a campaign to strike “90 deals in 90 days,” the deadline for which lapsed on Wednesday.
To buy more time, Mr. Trump signed an executive order earlier this week that extended his initial pause to August, while sending notes to countries informing them about the new taxes on their exports to the United States. Many experts say that the true cost of those levies will fall hardest on U.S. businesses and consumers purchasing foreign goods.
The president’s initial battery of letters went to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Laos, Myanmar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Tunisia and Thailand. By Wednesday, Mr. Trump expanded that roster to include countries such as the Philippines, Brunei and Iraq.
Mr. Trump also threatened to raise rates even higher if any of the countries sought to retaliate with import taxes of their own or tried to evade the U.S. duties by shipping through other nations.
In the coming days, the White House is expected to send additional letters to other countries, some of which will be subject to the tariffs the president outlined in April.
Christine Zhang is a Times reporter specializing in graphics and data journalism.
Tony Romm is a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The Times, based in Washington.
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