President Trump decided to delay his reciprocal tariffs to Aug. 1 after discussions with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Bessent and others told the president that he could get trade deals with more time, according to an exclusive report in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
Bessent and other advisers within the Trump administration felt that they were making progress on several deals with trading partners, which included India and the European Union.
An initial pause on the reciprocal tariffs was set to lapse at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday until Trump on Monday further postponed the implementation date for three weeks and sent out letters warning countries of the rates they would face on that day.
Trump had talked about ending tariff deals and letting the tariffs take effect. But after Bessent told him some deals were nearly done, but needed more time, Trump changed his mind. Bessent was also the one who convinced Trump to pause his April ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs for 90 days after they shook global markets.
As a result, Trump sent out letters along with the delay as a negotiating tactic to salvage last-minute concessions from trading partners, according to the WSJ report.
On Tuesday, Trump reinforced his copper tariff threat — which he initially introduced in February, and said that he would impose 50% tariffs on copper and up to 20%% tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
Trump went further on Tuesday evening by saying he will be releasing more letters on Wednesday.
«We will be releasing a minimum of 7 Countries having to do with trade, tomorrow morning, with an additional number of Countries being released in the afternoon. Thank you for your attention to this matter!»
Trump also said it would be impossible for every country to get a deal to avoid reciprocal tariffs.
“We got 200 countries. We can’t meet with 200 countries,” he said during the meeting.
