President Donald Trump said on Monday that he will probably implement a coverage rate between 15% and 20% on imports to the United States from countries that have not negotiated separate trade agreements.
“For the world, I would say that it will be somewhere in the range of 15% to 20% … I just want to be nice,” Trump told Turnberry, Scotland, alongside the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer.
“I would say that in the range from 15% to 20%, probably one of these two figures,” he continued.
The figures are important because they represent an increase compared to the 10% reference rate that Trump announced in April of this year.
This could also wreak havoc on small countries hoping that the rate rate would be closer to 10%.
Commerce secretary Howard Lunick suggested earlier this month than small nations, including “Latin American countries, Caribbean countries, many African countries”, would have a reference rate of 10%.
But Trump said on Monday that “we are going to establish a price for essentially the rest of the world, and that’s what they will pay if they want to do business in the United States, because you cannot sit down and conclude 200 offers”.
The White House did not immediately respond to the request for CNBC comments on the question of whether there would be an exception on the rate of reference rate for small nations.
Trump’s comments arise while dozens of countries have not negotiated trade agreements with the United States, a few days before its price deadline on August 1.
While the deadline is looming, officials of the Trump administration in recent days have suggested that the White House is not “under pressure to have more transactions”.
“We have all heard the president say on several occasions that he was satisfied with the price, he is happy to send a letter and set a price, instead of having an agreement,” said US trade representative Jamieson Greer on CNBC on Monday.
A reference rate rate somewhere between 15% and 20% is equal to some of the agreements that the United States has concluded with the main business partners in recent days.
Last week, Trump announced 15% of prices on Japan, and on Sunday, he deployed 15% of prices on most European products in the United States
Some countries, including Brazil and Laos, have received rates of prices up to 40% and 50%.
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