9th Jul 2025 17:35
(Alliance News) - US President Donald Trump released a fresh set of letters to trading partners Wednesday, setting out tariff rates for six countries as Washington pushes to bring about a flurry of trade deals officials have promised.
The letters, addressed to leaders of economies including the Philippines, Brunei, Algeria, Libya and Iraq, spelled out duties ranging from 20% to 30%.
Similar to Trump's first batch of documents published Monday, the tariff levels were not too far from those originally threatened in April, although some partners received notably lower rates this time.
While the president in April imposed a 10% levy on almost all trading partners, he unveiled – and then held off on – higher rates for dozens of economies.
The deadline for these steeper levels to take effect was meant to be Wednesday, before Trump postponed it further to August 1.
Instead, countries that face these threats of elevated duties began receiving letters spelling out US tariff rates on their products.
Trump's latest messages were near-identical to those published earlier in the week, and justified the tariffs as a response to trade ties that have been "unfortunately, far from Reciprocal".
They urged countries to manufacture products in the US instead to avoid duties, while threatening further escalation if leaders retaliated against the levies.
Apart from tariffs targeting goods from different countries, Trump has also rolled out sector-specific duties on steel, aluminium and autos since returning to the White House in January.
On Tuesday, Trump said tariffs were incoming on copper and pharmaceuticals as well.
source: AFP
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