The White House announced Monday that it would be extending President Donald Trump’s 90-day tariff pause, and said it sent a flurry of letters to foreign leaders urging them to ink their own trade deals with the U.S. ahead of a new Aug. 1 deadline.
Trump fired off the first strongly worded letters to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on Monday, saying he would impose a 25% tariff on goods imported to the U.S. from the two countries.
Hours later, Trump posted cookie-cutter letters on Truth Social that were sent to Myanmar, Laos, South Africa, Kazakhstan and Malaysia, offering tariff rates that were only slightly different from the original rates set on those countries, and ranged as high as 40%. Over the course of the afternoon, the president penned letters to 14 different nations.