Trump Set to Finalize Sweeping Tariff Hikes as Negotiation Deadline Approaches

President Donald Trump has now finalized tariff rates for most of the United States’ key trading partners, while a number of other countries remain in uncertainty just hours before his self-imposed trade deadline. According to a White House official, Trump is expected to sign a fresh series of executive orders on Thursday that will implement higher tariffs on several nations that have yet to secure trade deals with the U.S. by his firm August 1 deadline.

Among the countries likely to be hit are some of America’s largest trading partners, including Canada, Mexico, and Taiwan. Leaders and trade representatives from these and other nations have been scrambling to negotiate last-minute agreements or to obtain deadline extensions, but few are optimistic. “U.S. trade negotiators are squeezing Taiwan like a lemon,” said one individual familiar with the U.S.-Taiwan trade discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the talks. “The U.S. wants it all in terms of access to Taiwan’s markets.”

Unlike previous tariff deadlines where the White House ultimately extended the timeline, officials insist that Trump is serious about holding the line this time. “THE AUGUST FIRST DEADLINE IS THE AUGUST FIRST DEADLINE — IT STANDS STRONG, AND WILL NOT BE EXTENDED. A BIG DAY FOR AMERICA!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday.

Later in the day, the president unveiled a wave of additional trade measures, signing orders to increase tariffs on Brazil to 50 percent, adding duties on semi-finished copper products, and eliminating the tariff exemption for low-value international packages. He also announced a preliminary trade agreement with South Korea, which includes 15 percent tariffs on South Korean goods in return for the country's commitments to invest more than $350 billion in the U.S., purchase over $100 billion in American energy, and ease tariff barriers.

Trump also shared details of a new agreement with Pakistan, stating, “whereby Pakistan and the United States will work together on developing their massive Oil Reserves,” although he provided no specifics on any changes to Pakistan’s tariff rates.

Since April 2, when Trump initially introduced so-called “reciprocal” tariffs ranging from 10 to 50 percent on nearly 60 trading partners, he has used the threat of increased duties to broker preliminary trade and investment agreements with Japan, the European Union, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and several fast-growing Southeast Asian economies. These countries have accepted tariff rates mostly between 15 and 20 percent. The administration has also maintained a fragile truce with China, though Trump still has until August 12 to decide whether duties on Chinese imports will surge to around 80 percent.

The White House confirmed that Trump plans to sign new executive orders by midnight Thursday to officially enact the agreed-upon tariffs and avoid a return to the original, steeper rates announced in April. Whether he will make a public appearance to declare victory in his trade battles or sign the orders behind closed doors remains unknown.

Officials from six nations that haven’t yet finalized trade agreements say they are doubtful they’ll reach deals before the deadline, despite offering significant concessions. All have warned that the looming tariff hikes would severely harm industries reliant on U.S. exports. “There’s not a hell of a lot they can do,” said former U.S. trade negotiator Mark Linscott. “I mean, if you’re too small to be given the attention to try to negotiate a lower tariff, you’re kind of stuck with just taking what the administration dishes out and then after that, seeing how you can mitigate that.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged the scenario on CNBC Tuesday, but attempted to minimize the severity of the impact. “I would think that it’s not the end of the world if these snap back tariffs are on for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, as long as the countries are moving forward and trying to negotiate in good faith,” he said.

Trump originally implemented reciprocal tariffs in early April before pausing them for 90 days. The initial extension deadline of July 8 was pushed to August 1, with over two dozen countries receiving letters threatening potentially higher rates. Of the 60 countries first hit with tariffs in April, 32 did not receive any letter indicating a specific tariff level.

On Wednesday morning, Trump announced plans to apply a 25 percent tariff on Indian goods—India was among the nations not previously issued a tariff letter. Still, in typical Trump fashion, he hinted that there could be room for negotiation with New Delhi ahead of Friday’s deadline.

Twenty-two countries have received notices of new tariff levels taking effect August 1 and appear unlikely to strike a deal in time. These include both major economic partners with stalled negotiations, such as Taiwan, and smaller nations like Lesotho and Madagascar, which now face tariffs as high as 50 percent.

Even Canada and Mexico, America’s top trading partners, are on the list. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has dispatched senior officials to Washington for urgent negotiations. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed hope for a deal this week, but skepticism remains. “It’s extremely wishful thinking,” said Pedro Casas Alatriste, CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico. “I still have a little percentage of hope that something might happen.”

One factor dampening urgency is that most Canadian and Mexican products currently enter the U.S. tariff-free under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the revamped NAFTA deal signed during Trump’s first term. “Canada has a very important USMCA exemption that is in the self-interest of the U.S. to maintain and could give Canada a bit more breathing room to work toward the right deal versus a rush deal,” said one Canadian official.

The White House has been transparent about its strategy of focusing on negotiations with a select group of major economies while unilaterally imposing tariffs on the remainder. “We’re now negotiating with various other countries and the rest we’re just sending out the bill to, the bill, we send a letter saying you pay a certain tariff,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “Obviously that’s most of them because you have, as you know, hundreds of countries, a lot of countries out there.”

Yet negotiations with even some of the largest economies have hit stumbling blocks. Taiwan, for example, has been pushing hard to avoid a 32 percent tariff, offering increased purchases of American agricultural products, liquefied natural gas, and military equipment to help close its $73 billion trade deficit with the U.S. While talks continue in Washington, no agreement has materialized. Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te is in a politically precarious position—accepting Washington’s tough terms could spark backlash at home, but rejecting them risks straining relations with a U.S. administration seen as vital to Taiwan’s security amid Chinese aggression. “For Taiwan the danger of displeasing Donald Trump is existential,” said the source familiar with the negotiations.

“I think every leader is facing this dilemma of negotiating directly with the president and anticipating that he will push for further concessions than what have been discussed at the negotiator level,” said Linscott. “And, if a deal is struck, [Trump] will then make some pretty substantial claims in terms of what the U.S. got.”

Trump’s rationale for hiking tariffs up to 50 percent is largely based on trade imbalances, pointing to countries from which the U.S. imports significantly more than it exports. That logic creates problems for smaller nations such as Lesotho and Madagascar, which benefit from U.S. trade preference programs like the African Growth and Opportunity Act but do not import much from the United States.

It’s also a challenge for Switzerland, which imposes no tariffs on American industrial goods but has a large trade surplus due to high-value exports like pharmaceuticals and machinery. Rahul Sahgal, CEO of the American-Swiss Chamber of Commerce, said that while the initial 10 percent tariff wasn’t overly harmful, a hike to 31 percent would be far more difficult for companies to handle. Many Swiss consumer brands, like the popular sneaker company On, could be significantly affected.

“Even if we were to eat a steak every day and every third, drink a bottle of bourbon and buy a Harley Davidson, it would hardly change the trade balance,” Sahgal remarked, emphasizing the limitations of Switzerland’s small consumer base of 8.8 million people—roughly the population of New York City.

As the Thursday midnight deadline approaches, the global trading community waits to see how many countries will succeed in striking deals, and how many will be left to face the full weight of Trump’s latest round of tariffs.

By fLEXI tEAM