Trump delivers tariff notices to 7 countries
By: Francesca Chambers
USA Today
WASHINGTON - In a series of letters to foreign leaders, Pres dent Donald Trump notified seven more countries they would be hit with tariffs of at least 20% or more on August 1. [2025]
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In separate July 9 [2025] letters to each targeted country, Trump said he would impose 30% tariff rates on imports from Sri Lanka, Libya, Iraq and Algeria. He said Moldova and Brunei would face 25% tariffs, while the Philippines would be hit with a 20% rate.
..... Trump announce new rats for Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia and other countries earlier in this week. He also put higher tariffs on imports from Japan and South Korea.
..... The
new notices add to the letters to 14 countries Trump sent July 7. [2025] He told reporters later that day that he was open to negotiators with countries prior to August 1. [2025] But he said of the deadline and process, "As far as I'm concerned we're done."
..... Trump insisted at a Cabinet meeting the next day that the August 1 [2025] collection date for the tariffs was firm.
..... White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on July 7 [2025] that dozens of these letters would be sent to countries in the next few weeks. She said Trump is choosing the order in which countries receive notification.
..... "It's the president;s prerogative," Leavitt said.
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In letters addressed to leaders of the countries he's targeting, Trump has saids, "if for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added into" the amount the United States plans to charge.
..... The United States is currently charging 10% baseline tariff on imports from most countries. The higher rates are part of the "reciprocal" tariffs that Trump imposed in early April [2025] and then paused for 90 days. They were scheduled to go into effect on July 9 [2025] for countries that had not directly struck deals with the administration. But the president singed an executive order on July 7 [2025] that delayed their collection until August 1. [2025]
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Reuters reported Treasury Secretary Scoot Bessent said the United States has collected about $100 billion in tariff revenue already and could collect $300 billion by the end of the year. [2025] In recent years, the figure has been about 480 billion.
..... After the July 7 [2025] announcement of letters sent to 14 countries, research groups Yale Budget Lab hesitated consumers face an effective U.S. tariff rate of 17.6%, the highest rate in nine decades, according to Reuters.
..... Reuters reported Trump said he would "probably" inform the European Union, the largest bilateral trading partner of the United States, within a couple of days what rate it will receive for its exports.
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"They treated us very badly until recently, and now they're treating us very nicely," he said. "It's like a different world, actually.
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The 27-nation bloc's trade chief, Maros Sefcovic. said there has been progress on a framework trade agreement and a deal could be struck within days. He told EU lawmakers that he hoped negotiators could finalize an agreement soon, making use of the additional time granted by the extension of the deadline to August 1. [2025]
..... Contributing" Josy Garrison, USA Today; Reuters