The administration is again signaling that tariff negotiations will continue past Trump’s July 8 deadline.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday signaled that the Trump administration’s tariff negotiations with more than a dozen trading partners could stretch until September.
“We have 18 important trading partners — U.K., China are behind us for now — and then Secretary [Howard] Lutnick said yesterday that he expects 10 more deals. So, if we can ink 10 or 12 of the important 18 — there are another important 20 relationships — then I think we could have trade wrapped up by Labor Day,” Bessent told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo.
The comments echo similar messaging from other administration officials, including White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Stephen Miran, who said Thursday that President Donald Trump may decide to extend the previously announced July 8 deadline for certain countries.
“As President Trump has said, he’s created maximum negotiating leverage for Ambassador [Jamieson] Greer, Secretary Lutnick and myself by saying if you can’t get to a deal, he’s happy to go back to the April 2 levels, so we have countries approaching us with very good deals,” Bessent said.
The Trump administration has threatened to slap tariffs as high as 50 percent on dozens of trading partners if they don’t strike deals by July 8, with those that do ink agreements still subject to a baseline rate of 10 percent.
Miran said Thursday some countries could “convince the president to lower tariffs below 10 percent” with “aggressive concessions.”
U.S. stocks hit record highs Thursday after Trump said the U.S. had reached an agreement with China. Commerce Secretary Lutnick said in a Thursday interview with Bloomberg Radio that the administration is finalizing deals with 10 key trading partners.
