Trump sends out tariff letters to 7 more countries but he avoids major US trade partners

WASHINGTON AP President Donald Trump sent out tariff letters to seven smaller U S trading partners on Wednesday with a pledge to announce import taxes on other countries later in the day None of the countries targeted in the first batch of letters the Philippines Brunei Moldova Algeria Libya Iraq and Sri Lanka is a major industrial rival to the United States It s a sign that a president who has openly expressed his love for the word tariff is still infatuated with the idea that taxing arrangement will create prosperity for America Preponderance economic analyses say the tariffs will worsen inflationary pressures and subtract from economic upsurge but Trump has used the taxes as a way to assert the diplomatic and financial power of the U S on both rivals and allies His administration is promising that the taxes on imports will lower pact imbalances offset several of the cost of the tax cuts he signed into law on Friday and cause factory jobs to return to the United States Trump during a White House meeting with African leaders talked up transaction as a diplomatic tool Exchange he noted seems to be a foundation for him to settle disputes between India and Pakistan as well as Kosovo and Serbia You guys are going to fight we re not going to pact Trump revealed And we seem to be quite flourishing in doing that On Monday Trump placed a tariff on Serbia one of the countries he was using as an example of how fostering agreement can lead to peace Trump announced the tariff rates in his letters were based on common sense and pact imbalances adding that he would be sending a letter on Wednesday or Thursday to Brazil Trump suggested he had not thought of penalizing the countries whose leaders were meeting with him in the Oval Office Liberia Senegal Gabon Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau as these are friends of mine now Countries are not complaining about the rates outlined in his letters he commented even though those tariffs are close to the ones communicated April that rattled financial markets The S P index was up slightly in Wednesday afternoon trading We really haven t had too multiple complaints because I m keeping them at a very low number very conservative as you would say Trump noted Representatives for the European Union a major arrangement partner and source of Trump s ire on business disclosed Tuesday that they are not expecting to receive a letter from Trump listing tariff rates The Republican president started the process of announcing tariff rates on Monday by hitting two major U S trading partners Japan and South Korea with import taxes of According to Trump s letters imports from Libya Iraq Algeria and Sri Lanka would be taxed at those from Moldova and Brunei at and those from the Philippines at The tariffs would start Aug The Census Bureau revealed that last year U S ran a contract imbalance on goods of billion with Algeria billion with Iraq million with Libya billion with the Philippines billion with Sri Lanka million with Brunei and million with Moldova The imbalance represents the difference between what the U S exported to those countries and what it imported Taken together the pact imbalances with those seven countries are essentially a rounding error in a U S market with a gross domestic product of trillion The letters were posted on Truth Social after the expiration of a -day negotiating period with a baseline levy of Trump is giving countries more time to negotiate with his Aug deadline but he has insisted there will be no extensions for the countries that receive letters Maros Sefcovic the EU s chief contract negotiator advised EU lawmakers in Strasbourg France on Wednesday that the EU had been spared the increased tariffs contained in the letters sent by Trump and that an extension of talks until Aug would provide additional space to reach a satisfactory conclusion Trump on April proposed a tariff for EU goods and then threatened to raise that to after negotiations did not move as fast as he would have liked only to return to the baseline The EU has member states including France Germany Italy and Spain The tariff letters are worded aggressively in Trump s style of writing He frames the tariffs as an invitation to participate in the extraordinary Economic activity of the United States adding that the commerce imbalances are a major threat to America s commercial sector and national safety The president threatened additional tariffs on any country that attempts to retaliate He disclosed he chose to send the letters because it was too complicated for U S administrators to negotiate with their counterparts in the countries with new tariffs It can take years to broker transaction accords Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba interpreted the Aug deadline as a delay to allow more time for negotiations although he cautioned in remarks that the tariffs would hurt his nation s domestic industries and employment Malaysia s contract minister Zafrul Aziz noted Wednesday that his country would not meet all of the U S requests after a Trump letter placed a tariff on its goods Aziz declared U S executives are seeking changes in governing body procurement halal certification physiological standards and digital taxes Aziz he indicated those were red lines Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to arrive Thursday in Malaysia s capital of Kuala Lumpur Associated Press writers David McHugh in Frankfurt Germany and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia contributed to this description Source