TMTPOST -- U.S. President Donald Trump maintains optimistic on trade deals with worldwide trading partners and implied he could not extend the 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs for negotiations.
Credit：Xinhua News Agency
“I’ve made 200 deals,” Trump replied when asked why White House trade advisor Peter Navarro had predicted “90 deals in 90 days” but there is zero deals so far. Trump added that he is “100%” certain about these deals. The government has struck these deals and will unveil them over three or four weeks, Trump said in an interview with Times Magazine published on Friday.
“I would say, over the next three to four weeks, and we're finished, by the way,” Trump told Times in response to a question about why he doesn’t announce these deals. Pressed on whether his administration has finished the work, Trump said “we’ll be finished” in three to four weeks.
Trump didn’t shared what countries he’s solidified deals with or the terms. He expressed willingness to listening to other countries, though indicated there would be no concessions in negotiations.
“Now, some countries may come back and ask for an adjustment, and I’ll consider that,but I'll basically be, with great knowledge, setting—ready? ” Trump said. He compared the U.S. to the biggest department store in history and countries to customers. “Everybody wants to come in and take from us. They're going to come in and they're going to pay a price for taking our treasure, for taking our jobs, for doing all of these things. But what I'm doing with the tariffs is people are coming in, and they're building at levels you've never seen before,” said Trump.
Later Friday, Trump spoke with reporter outside White House that trade deals are going “very well”, and “we’re very close to a deal” on tariffs with Japan. Questioned about the possibility of granting another 90-day pause on Air Force One, Trump said that he is “unlikely” to do so. The president anticipated to be able to reach trade deals with a range of nations. “We’ll be reasonable,” he said.
Trump two weeks ago said he has authorized a 90-day pause and “a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff” of 10% during this period, both effective immediately. That effectively suspended an up to 50% blanket tariff on all countries but China for 90 days, while a 10% universal tariffs remains in place.
The decision was made because more than 75 countries have reached out to the U.S. to seek a trade deal and these countries have not retaliated against the U.S., Trump posted on his social media Truth Social on April 9.
In the same post, Trump said he decided to lift tariffs on China to 125% as Beijing on Wednesday announced it ratcheted up tariffs on U.S. to 84% from 34%. “based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately,” Trump wrote.
Japan became one of the first countries to formally kick off negotiations with the Trump administration.Trump on April 16 met with Japanese officials in Washington to negotiate on tariffs and trade.
Trump claimed “big progress” was made in a post on Truth Social following direct participating in the negotiations, without giving more details. "A Great Honor to have just met with the Japanese Delegation on Trade. Big Progress!" Trump wrote.
