Trump says he will send letters, likely starting Friday, outlining tariffs

President Donald Trump said Washington will begin sending letters to countries on Friday specifying the tariff rates they will have to pay on exports to the United States, a sharp shift from earlier promises to strike dozens of individual deals.

Acknowledging the complexity of negotiating with more than 170 nations, Trump told reporters before leaving for Iowa on Thursday that letters would be sent to 10 countries at a time, setting tariff rates such as 20% to 30%.

“We have over 170 countries, and how many deals can you make?” Trump said. “They’re much more complicated.”

The Republican president said he expected “some” more detailed agreements with other countries following Wednesday’s announcement of a trade deal with Vietnam.

But he said he preferred to notify most other countries of a specific tariff rate, bypassing detailed negotiations.

Trump's comments highlighted the challenges of reaching trade deals on everything from tariffs to non-tariff barriers such as bans on agricultural imports.

Top Trump aides said in April they would work on 90 deals in 90 days, an ambitious goal that was met with skepticism by trade experts familiar with arduous and time-consuming trade deals of the past.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg Television that about 100 countries would likely receive a reciprocal 10% tariff and predicted a “flood” of trade deals announced ahead of a July 9 deadline when tariffs could rise sharply.

If 10% tariffs were granted to 100 countries, that number would be lower than the Trump administration originally anticipated.

Its original reciprocal tariff list showed 123 jurisdictions that would receive a 10 percent tariff — mostly small countries, along with a few territories such as Australia's uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands.

On April 2, Trump sent markets into a tailspin with sweeping reciprocal tariff rates ranging from 10% to 50%, although he temporarily reduced the tariff rate for most countries to 10% to allow time for negotiations until July 9.

Many countries with an initial 10% rate have not had any negotiations with the Trump administration, with the exception of the United Kingdom, which reached a deal in May to maintain a 10% rate and gained preferential treatment for some sectors, including automobiles and aircraft engines.

Major trading partners now engaged in negotiations have been hit with much higher tariff rates, including 20 percent for the European Union, 26 percent for India and 24 percent for Japan. Other countries that have not engaged in trade negotiations with the Trump administration face even higher reciprocal tariffs, including 50 percent for the tiny mountainous kingdom of Lesotho, 47 percent for Madagascar and 36 percent for Thailand.

On Wednesday, Trump announced a deal with Vietnam that he said would reduce U.S. tariffs on many Vietnamese goods to 20 percent, down from the previously threatened 46 percent. Many U.S. goods will be able to enter Vietnam duty-free.