President Donald Trump vowed to push forward with his aggressive tariff regime in the coming days, stressing he would not offer additional extensions on country-specific levies set to now hit in early August while indicating he could announce substantial new rates on imports of copper and pharmaceuticals.
The posturing on social media and at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday came after traders initially shrugged off a series of letters and executive actions Trump issued Monday, pushing back the deadline for his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs while announcing the latest rates he planned for more than a dozen countries that had not succeeded in brokering quick trade agreements.
That changed Tuesday as Trump signaled a renewed determination to push ahead with his plans to heavily tax foreign imports.
Trump said he would offer no additional delays on the country-specific tariffs, despite the previous night allowing he was “not 100% firm” on his August 1 deadline. He foreshadowed an update to the trade status of at least seven countries to be released Wednesday morning, Washington time, with more to come in the afternoon.
The president said he would impose a 50% rate on copper products being sent into the US, spurring a record spike in US futures and a drop in the global benchmark.
He also told reporters that despite progress with the European Union on a trade deal, frustration over the bloc’s taxes and fines targeting US technology firms could result in him unilaterally declaring a new tariff rate within the next two days.
And just hours after saying he was close to a trade deal with India, Trump said he would still tag imports from the country with an additional 10% levy for their participation in BRICS, a collection of developing nations.
Moreover, he said, drug companies could face a tax as high as 200% on imports if they didn’t move production to the US in the next year.
“We want to have relationships, but in every case, they treated us far worse than I’m treating them,” Trump said of trading partners.
As investors assessed the latest trade news, the S&P 500 wavered. Treasuries joined a global drop in longer-dated bonds. Asian shares retreated for the third time in four days in Wednesday trading.