There’s another twist in the trade and tariff story. The Trump Administration’s reciprocal tariffs were announced on April 2 and paused for 90 days the next week. The 90-day break expires on Wednesday. However, the reciprocal tariffs will not officially take effect until August 1. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made that point on CNN. “President Trump’s going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don’t move things along, then on August 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2nd tariff level,” said Bessent. “We’re going to send out probably 100 letters to the small countries where we don’t have very much trade, and most of them are already at the base on ten percent.” Those letters are going out today. Three deals have reportedly been completed. Vietnam was the most recent deal announced, but no documentation has been released. There are also framework agreements in place with China and the United Kingdom. Negotiations are happening with other countries, but most of the attention has been on Canada, India, Japan, and South Korea.
