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Donald Trump has held out the prospect that the US will set new tariff rates on many of its trading partners unilaterally, rather than striking deals with all of them.
Speaking at a meeting with business executives in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, the US president said that Washington would impose new tariffs “over the next two to three weeks”.
He added that Treasury secretary Scott Bessent and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick would “be sending letters out essentially telling people” what “they’ll be paying to do business in the United States”.
Trump said that, while “150 countries” wanted to agree deals, “it’s not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us”.
His administration has scaled back many of the tariffs Trump announced on his so-called liberation day on April 2 to 10 per cent for a 90-day period.
It has also struck a deal with the UK this month to provide tariff relief for products such as steel and cars, as well as jointly announcing duty reductions with China this week.
In addition, Washington has been carrying out negotiations with the EU, Japan, India and other countries.
This is a developing story
