Trump: Poples rate | Photocredit: Franckreporter
It had to come out like a deal a day from the first week of April.
But about 90 days later, seeing barely a handful of himself, US President Donald Trump started a threefold strategy.
He extended the deadline for rates until the beginning of August; The earlier would expire on July 9.
He then hit Asian allies, Japan and South Korea with a rate of 25 percent and warned others of a similar fate.
He also warned ‘anti-American’ countries for an extra rate of 10 percent compared to existing rates.
The first of the letters was sent to Japan and South Korea with another 12 countries that are expected to be recipients.
The steepest rates are reserved for Laos and Myanmar, while Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Tunisia join Japan and South Korea for the lowest plate of 25 percent.
“From 1 August 2025 we will charge Japan a rate of only 25 percent on all Japanese products sent to the United States, regardless of all sectoral rates. Goods transferred to avoid a higher rate will be subject to those higher rates,” Trump said in his letter to the Japanese Prime Minister Beyigu.
The letter also had a warning.
“If, for whatever reason, you decide to increase your rates, then the number you choose to pick them up will be added to the 25% that we charge”.
Perhaps it is expected that the smaller export-reliant asian countries will soon fall in line and deal with Washington.
But it is a different story for nations such as Japan and South Korea that will have a huge impact on his car, electronics and steel industry.
Asian allies
What strategic thinkers and planners rattled is that Japan and Zuid -Korea are two of our nearest Asian allies who are already dealing with heat from Washington because of the budget for defense expenditure and incidental lectures on “free loading” at the expense of the American taxpayer.
The pressure on Tokyo and Seoul comes at a time when China bends his muscles in the Indo Pacific and pushes its surrogates such as Noord -Korea to make the necessary sounds on the Korean peninsula and the sea of Japan.
From Liberation Day of 2 April, the rates schedule has seen two deadlines, first of July 9 and now a postponement of three weeks. Trump sees effective rates as the only way to increase income, to strengthen the trade balance and to restore the greatness of American production.
But allies in Europe and Asia have shown a reluctance to throw in their fate with Washington, which points to the difficulties in closing only one deal with one trading partner.
And a country like Japan tries to impress its need to maintain its cultural imperatives when negotiating agricultural imports such as rice.
It happened in the first few weeks of April, the American markets did not respond in a friendly way to the latest letters and rates. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite each fell one percent since the letters rolled out.
Hope for deals
High officials of the Trump administration are hopeful in deals in the bag, but are well aware that from now on only Great Britain and Vietnam have come to terms, with China corresponding to certain sectors.
The deal with India seems to be hopeful, but agricultural products seem to be the bottleneck.
Coincidental with the meeting of the BRICS in Brazil, Trump has threatened a flat 10 percent rate for every nation that embraces an anti-American attitude.
“Every country that is in line with the anti-American policy of Brics will charge an extra rate of 10%. There are no exceptions to this policy.
Thank you for your attention for this issue, “Trump said in a post on social media. The world is waiting for clarification.
The writer is a senior journalist who has reported from Washington DC in Noord -America and UN
Published on July 9, 2025
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