President Donald Trump’s 90-day delay on adopting reciprocal tariffs on a slate of countries is set to end on Wednesday. Absent another delay from the president, or a flurry of eleventh-hour deals, some of the U.S.’ largest trading partners could face additional double-digit tariffs later this week.
After initially suggesting officials could find 90 deals in 90 days, the Trump administration is entering the final stretch of negotiations with only a narrow trade framework with the United Kingdom, replete with commitments to future talks, a promise from the president that officials have secured terms with Vietnam – but scant details on what those are – and a tariff truce with China that leaves duties on both sides significantly higher than when Trump took office.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked on CNN Sunday what will happen on Wednesday. “I'm not going to give away the playbook, because we're going to be very busy over the next 72 hours,” he responded.
“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 Aug. 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level. So, I think we're going to see a lot of deals very quickly.”
He said the European Union "is making very good progress. They were off to a slow start."
Meanwhile this week, the Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to roll out its first fiscal 2026 spending bills less than three months before the new budget year starts Oct. 1. The first three bills the committee will consider on Thursday include the Agriculture measure that funds USDA and the Food and Drug Administration.
The House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the FY 26 Agriculture bill on June 23. The House version, which includes funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is funded at $25.52 billion, a reduction of $1.16 billion below the FY25 level. Those levels don't include funding for mandatory spending programs, including farm bill programs and school meals where funding is prescribed by law.
The House is not in session this week. GOP leaders cancelled the week's schedule after calling lawmakers back to vote last week on the sweeping budget reconciliation bill dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
A pocketful of deals?
Trump told reporters on Thursday ahead of an Iowa trip that he expects “a couple” more trade deals to land before Wednesday’s deadline. Discussions with multiple countries are continuing in earnest.
European Union Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič was in Washington last week, and left discussions with Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer touting a “productive week of work.”
“The work continues,” Šefčovič wrote on X following the meetings. “Our goal remains unchanged: a good and ambitious transatlantic trade deal.”
A European Commission official told Agri-Pulse and other reporters in Brussels last week that the “likeliest outcome” remains a skinny deal “in principle,” that leaves many of the thornier issues for later rounds of negotiations. But the official added that deadlines remain “movable.”
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Olof Gill, a trade spokesperson for the commission, stressed during a Friday press briefing that negotiations are in “a very sensitive phase.”
Trump himself has soured on the prospects that Japan can secure a deal, in part because of it’s refusal to accept more U.S. rice imports, the president said.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s top trade official was in Washington for meetings on Saturday, the second such visit in as many weeks. Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo told South Korea’s parliament last week that the U.S. is pushing for greater access to South Korea’s market for ag products, among other sectors.
Yeo told reporters ahead of the visit that he would also push for an extension of the reciprocal tariff relief, if needed.
Recall that China is on its own timetable. As part of a deal penned in Geneva last month, Beijing has until mid-August before it’s reciprocal tariff deadline ends.
‘Liberation Day’ 2.0?
Exactly what will happen for countries that haven’t secured a deal before the Wednesday tariff deadline remains unclear in many capitals. Trump told reporters at Air Force Base Andrews on Friday that 10-12 countries could receive letters letting them know what their new tariff rates would be, with some letters going out as soon as this weekend. But he has not revealed which countries could be on that list.
“They’ll range in value from maybe 60% or 70% tariffs to 10% and 20% tariffs,” Trump said. He added that most duties would go into effect Aug. 1.
Trump’s comments suggest that some countries could see rates even higher than those assigned on April 2 – what Trump referred to as “Liberation Day.” Those reciprocal duties, which Trump unveiled on a poster board in the Rose Garden, only went as high as 50%, with the small southern African nation of Lesotho facing the top rate.
The president has already threatened to increase the EU’s duties. The bloc was assigned a reciprocal tariff rate of 20% on April 2, but in May, the president threatened new 50% duties over what he described as a lack of progress in bilateral negotiations.
Other officials have indicated that there may be some flexibility on the reimposition of tariffs. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a briefing last week that “the deadline is not critical,” and Bessent has previously suggested that the president could offer deadline extensions for countries negotiating in “good faith.”
However, some analysts are skeptical about what the White House’s interpretation of “good faith” might mean.
“[N]egotiating in good faith means both sides are exchanging sincere proposals in an effort to find common ground on outstanding issues. It does not mean that the partner is not agreeing to one or multiple US demands,” former U.S. trade negotiator Wendy Cutler said in a post to LinkedIn.
“It’s a fine line for a White House that doesn’t seem to be interested in nuance,” she added.
Further plot twists?
With so much up in the air, this week already promises to offer multiple twists and developments, with agriculture set to play a starring role.
The U.S. reportedly threatened the EU with a new 17% tariff on food exports in closed-door talks last week – first reported by the Financial Times – setting up a situation that many European ag industry groups were hoping to avoid. Multiple industry representatives told Agri-Pulse that they had been urging the EU to refrain from threatening tariffs on U.S. ag products to avert dragging the sector onto the trade war’s front lines.
Laurens van Delft, deputy secretary general at the European Dairy Association said EDA had urged European Commission officials to keep ag out of proposed retaliatory actions. The message has been echoed across Europe’s food and drink industry, Van Delft said.
“Once you bring agriculture from any angle into a dispute, you are putting it onto the radar,” Alice O’Donovan, secretary general at the European Liaison Committee for the Agricultural and Agri-food Trade (CELCAA), said.
Van Delft added that he understands the “strategy behind going for bourbon,” or for products from a certain politician’s districts to hit their political base. “But I'm not sure if it does justice to the affected sectors who really might have nothing to do with it,” Van Delft said.
Here is a list of agriculture or rural-related events scheduled for this week in Washington and elsewhere (all times EDT):
Monday, July 7
4 p.m. – USDA releases Crop Progress report.
Tuesday, July 8
Wednesday, July 9
Thursday, July 10
8:30 a.m. – USDA releases Weekly Export Sales report.
9:30 a.m. – Senate Appropriations Committee considers its fiscal 2026 Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science and Legislative Branch bills, 106 Dirksen.
10 a.m. – Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing on the U.S. Forest Service, 366 Dirksen.
Friday, July 11
Noon – USDA releases the monthly Crop Production report and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates.
Philip Brasher contributed to this report.
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