Bessent Says Trump to Decide on Any Extension of July 9 Tariff Deadline

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(Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that President Donald Trump will make the call on any extension of talks with trading partners past the July 9 deadline for higher tariff rates to kick back in.

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“We’re going to do what the president wants, and he’ll be the one to determine whether they’re negotiating in good faith,” Bessent said on CNBC Thursday when asked whether the deadline might be lengthened. “I’m not going to give people a 10% extension on national TV when they should try to get it across the finish line.”

The European Union, Japan and other partners for now are only subject to a 10% universal surtax that Trump put into effect on April 9 for a 90-day negotiating period, after pausing much higher duties that he had announced earlier that month.

Bessent said he met with his EU trade counterpart Thursday morning, and said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will be “working diligently over the weekend” with European officials. “So we’ll see what we can do with the European Union.”

Asked about the state of play with Japan, where no deal has emerged despite multiple round of negotiations, Bessent indicated that domestic politics may be complicating the talks.

“Japan are great allies, and they are in a tough spot right now — they have an upper house election on July 20th, which I think gives them a lot of domestic constraints in terms of doing a deal,” he said. “So we’ll see where the Japanese deal goes.”

On Vietnam, Bessent said that his understanding is that a deal is “finalized in principle.” He said the 20% tariff that Trump has announced was the core of that agreement wouldn’t “stack” on top of the 10% universal levy.