Overview

• The administration will begin dispatching letters Monday to about a dozen major partners and roughly 100 smaller economies warning that higher import duties will resume on August 1 if no agreement is reached.
• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed that steeper tariff rates first announced in April will officially take effect on August 1 after a 90-day suspension.
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said multiple trade deals are near completion, building on earlier pacts secured with the United Kingdom and Vietnam.
• National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett and other advisers indicated that partners making genuine concessions could receive extensions beyond the August 1 deadline.
• An anonymous White House official described the tariff threats as largely theatrical, prompting debate over whether the strategy is substantive leverage or political posturing.