Tariffs Will Reset on Aug. 1 Without Deal, Bessent Says

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is racing to secure deals on trade. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Tariffs will revert to April 2 levels on Aug. 1 if countries around the world don’t reach deals with the U.S., according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The Trump administration is racing to secure deals before Wednesday’s self-imposed deadline, when a pause on so-called reciprocal tariffs on imports from around the world is set to expire.

Without a deal, tariffs currently set at a 10% baseline will go back to the 20% to 49% set on April 2, Bessent told CNN’s State of the Union.

The administration will be sending letters to countries “saying that if you don’t move things along then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level,” he said. “So I think we’re going to see a lot of deals very quickly.”

Bessent said about 100 letters would be going out to small countries that don’t have much trade with the U.S. Imports from those countries are already at the baseline 10% tariff, he said.

“The playbook is to apply maximum pressure,” Bessent told CNN of the trade deal process. He added the U.S. was close to several deals. “As always, there’s a lot of foot-dragging on the other side. And so I would expect to see several big announcements over the next couple of days.” He wouldn’t name them because he didn’t want to “let them off the hook.”

Stephen Miran, the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, told ABC News’ This Week that the administration expects to see “a number of deals” get done this week. “It’s important that countries line up to make concessions to get those deals, to convince the president that they should get lower tariffs,” he said. “And thus far, it’s been happening.”

Miran did concede that he wasn’t directly involved in trade talks but has heard of good progress on talks with Europe, for example, and India. He said it’s possible that the Wednesday deadline gets extended for some countries.

“My expectation would be that countries that are negotiating in good faith and making the concessions that they need to, to get to a deal, but the deal is not just there yet because it needs more time, my expectation would be that those countries get a roll,” he said. “The president will decide.”

Kevin Hassett, another top economic advisor and director of the National Economic Council, told CBS Face the Nation that the headline is countries around the world are agreeing to open their markets to American goods and allowing the U.S. to put tariffs on their imports here.

But he wouldn’t go as far as to say the deadlines for some countries could be pushed back, as Miran did. “Until we see everything that plays out, I think that we need to just hold our fire and watch for the news this week.”

Late on Friday, Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One that the administration would be sending about 12 letters on Monday. He wouldn’t name the countries except to say he would be announcing them.

Trump said he prefers to send letters rather than sit with individual countries to hash out specific deals, though he has done so with the U.K. and Vietnam.

“I think that letters are better for us,” Trump told reporters. “I think a simple tariff is simpler than, better than sitting down and working 15 different things,” he added. It’s “much easier to send a letter saying, ‘Listen we know we have a certain deficit, or in some cases a surplus, but not too many. And if this is what you have to pay if you wanna do business to the United States.’”

Write to Liz Moyer at liz.moyer@barrons.com