WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump said he will be sending letters to governments around the world as he seeks trade deals — but Canada is not being affected by Wednesday's tariff deadline.
Trump ramped up pressure ahead of his self-imposed deadline by sending correspondence to countries hit by "Liberation Day" duties warning them he will impose a high tariff rate if there's no trade deal.
"We’ve made deals also," Trump said on Sunday. "So we'll get to have a combination of letters, and some deals have been made."
Trump took his trade war to the world with his so-called "reciprocal" tariffs in April but walked back the most devastating duties a few hours later. A 10 per cent universal tariff remained in place for most countries.
Trump set a 90-day deadline to make deals — but the only trade arrangements the Trump administration has come up with since have been frameworks for deals with the United Kingdom and Vietnam.
Members of Trump's administration changed their tune over the weekend about whether those elevated tariffs would descend on global markets.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that if countries don't make a deal, the duties would go into effect Aug. 1, which would leave additional time for negotiations.
Canada was not included in those global tariffs and has committed to coming up with some sort of bilateral deal with the U.S. by July 21.
Canada is still being hit with fentanyl-related tariffs. Those 25 per cent tariffs, with a lower 10 per cent levy on energy and potash, only apply to exports not compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade.
Canada is also being hit with Trump's tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Trump agreed in March to negotiate a new security and economic partnership, and have been working toward that since Carney visited the White House in early May. Last month, the two leaders set July 21 as the deadline for reaching that deal.
Those negotiations were briefly thrown off track in late June by Trump's demand that Canada drop its digital services tax.
Ottawa terminated that tax on technology giants just before it was set to be collected on June 30.
´ºÉ«Ö±²¥s will be watching closely to see whether the U.S. arrives at new trade agreements with other nations this week. It could suggest what Trump and his team are prioritizing ahead of the deadline for Canada.
The United Kingdom and Vietnamese frameworks suggest the president is committed to keeping some baseline tariffs in place.Â
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Monday that the Trump administration will make several announcements "in the next 48 hours."
He said Trump is concerned about "the quality of the deals, not the quantity."
"As you could imagine, as (Trump) started herding the cats and trying to get everyone across the finish line, when he said that there's a chance countries could boomerang back to their April 2 reciprocal tariff levels, we've had a lot of people change their tune in terms of negotiations," Bessent said.
This report by ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥was first published July 7, 2025.Â
