WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration is setting a Wednesday deadline for countries impacted by his sweeping tariffs to submit their best offer for a new trade agreement with the U.S., White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed.
Speaking at Tuesday’s press briefing, Leavitt told reporters that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative sent a letter to trading partners informing them of the request, describing it as a “friendly reminder” as the pause Trump issued on his “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire in just weeks.
“I can confirm the merits and the content of the letter,” Leavitt said in response to a question about a Reuters report on the letters. “USTR sent this letter to all of our trading partners just to give them a friendly reminder that the deadline is coming up.”
She went on to note that Trump’s trade team in talks on new deals with countries, adding the administration is “on track” to make good deals that are tailor-made to specific nations.
The administration has been engaged in negotiations with trading partners after Trump issued a 90-day pause – set to lapse in the second week of July – on the new country-specific tariff rates he announced on what he deemed “Liberation Day.” But since then, Trump has said that his team would not have time for conversations with every trading partner that wants to make an agreement, telling reporters traveling with him to the United Arab Emirates last month that his administration was set to begin independently informing other countries of the tariff rate the U.S. will charge them.
The new deadline, however, comes amid major uncertainty surrounding the future of Trump’s wide scale tariff agenda after a series of court rulings last week.
A federal appeals court determined Trump could continue to impose his tariffs for now but it came less than 24 hours after a federal trade court ruled that the emergency authority Trump used to announce most of his country-specific tariffs was not legal, thus blocking his ability to enforce them.
The White House insisted in the wake of the decisions that Trump’s trade and tariff agenda would continue as intended regardless, insisting the administration would win the court battle while also pledging to find another authority to enforce the levies if not. Officials also said that other countries were continuing to engage in new trade deal negotiations as normal, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisting on Fox News that the U.S. has seen “no change in their attitude.”
Aside from a temporary agreement with China announced last month to ease the ballooning trade war between the two nations, the administration has only unveiled a new agreement with one nation, the United Kingdom.
Asked about when we might expect to see more deals during an appearance on ABC News over the weekend, White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said Trump’s trade team last week was “focused 100 percent like a laser beam” on China in particular.
“Once that thing's resolved, then we're going to take deals into the Oval that [U.S. Trade Representative] Jamieson Greer and [Commerce Secretary] Howard Lutnick have negotiated,” Hassett said.
Trump last week accused China of violating the temporary trade deal made between the two countries last month, blasting the country in a post on Truth Social, hours after Bessent said talks between the nations were stalled.
Leavitt told reporters on Monday that the president will likely speak with his Chinese counterpart this week.
The Democratic National Committee on Tuesday, meanwhile, sought to capitalize off of a moniker of “TACO,” which stands for “Trump always chickens out” that Wall Street traders have used amid the back-and-forth on tariffs by parking a taco truck and giving out free food near the Republican National Committee headquarters.
Vice President JD Vance criticized the move on X, writing “We have the lamest opposition in American history.”
Asked about the “TACO” label at a press conference last week, Trump called it a “nasty question.”