Tariffs, Trump announces: ‘The first letters will be sent at 12 noon’

Milan, 7 July (LaPresse) – US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would send letters starting at noon on Monday (6 p.m. in Italy, ed.) – ‘it could be 12, it could be 15’ – to indicate the tariffs planned for countries to specify their tariff rates if they do not reach an agreement. Trump specified that the United States would not begin collecting these taxes before 1 August. ‘We have also concluded agreements,’ Trump told reporters before returning to the White House from his home in New Jersey. ‘So we will have a combination of letters, and some agreements have already been concluded,’ he added. Trump and his advisers refused to reveal which countries would receive the letters. Later on Sunday, Trump promised to impose further tariffs against the BRICS bloc of developing countries, which had condemned the tariff increases during their summit in Brazil. Trump said in a post on his social media that any country that aligned itself with what he called ‘the anti-American policies of the BRICS’ would be subject to an additional 10% tariff.