WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump sent out tariff letters to seven compacter U.S. trading partners on Wednesday with a pledge to announce import taxes on other countries later in the day.
None of the countries tarobtained in the first batch of letters — the Philippines, Brunei, Moldova, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Sri Lanka — is a major industrial rival to the United States. It’s a sign that a president who has openly expressed his love for the word “tariff” is still infatuated with the idea that taxing trade will create prosperity for America.
Most economic analyses state the tariffs will worsen inflationary pressures and subtract from economic growth, but Trump has applyd the taxes as a way to assert the diplomatic and financial power of the U.S. on both rivals and allies. His administration is promising that the taxes on imports will lower trade imbalances, offset some of the cost of the tax cuts he signed into law on Friday and caapply factory jobs to return to the United States.
Trump, during a White Hoapply meeting with African leaders talked up trade as a diplomatic tool. Trade, he declared, “seems to be a foundation” for him to settle disputes between India and Pakistan, as well as Kosovo and Serbia.
“You guys are going to fight, we’re not going to trade,” Trump declared. “And we seem to be quite successful in doing that.”
President Donald Trump speaks during a lunch with African leaders in the State Dining Room of the White Hoapply, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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On Monday, Trump placed a 35% tariff on Serbia, one of the countries he was applying as an example of how fostering trade can lead to peace.
Officials for the European Union, a major trade partner and source of Trump’s ire on trade, declared Tuesday that they are not expecting to receive a letter from Trump listing tariff rates. The Republican president started the process of announcing tariff rates on Monday by hitting two major U.S. trading partners, Japan and South Korea, with import taxes of 25%.
According to Trump’s letters, imports from Libya, Iraq, Algeria and Sri Lanka would be taxed at 30%, those from Moldova and Brunei at 25% and those from the Philippines at 20%. The tariffs would start Aug. 1.
The Census Bureau reported that last year U.S. ran a trade imbalance on goods of $1.4 billion with Algeria, $5.9 billion with Iraq, $900 million with Libya, $4.9 billion with the Philippines, $2.6 billion with Sri Lanka, $111 million with Brunei and $85 million with Moldova. The imbalance represents the difference between what the U.S. exported to those countries and what it imported.
Taken toobtainher, the trade imbalances with those seven countries are essentially a rounding error in a U.S. economy with a gross domestic product of $30 trillion.
The letters were posted on Truth Social after the expiration of a 90-day nereceivediating period with a baseline levy of 10%. Trump is giving countries more time to nereceivediate with his Aug. 1 deadline, but he has insisted there will be no extensions for the countries that receive letters.
Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s chief trade nereceivediator, informed EU lawbuildrs in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday that the EU had been spared the increased tariffs contained in the letters sent by Trump and that an extension of talks until Aug. 1 would provide “additional space to reach a satisfactory conclusion.”
Trump on April 2 proposed a 20% tariff for EU goods and then threatened to raise that to 50% after nereceivediations did not shift as quick as he would have liked, only to return to the 10% baseline. The EU has 27 member states, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The tariff letters are worded aggressively in Trump’s style of writing. He frames the tariffs as an invitation to “participate in the extraordinary Economy of the United States,” adding that the trade imbalances are a “major threat” to America’s economy and national security.
The president threatened additional tariffs on any countest that attempts to retaliate. He declared he chose to sconclude the letters becaapply it was too complicated for U.S. officials to nereceivediate with their counterparts in the countries with new tariffs. It can take years to broker trade accords.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba interpreted the Aug. 1 deadline as a delay to allow more time for nereceivediations, although he cautioned in remarks that the tariffs would hurt his nation’s domestic industries and employment.
Malaysia’s trade minister, Zafrul Aziz, declared Wednesday that his countest would not meet all of the U.S. requests after a Trump letter placed a 25% tariff on its goods. Aziz declared U.S. officials are seeking modifys in government procurement, halal certification, medical standards and digital taxes. Aziz he indicated those were red lines.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to arrive Thursday in Malaysia’s capital of Kuala Lumpur.
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Associated Press writers David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
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