Interest Grows as EU and India Tariff Rates Remain Undisclosed, Highlighting Negotiation Status
U.S. President Donald Trump has released a letter specifying new reciprocal tariff rates for seven countries, including the Philippines and Iraq.
On July 9 (local time), President Trump posted a letter on the social networking service Truth Social, specifying a reciprocal tariff rate of 20% for the Philippines, 30% each for Algeria, Iraq, Libya, and Sri Lanka, and 25% each for Brunei and Moldova.
Compared to the reciprocal tariff rates announced on April 2, the rate for the Philippines has increased by 3 percentage points from 17% to 20%, and Brunei's rate has risen by 1 percentage point from 24% to 25%. Algeria's rate remains unchanged. Sri Lanka's rate has been lowered by 14 percentage points from 44% to 30%, Iraq's by 9 percentage points from 39% to 30%, Libya's by 1 percentage point from 31% to 30%, and Moldova's by 6 percentage points from 31% to 25%.
President Trump has adjusted the implementation date for the reciprocal tariffs, which were originally scheduled to be imposed after a 90-day grace period starting July 9, to take effect from the first day of next month. Since July 7, he has been sending letters to the leaders of each country specifying the newly adjusted reciprocal tariff rates. On July 7, President Trump released letters regarding a total of 14 countries, including South Korea and Japan. On July 9, he announced that he would release letters for "at least seven countries" in the morning, and indicated the previous day that he would release additional letters for several other countries later that afternoon.
Among the United States' major trading partners, letters for the European Union (EU) and India had not been released as of noon on July 9, drawing attention to the status of negotiations. It is known that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, who has been involved in the tariff negotiations, advised President Trump to postpone the imposition of reciprocal tariffs to the first day of next month. The background to this advice is reportedly the progress being made in negotiations with some major trading partners, including India and the EU.
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