Trump's Tariff Deals Poised to Fall Short of Promised Sweeping Trade Reforms

Investors on Edge Ahead of July 9 Deadline as White House Sends Cryptic Signals

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WASHINGTON - With just slightly over a week to go until US President Donald Trump's country-specific tariffs are set to resume, the White House appears poised to fall short of the sweeping global trade reforms it promised to achieve during the three months they were on hold.

Agreements with as many as a dozen of the United States' largest trading partners are expected to be completed by the July 9 deadline, top Trump advisers said last week. But if Mr. Trump's only two other accords, with China and Britain, offer any indication, the pacts likely won't be fulsome deals that resolve core issues, but instead will address a limited set of topics and leave many specifics to be negotiated later.

"I would expect the White House will announce some number of frameworks that it's going to call trade deals, but do not meet anyone's ordinary understanding of that term," said Dr. Tim Meyer, a professor at Duke University law school who specializes in international trade.

For dozens of other countries that don't reach deals — but were hit by Mr. Trump's higher tariff on April 2 — he has threatened to impose new duties above the 10 per cent baseline that has been in place during the negotiating period. Those would mostly be "smaller trading partners," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on June 27 on CNBC.

Mr. Trump and his advisers have left investors on edge ahead of July 9, offering cryptic signals about which countries were close to agreements and which were off track. The outcome will help determine the future of Mr. Trump's trade agenda with high stakes for the global economy.

Even with those high stakes, it was still unclear whether the administration would hold firm on the deadline or extend it to allow more time for talks.