Countries in the crosshairs of US tariffs are rushing to offer concessions and other defensive responses to White House demands in the final full week before President Donald Trump stages trade “Liberation Day.”
European Union trade chief Maros Sefcovic will meet Tuesday in the US with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Meanwhile, India’s government will seek an exemption from Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs when an American delegation arrives Tuesday for talks over a bilateral trade agreement.
Brendan Lynch, US assistant trade representative for South and Central Asia, and a team of officials will visit India this week as part of ongoing trade discussions, the US embassy in New Delhi said in a statement Monday.
The flurry of talks in the run-up to April 2 — when Trump plans to reveal tariffs that offset levies on US goods — reflect the urgency of some of the US’s largest trading partners to convince Trump’s team that they’ll address his grievances over imbalances he said have disadvantaged American workers for decades.
Trump has said the levies will not only make trade fairer, but also boost US leverage in other diplomatic negotiations and generate huge revenue for the Treasury.
Ireland’s prime minister has cautioned that Trump’s approach to tariffs risks exposing EU divisions: France has argued for a tough approach, for instance, while Italy has expressed concern about any eye-for-an-eye response.
The process of identifying specific countries to be assigned a new tariff rate has grown more targeted in recent days and the threat of immediate sectoral tariffs has diminished, Bloomberg reported over the weekend. No final decision has been made by the Trump administration, which is still weighing whether to include sectoral tariffs in the April 2 announcement, an official said Monday.
Beaten down in recent weeks on trade war concerns, stocks were higher in Asia and Europe on Monday, and the S&P 500 opened higher in US trading.
A growing chorus of central bankers and finance ministers around the world is expressing concern that a global trade war will inhibit economic growth and fuel inflation — a combination that would make it difficult to calibrate an effective interest-rate response.
Offering Concessions
As the April 2 deadline approaches, countries from Asia to Europe are trying to offer ways to remove policies that the US has argued disadvantages American companies or gives China a leg up in the race for technological supremacy.
The UK government is weighing plans to reduce or even abolish its digital services tax before April 2. Meantime, Malaysia is planning tighter controls over the flow of Nvidia Corp.’s chips after the US demanded it keep a closer eye on advanced semiconductors that could potentially make their way to China, the Financial Times cited the trade minister as saying.
Other nations where US bilateral relations are more strained are trying to cushion the economic impact of a trade battle with the world’s biggest economy.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a flurry of measures aimed at blunting the pain of US tariffs as well as “nation-building” reforms to boost trade and investment. One would temporarily allow businesses to defer payments of corporate income tax and consumption tax remittances.
Trump’s assault on the rules-based trading order that’s governed the global economy since World War II is also realigning geopolitical alliances, with some nations trying to hedge their bets given the new doubts about their long-time partnerships with the US.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will travel to China next month to meet with President Xi Jinping, according to people familiar with the preparations. Sanchez will also visit Vietnam, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
USTR Greer is expected to hold his first phone call with his Chinese counterpart this week, people familiar with the plans said.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang said the country is prepared for “shocks that exceed expectations” from Trump’s expected boosting of trade barriers. Li told a gathering of global business leaders and visiting Republican Senator Steve Daines at the start of the China Development Forum in Beijing on Sunday that “instability and uncertainty are on the upswing.”
“At this time, I think it is even more important for each of our countries to open up markets more, and for all of our businesses to share their resources more,” Li said.