President Donald Trump has teased an upcoming announcement of what he says is a “major trade deal” with “a big, and highly respected country.”
The president announced that there would be a “big news conference” Thursday morning in a post on Truth Social.
“Big News Conference tomorrow at 10:00 A.M.,” Trump wrote late Wednesday. “The Oval Office, concerning a MAJOR TRADE DEAL WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF A BIG, AND HIGHLY RESPECTED, COUNTRY. THE FIRST OF MANY!!!”
Trump’s White House trade adviser Peter Navarro pledged last month that the administration would reach trade deals with “90 countries in 90 days.” Experts said there was “no way” he could achieve that mark.
Trump told Time magazine in a recent interview that he had already struck “200” trade deals. But he told moderator Bill O’Reilly at a phone-in town hall last week that the country had potential trade deals when asked about rumored agreements with India, Japan and India.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, told the House this week that the U.S. was currently in trade negotiations with 17 of the 18 “very important trading relationships.”
It was reported earlier Wednesday that the U.K. is just days away from securing a trade deal with the U.S. which would lessen the impact of Trump’s tariffs.
The U.K. has been in talks with the Trump administration as part of an attempt to agree on a carve-out from tariffs, which are wreaking havoc on the global economy.
Officials told the Financial Times that the trade deal could be agreed on in the next few days as U.K. officials arrived in Washington, D.C. this week.
The deal could include quotas that would exempt a certain number of U.K. exports from the full impact of 25 percent tariffs on the British car and steel industry.
Whatever the announcement Thursday, Trump will likely want to keep some of his tariffs in place. The president believes the import taxes can generate massive revenues for a heavily indebted federal government even though other countries see the whole point of striking a deal as getting rid of tariffs.
“They’re a beautiful thing for us,” Trump said recently about tariffs. “If you can use them, if you can get away with using them, it’s going to make us very rich. And we’ll be paying off debt, we’ll be lowering your taxes very substantially because so much money will be taken in that we’ll be able to lower your taxes even beyond the tax cut that you’re going to be getting.”
Though Trump has said that countries hit by tariffs pay them, it’s actually U.S. importers that pay the levies, and typically pass some if not all of the extra costs onto their American consumers in the form of higher prices.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
