EU Trade Minister Maros Sefcovic said that the EU "will need to translate key elements of the joint statement into legislative proposals," and that politicians have a "firm intention" to "present these legislative proposals and launch this process still this month."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that while he expects more trade talks with China in the next two months, the administration is "very happy" with the current combination of Section 301 tariffs, 20% fentanyl tariffs and 10% reciprocal tariffs on Chinese goods, he said.
The president of the American Soybean Association told President Donald Trump that soybean farmers "cannot survive a prolonged trade dispute with our largest customer," urging him to have his trade team persuade China to drop its 20% tariff on American soybeans.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that details in writing on the South Korean and Japanese trade deals will come in "kind of weeks."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the plan to impose higher tariffs on India over its Russian oil purchases, but not on China, arguing that India's purchase patterns shifted sharply after the invasion of Ukraine.
Less than two weeks ago, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to impose an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods because that country is importing Russian oil, and Russia's actions in Ukraine are "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States." He said that if Russia were to "take significant steps to address the national emergency described in section 1 of this order and align sufficiently with the United States on national security, foreign policy, and economic matters, I may further modify this order."
The president's trade team has been suggesting that its definition of transshipment is different than what the word has traditionally meant -- that they will assign country of origin based on how much of the finished good was made from local inputs.
Once the U.S.-Japan deal is put to paper, Japanese goods will be subject to a flat 15% tariff, as long as the most-favored nation tariff that applies is at that rate or lower. For goods above 15% MFN, just the typical duty will apply, with no additional reciprocal tariff.
A group of trade associations that includes restaurants, wine shops, domestic distillers and bottle providers asked the president to allow European wines and spirits to enter the U.S. duty-free, in the case of spirits, and under most-favored nation rates, for wines, rather than the 15% EU reciprocal tariff rate.
A 40% tariff on transshipped goods could apply to goods that include third-country content above 30%, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, speaking on Fox Business Aug. 7.