Although a majority of the Senate voted to end the underlying emergency that allowed the president to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian goods, a vote was blocked in the House.
At a reception for lawmakers, President Donald Trump complained that Ozempic costs almost $1,300 in the U.S., and only $88 in England, and that countries with price controls on prescription drugs must change their policies.
Two of the lead negotiators in the Cabinet -- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent -- avoided directly answering an interviewer's question about whether 15% is the lowest reciprocal tariff rate trading partners like Taiwan, the EU and South Korea can receive.
The White House says that imports from Japan will be subject to a baseline 15% tariff rate, in a fact sheet published July 23, the day after the president heralded the deal on Truth Social.
President Donald Trump reached a deal with Japan, which reduces 25% tariffs on cars to 15% -- including the 2.5% MFN rate -- with no quota on imports, according to a poster shared by a White House official on X, and a clarification about the details of the car arrangement from Japan's prime minister.
A joint statement from Indonesia and the U.S. sheds more light on what the president might have meant when he wrote "if there is any Transshipment from a higher Tariff Country, then that Tariff will be added on to the Tariff that Indonesia is paying."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Fox Business said the administration is "about to announce a rash of trade deals in the coming days."
The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, who, like the chairman, represents a state where logging is an important part of the economy, said the U.S. and Canada should return to a quota system to resolve the softwood lumber irritant.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking on CNBC, did not say for sure that tariffs will go up on Aug. 1 on trading partners, but said, "I would think that a higher tariff level will put more pressure on those countries to come with a better agreement."
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., is trying to force votes in the House to end the emergency that justifies reciprocal tariffs and on a bill that would hike tariffs to 500% on Russian products.