EU to face US tariffs from 1 August if no deal is struck

Unless the EU and others strike trade deals with Washington, Trump’s tariffs will kick in on 1 August, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday.

The rates will "boomerang back" to the steep levels Trump unveiled on 2 April, before he paused them to allow trade talks and set a 9 July deadline, Bessent told CNN.

He also confirmed comments by Trump on Friday, in which he cited a new deadline: "Well, I'll probably start them on August 1. Well, that's pretty early. Right?"

The tariffs were part of a broader announcement in April where Trump imposed a 10% duty on goods from almost all trading partners, with a plan to step up these rates for a select group within days.

Since then, countries have been pushing to strike deals that would help them avoid these elevated duties.

So far, the Trump administration has struck agreements  with the UK and Vietnam, while Washington and Beijing agreed to temporarily lower staggeringly high levies on each other's products.

Bessent said the administration was "close to several deals." "I would expect to see several big announcements over the next couple of days," he said.

But he would not say which countries he was referring to, adding: "I don't want to let them off the hook."

Bessent pushed back at CNN host Dana Bash's assertion that the administration was using threats rather than negotiations, and denied that Trump was setting a new deadline with the 1 August date.

"It's not a new deadline. We are saying, this is when it's happening. If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to go back to the old rate, that's your choice," he said

He said the playbook was to apply "maximum pressure" and cited the EU as an example, saying they are "making very good progress" after a slow start.

EU and US negotiators are holding talks over the weekend, and France's finance minister said Saturday he hoped they could strike a deal this weekend.

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