With less than a week to the deadline for the next phase of Donald Trump’s tariffs, it is clear that the “90 deals in 90 days” that the administration promised in April, on “Liberation Day,” aren’t going to materialise.

To date, the US has only “framework” deals with the UK and China and has just announced another with Vietnam. Even those “deals” are more headlines than text.

Trump fancies himself as the ultimate dealmaker.Credit: AP

Negotiations with Japan appear at an impasse, those with the European Union a long way from any resolution, talks with Canada have just restarted after Canada dropped its digital sales tax, and its unclear whether the discussions with India will lead to a deal by the end of the 90-day “pause” in the tariff timeline next Wednesday.

It is anyone’s guess what will happen if the end of that pause, which started after the April 2 announcement of Trump’s baseline and reciprocal tariffs, is reached and only a couple of the 185 countries targeted by Trump’s tariffs have agreed a deal, or at least the outline for one.

Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, has said that about 20 of the countries that don’t strike a deal by then could continue negotiating if they’ve shown good faith, but would see the rate of their tariffs either remain at the 10 per cent universal baseline rate or revert to the rate announced in April. Those “reciprocal” tariffs ranged from 10 per cent to 50 per cent.

Trump himself said that “we can do whatever we want”.

“I’d like to just send letters out to everybody. Congratulations. You’re paying 25 per cent.”

The negotiations were never going to be straightforward, given the number of countries involved and the differing natures of the trade relationships the US has with them.

Further complicating matters is that the administration has imposed the 10 per cent baseline tariff rate, foreshadowed the so-called reciprocal tariffs (there’s nothing reciprocal about them) and has already imposed additional sectoral tariffs on steel and aluminium, products derived from those........

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