[Media: US officials seek to narrow the scope of trade agreements and strive to reach an agreement before July 9] According to the Financial Times, Trump's senior trade officials are scaling back their ambitions to reach comprehensive reciprocal agreements with foreign countries and seeking to reach smaller agreements to avoid the United States from re-imposing tariffs. Four sources said that US officials are seeking to reach a phased agreement with the countries with the highest level of participation, and they are striving to reach an agreement before July 9. This smaller and piecemeal new agreement plan marks the White House's abandonment of its commitment to reach 90 trade agreements during the 90-day suspension of comprehensive "reciprocal" tariffs announced by the president on April 2, but it also provides some countries with an opportunity to reach a modest agreement. People familiar with the matter said that the BRICS countries are seeking to reach a "principle agreement" on a few trade disputes before the deadline.
Countries that agree to these narrower agreements will be exempt from the more severe reciprocal tariffs, but will still be subject to the existing 10% basic tariff, while negotiations on more difficult issues continue. However, the negotiations remain complicated, and the US government is also considering tariffs on key industries.
