President Donald Trump said Monday that he will likely implement a blanket tariff between 15% and 20% on imports to the United States from countries that have not negotiated separate trade agreements.
“For the world, I would say it’ll be somewhere in the 15% to 20% range ... I just want to be nice,” Trump said in Turnberry, Scotland, alongside United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“I would say in the range of 15% to 20% probably one of those two numbers,” he continued.
The figures are significant because they represent an increase from the 10% baseline tariff Trump announced in April of this year.
It also could take a toll on smaller countries hoping that the tariff rate would be closer to 10%.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested earlier this month that smaller nations, including “the Latin American countries, the Caribbean countries, many countries in Africa,” would have a baseline tariff of 10%.
But Trump said Monday that “we’re going to be setting a tariff for essentially the rest of the world, and that’s what they’re going to pay if they want to do business in the United States, because you can’t sit down and make 200 deals.”
Trump's comments come just days before his August 1 tariff deadline, with many countries yet to reach trade deals with the United States.
With the deadline approaching, Trump administration officials have hinted in recent days that the White House is "not under pressure to reach additional agreements."
"We've all heard the president repeatedly say he's comfortable with tariffs and that he'd be happy to send a letter and finalize them rather than reach an agreement," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Monday.
The base tariff rate of 15% to 20% is comparable to some recent agreements the United States has reached with major trading partners.
Last week, Trump announced a 15% tariff on Japan, and on Sunday, he announced a 15% tariff on most European goods.
However, some countries, including Brazil and Laos, are subject to tariffs as high as 40% and 50%.