A pause on U.S. tariffs levied against many of its trading partners that was expected to expire this coming week on July 9 has now been pushed back to August 1, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said today on CNN.
However, Bessent denies that this new deadline is, in fact, a new deadline.
“We are saying this is when it’s happening,” Bessent told CNN in reference to the August 1 cutoff, Reuters reports. “If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to go back to the old rate, that’s your choice.”
The “old rate” in question is whatever rate the Trump administration stated on April 2. Some countries, like Japan, were hit with a 24% tariff, while other rates, such as the one against the European Union, were 20%. At that time, China was hit with a 34% tariff, although that quickly escalated to an eye-watering 145% before reducing to 55% following negotiations.
Meanwhile, it remains an ongoing legal dispute whether President Trump has the authority to administer tariffs at all under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The U.S. Court of International Trade ruled in late May that Trump does not have the authority, although a federal appeals court quickly stepped in. As of now, the U.S. Court of Appeals is expected to hear arguments on July 31, just one day before the August 1 deadline for U.S. trading partners to strike new deals.
Bessent says that the President will be “sending letters” to some of America’s trading partners, saying “that if you don’t move things along, then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level. So I think we’re going to see a lot of deals very quickly.”
Most countries have been trading with the United States at a 10% tariff rate since the global financial markets recoiled in response to Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 2. Depending on how negotiations unfold between now and August 1, it is impossible to predict how tariffs may impact prices by August. However, analysts say that negotiations with Japan have not been going well so far, which casts a dark cloud over the photography market.
Photographers have already had to contend with increasing prices across cameras and lenses from many major brands, including Canon, Nikon, Sigma, and Sony, to name just a few. Currently, there is little reason for optimism that photo equipment prices will return to pre-tariff levels anytime soon.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
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