US receives written proposals from 18 countries following new tariffs

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the latest developments regarding the new customs duties to be applied to trade partners, which US President Donald Trump announced on April 2.

Leavitt stated that the Trump administration has received written proposals regarding the tariffs from 18 countries so far as part of trade negotiations.

Leavitt emphasized that the team conducting the trade negotiations will hold direct talks with 34 countries just this week, stating that these contacts will pave the way for concrete progress on economic cooperation and tariffs.

AGREEMENT REACHED WITH INDIA

Drawing attention to an important development that she noted the press had not paid enough attention to, Leavitt recalled that US Vice President James David Vance, who visited India, announced as of April 21 that an agreement had been reached with India on the terms of a trade deal. Leavitt said this development was an "important step" for US foreign trade strategy.

US President Donald Trump announced the new customs duties to be applied to trade partners in a statement on April 2. Stating that the base tariff rate would be 10 percent, Trump also indicated that different reciprocal additional tariffs would be applied to many countries.

Following reactions, Trump suspended the reciprocal additional customs duties for 90 days, while increasing the tariff rate applied to China to 145 percent. The Beijing administration responded to Trump's move by imposing a 125 percent tax on US goods. Following the suspension of customs duties excluding China, trade negotiations began between the US and other countries. Trump had announced that he would impose a 26 percent customs duty on imports from India.