TMTPOST -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday suggested sort of flexibility after he decided to extend his July 9 deadline for reciprocal tariffs to the start of next month.

Credit：Xinhua News Agency

Trump at Monday afternoon signed an executive order, delaying the tariff deadline on Wednesday to August 1. “I have determined, based on additional information and recommendations from various senior officials, including information on the status of discussions with trading partners, that it is necessary and appropriate to extend the suspension effectuated by Executive Order 14266 until 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on August 1, 2025,” Trump said in the order released by the White House.

The executive order effectively extended the July 9 deadline by more than three weeks. Trump said in a social media post on April 9 that he has authorized a 90-day pause and “a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff” of 10% during this period, both effective immediately. The decision was made as more than 75 countries have called the U.S. to negotiate a solution to trade, trade barriers, tariffs, currency manipulation, and non-monetary tariffs, and these countries have not retaliated against the U.S., Trump wrote.

Trump later Monday at the White House said the new August 1 deadline is not exactly set in stone, calling the deadline “firm but not 100% firm.” “If they [countries] call up and they, say, would like to do something a different way, we’re going to be open to that,” he told reporters.

Trump on Monday posted letters dictating tariffs on 14 countries, ranging from 25% to 40%. The U.S. will impose these new tariffs on all imports from  Japan, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia,Tunisia, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Serbia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, starting on August 1, separating from all existing sectoral tariffs, and goods transshipped to evade a higher tariff will be subject to that higher tariff. 

Companies in Japan or South Korea will be exempted from the new tariffs if they decide to build or manufacture goods in the United States, Trump said in his letters posted on his social media Truth Social Monday. “If for any reason you decided to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 25% that we charge,”he warned.

Trump at the White House said for the most part he was content to simply imposing tariffs on trading partners, though he implied he was still negotiating with them. “We’ve made a deal with United Kingdom, we’ve made a deal with China, we’ve made a deal — we’re close to making a deal with India,” Trump said. “Others we met with, we don’t think we’re going to be able to make a deal. So we just send them a letter.” 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday said the Trump administration would make several announcement about trade in the next 48 hours. He said in a CNBC interview that foreign trade officials are rushing to make deals with the United States before the previous deadline of July 9.

“We’ve had a lot of people change their tune in terms of negotiations,” Bessent said. “So my, my mailbox was full last night with a lot of new offers, a lot of new proposals.” “It’s going to be a busy couple of days,” he added.