President Donald Trump released a second wave of letters sent to U.S. trading partners in Asia, Africa and Europe on Wednesday, continuing the administration’s roll-out of new tariff rates on imports from nearly every country in the world that are due to go into force Aug. 1.
The Philippines is the largest, economically, of the six countries that received a letter Wednesday, sending $14.1 billion in goods to the U.S. last year. But that still pales in comparison to top U.S. trading partners like the European Union and China.
The new tariff rates threatened in the letters Trump shared Wednesday are similar to those he announced on what the White House dubbed “Liberation Day” in early April, with small adjustments. The Philippines’ tariff rate, for instance, increased from 17 percent to 20 percent, while Moldova’s decreased from 31 percent to 25 percent and Iraq’s from 39 percent to 30 percent. The other recipients of the letters Trump shared Wednesday include Brunei, Algeria and Libya.
In a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump told the reporters his tariff-setting letters were in lieu of negotiating deals with many countries. “I just want you to know a letter means a deal. We can’t meet with 200 countries. … You have to do it in a more general way. “
The release of the latest batch of letters came after Trump signed an executive order Monday officially extending the deadline — again — for his “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly 60 trading partners, with rates ranging between 10 and 50 percent. Those duties briefly went into effect April 9 before the president suspended them until July 9. Monday’s order pushed that date to Aug. 1.
Trump said Monday that the new deadline is “firm, but not 100 percent firm.” But the following day he vowed in a post on Truth Social that the Aug. 1 deadline is final.
“TARIFFS WILL START BEING PAID ON AUGUST 1, 2025. There has been no change to this date, and there will be no change,” Trump wrote. “No extensions will be granted.”
The latest update comes after Trump unveiled letters to 14 foreign governments Monday — 10 of them from Asia, triggering frustration and disbelief among recipients in the region. The Philippines, which received a letter on Wednesday, is another Southeast Asian country that is central to U.S. efforts to expand its economic influence and counter China.
The 20 percent rate Trump is threatening to impose on exports from the Philippines is the same level Vietnam received as the result of a framework deal it struck with the Trump administration. Hanoi, which exported $136 billion worth of goods to the United States last year, initially faced a potential tariff of 46 percent, per Trump’s April announcement.
The United States imported $7.5 billion worth of goods from Iraq last year; $2.4 billion from Algeria; $1.5 billion from Libya; $238 million from Brunei; and $136 million from Moldova.
