U.S. Tariff Talks Make Progress, but Big Trading Partners Still Awaiting Deals

The U.S. is settling tariff deals with Indonesia and Vietnam, but agreements with some of its biggest trade partners remain elusive.

Transcript

00:00Donald Trump seems bullish on tariff talks lately.

00:06The U.S. president says he has a couple more deals under his belt.

00:10He's keeping the final details of a trade deal with Vietnam to himself for now.

00:15But he has shared what his administration's agreed to with Indonesia,

00:18and said more deals are possible soon.

00:21They are going to pay 19%, and we are going to pay nothing.

00:27I think it's a good deal for both parties.

00:30But we will have full access into Indonesia.

00:34And we have a couple of those deals that are going to be announced.

00:37India basically is working along that same line.

00:40We're going to have access into India.

00:42It's not the 90 deals in 90 days he'd earlier promised.

00:46Besides these ones, there's been an agreement with the United Kingdom,

00:49and an interim one with China.

00:51Still, Trump says to expect more breakthroughs

00:54before an August 1st deadline his administration set.

00:57We're working on probably five or six.

01:00Of the five or six, I'm not sure I really want to do them.

01:03You know, you want somebody that knows how to negotiate.

01:06But we'll probably have two or three.

01:09You know, we insist on opening up the country, which is a big deal.

01:13Which five or six could make a big difference,

01:16as tariffs on some of the biggest U.S. trade partners,

01:19like Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, are still up in the air.

01:23And all have in one way or another pledged to protect their own workers.

01:27Mexico and the EU in particular look ready to fight back.

01:31Mexico's president had this to say Wednesday.

01:34And Germany's chancellor said that while Europe's willing to hold back for now,

01:57it's ready to respond if need be.

01:59And compared to a trade war with countries like Indonesia,

02:13not even in the top 15 U.S. trade partners,

02:18a trade war with the likes of Mexico and the EU could do real damage.

02:33Talks continue, but with barely two weeks until the August 1st deadline,

02:37big economic waves could be just around the corner.

02:41Eason Chen and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.