Global Leaders Rush to Woo Trump, Hoping to Sway Him on Tariffs

The plan of President Trump to impose large rates for most American commercial partners has governments from all over the world to program calls, send delegations to Washington and offer proposals to reduce their taxes on imports to escape samples.

On Monday, European officials offered to abandon zero rates on cars and industrial goods imported from the United States, in exchange for the same treatment. The Israeli Prime Minister was supposed to present a petition personally Mr. Trump on Monday in meetings in the White House. The main leader of Vietnam, in a phone call last week, was offered to get rid of the rates on American assets, while Indonesia was preparing to send a high -level delegation to Washington, DC, to “negotiate directly with the United States government”.

Even Lesotho, the small town without outfit on the sea in southern Africa, was assembling a delegation to be sent to Washington to protest against rates on its exports to the United States, which includes denim for Calvin Klein and Levi.

Trump and his directors have given conflicting signals that the United States are willing to negotiate. On Sunday, Trump said that the rates would remain in force until the US commercial deficits have disappeared, which means that the United States are no longer acquiring more from these countries than they come. But the administration still seemed to be welcoming offered by foreign nations, which are desperate to try to prevent more withdrawals that enter into force on Wednesday.

On Monday, while the markets retired for a third day and Trump threatened the even more punitive rates on China, the president said that “negotiations with other countries, which also requested meetings, will immediately begin to take place”.

“Countries around the world are talking to us,” wrote the president on Truth Social Monday. “Difficult but fair parameters are established. I spoke with the Japanese Prime Minister this morning. He is sending a high -level team to negotiate!”

The tumult in equity markets since the president announced the rates last Wednesday led the speculation that the president could be willing to conclude some agreements to return the rates. On Sunday on “Meet the Press” of the NBC, Senator James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, provided that the rates would be “a short -term question while the negotiations are actually taking place”.

“I think that once the president starts to announce some negotiations in some different countries, we will start seeing the market calm and we will start seeing the rates descending quite quickly,” said Lankford.

But both Mr. Trump and many of his directors have minimized the prospect of any immediate changes. On Sunday evening, Trump told journalists on the Air Force One who would not have reversed the rates on other nations unless the commercial deficits that the United States manage with China, the European Union and other nations have disappeared.

“Hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose with China,” Trump told journalists on Air Force One. “And unless we solve this problem, I will not make an agreement.” He added that he was “willing to deal with China, but they have to resolve their surplus”.

The rates that come into force on Wednesday range from 10 % to 40 percent on almost 60 countries. They they are calculated On the basis of the commercial deficit of the United States with each country and will be added to a 10 % global withdrawal which entered into force on Saturday.

Some countries – such as Europe and Canada – have threatened to impose retaliation rates on American assets, while others have decided to resist to avoid Mr. Trump’s wrath. On Monday, Trump responded angrily to China’s decision to take revenge and said he would have imported “Additional rates to China of 50 %, in force since April 9”.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, reiterated a threat of retaliation rates on Monday even if he proposed to drop some rates between the United States and Europe to zero. “We are also ready to respond through countermeasures and defend our interests,” he said.

Lai Ching-te, president of Taiwan, said in a video address on Sunday evening that Taiwan had no intention of taking revenge with the rates. He added that the investment commitments made by Taiwanese companies in the United States will not change as long as they remained in the national interest.

Throughout Asia – where Trump has targeted some of his toughest samples and where the factories specialize in the production of electronics, car parts and shoes for the United States – leaders offered to hit agreements and work to organize meetings with Mr. Trump. Rates are a particular threat to multinational companies that have transferred factories from China to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand in recent years, after Trump has opened a commercial war with China in his first presidency.

On Monday, the secretary of the Philippines said that the country would reduce the rates on goods from the United States and met “soon” with the United States economic team. The Leader of Cambodia – who has to face the highest tariff rates of any Asian country, at 49 percent – sent a letter to Mr. Trump on Friday, saying that he was immediately reducing the rates on 19 categories of American imports. Thailand, who is facing 36 percent rates on its exports, has expressed its “willingness to engage in dialogue”.

In Vietnam, where many people expected rates of about 10 percent, the announcement of the rates of 46 % was a blow. The deputy prime minister of Vietnam, I have Duc Phoc, had to leave on Sunday for a trip to the United States with a delegation that included managers with the two main airlines in the country, who promised to buy Boeing planes.

The Vietnam Ministry of Commerce asked the Trump administration to suspend the 46 % rate and requested a phone call with the commercial representative of the United States, Jamieson Greer, “as soon as possible”, according to a declaration on the government website.

In a call with Mr. Trump last week, the main Vietnam leader, in Lam, promised to cut zero rates on liquefied natural gas, cars and other US goods that enter the country and suggested that his counterpart made the same, according to a declaration of the Vietnamese government.

“I just had a very productive call with Lam, who told me that Vietnam wants to cut their rates to zero if they are able to make an agreement with the United States,” Trump wrote in a post on his social platform of truth on Friday morning.

But speaking of CNBC on Monday this morning, the commercial councilor of the White House Peter Navarro said that the offer of Vietnam at the lowest rates would not be enough to convince Mr. Trump to withdraw concerns on other barriers, beyond rates, that the countries use to block American exports, such as taxes or regulations.

“When they come to us and say, we will go to zero rates, this means nothing for us, because it is the betrayal of the non -unmotard that matters,” Navarro said.

Navarro also urged the European Union to drop barriers such as its value -added taxes that Trump officials claim discriminating against the United States. “Rubi from the American people in every way. So don’t just say that we will lower our rates,” he said.

In Japan, where The equity markets have fallen At over 7 % on Monday, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he would be willing to meet Mr. Trump to discuss samples and would underline to Mr. Trump that Japan “is not doing anything unfair”.

The Minister of Japanese trade, Yoji Muto, did not hide his disappointment for rates. He told journalists that he immediately held “an online meeting” with Howard Lutnick, the secretary of trade, to tell him that the “unilateral tariff steps were extremely deplorable”.

“The Ishiba government would prefer to negotiate rather than intensify,” said Tobias Harris, founder of Japan Foresight, a company that advises customers on Japanese politics. “He is struggling to determine with who can negotiate, if someone.”

Mr. Muto had traveled to Washington last month while the rates loomed for urgent talks with Mr. Lutnick. Muto claimed that Japan received an exemption based on $ 1 trillion of dollars that its nation has invested in the United States, also in huge car plants built by Toyota and other Japanese car manufacturers.

Even the Minister of Commerce of South Korea, Cheong In-Kyo, planned to visit Washington this week to try to lower the general rate of 25 percent, Mr. Trump imposed on goods from South Korea. Cheong should meet the officials of the Trump administration, including Mr. Greer, to express concern for new duties and seek ways to minimize their impact on the economy guided by the exports of the South Korea.

European officials also crowded in Washington to try to negotiate. On Friday, the EU Commercial Commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, met his American counterparties through videoconference for what he described how A “Frank”, two hours meetingAnd he promised that conversations would continue.

Mr. Sefcovic has repeatedly traveled to Washington in recent weeks, but so far the progress has been stopped. EU officials who met Mr. Lutnick and Mr. Greer had discovered that they were not ready to negotiate before the tariff announcement of April 2.

European leaders have expressed their will to reduce rates in some sectors and have dangled other potential carrots, such as the purchase of more natural American liquid gas and increase military spending. But they are also preparing to take revenge, hoping that returning with the power of the European economy will bring the United States to the negotiation table.

EU officials have spent the last few weeks to perfect a list of counter -arts that plan to implement from April 15th. They sent the refined list to representatives of the Member State on Monday and a vote is expected on the list on Wednesday.

While that initial wave of retaliation is in response only to the steel and aluminum rates, the politicians have indicated that it is coming more if the negotiation fails. Some national officials are even open to hitting large American technological companies with commercial barriers and EU politicians have reported that all the options are on the table.

European nations export a lot Pharmaceutical products, cars and machinery for the United States and companies all over the continent are preparing for pain while fresh US rates come into play.

Just a handful of countries – including Mexico, Canada and Russia – have escaped Mr. Trump’s new withdrawals. In an interview on Thursday, Luis Rosandendo Gutiérrez Romano, the Mexican deputy secretary for international trade, said that Mexico has worked hard to establish a constructive and positive dialogue with the United States in the last five weeks and that the decision to exclude Mexico and Canada from rates was a signal of commercial value between countries.

Lutnick had spoken with Marcelo Jebrand, secretary to the Mexican economy, weekly by phone or in meetings at the Washington Department of Commerce, said Gutiérrez. Mexican officials ensured Americans that Mexican exports were different from those from Vietnam or China, because Mexican producers use many more parts and raw materials from the United States in their factories.

The report was contributed by Martin Fackler, Tung NGO, Ya Narin, Meaghan Tobin, River Akira Davis And he sang Hun-Choe.