The Commerce Secretary assured that the tariffs will go into effect on August 1 with "No extensions"

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that the president Donald Trump will not grant new extensions to those nations that wish to negotiate trade deals before the Aug. 1 deadline. "No extensions, no more grace periods. Aug. 1, the tariffs are set. They’ll go into place, customs will start collecting the money, and off we go," Lutnick commented in an interview with Fox News, in which he added that Trump would be willing to continue negotiating even after the tariffs are in place, detailing that "Obviously after Aug. 1, people can still talk to President Trump. I mean, he’s always willing to listen."

Elsewhere in the interview, Lutnick commented that the conservative leaderwill continue talks with other nations before the deadline, explaining that, while it could be somewhat complicated for such a scenario to manage to materialize, Trump would not have any kind of downside to this one. "Whether they can make him happy is another question. But the president’s definitely willing to negotiate and talk to the big economies for sure," the commerce secretary commented.

Earlier this month, the president announced through his social networks a series of letters he had sent to more than a dozen countries around the world in which he promised to impose steep tariffs on their imports starting August 1. His announcement generated strong reactions within the Republican Party, in which, while much of it supported Trump's measure, a small faction spoke out against it by arguing that such action would inevitably have negative consequences for the economy, and that this would be paid for by the taxpayer.

While a first round of tariffs that had been announced in April was eventually suspended for 90 days to allow time for negotiations, the conservative leader decided to postpone once again the tariffs taking effect for a couple more weeks, until Aug. 1.