Trump announces additional tariffs on six countries

President Donald Trump reported sending a series of letters about additional tariffs on imports from six countries.

Trump began sending letters Monday to countries with trade surpluses with the United States.

The six latest affected are Algeria, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova and the Philippines. The tariffs generally coincide with those announced by the U.S. government in early April.

Specifically, AFP recalled, products from Algeria will pay customs tariffs of 30% (unchanged), as will those from Libya (-1 percentage point) and Iraq (-9 pp), while those from Moldova and Brunéi will be taxed at 25% (-6 pp and +1 pp respectively).

As for Philippine products, the surcharge will be 20%(+3 pp).

Fourteen countries already knew the amount of the surcharge provided for them: from 25% (Japan, South Korea and Tunisia) to 40% (Laos and Burma), and 36% for Cambodia and Thailand.

Donald Trump said Tuesday that he plans to send more letters, particularly to the European Union (EU), which he said will receive the mail "probably in two days", namely Wednesday or Thursday.

The latter were suspended until July 9, a date postponed this Monday by the Republican president until Aug. 1.

In his letters Trump warns that he will sanction any retaliation.

The tariffs announced by letter will take effect Aug. 1. Until then Washington leaves the door open for negotiations.