Trump says it knows damn well what he is doing, but other countries still guess how to spawn the US

Deal or no deal? Now that Donald Trump has actually started the high import duties this Wednesday, the period has come that one after the other Landt in Washington DC to reduce the high import duties for their country in negotiations.

Running with revenue measures can count on striking hard back from the Americans, according to the escalation between the US and China that impose higher import duties each other. Trump is happy to show that China is now only capable of there and always preaches loudly that seventy countries have already contacted to negotiate. Conversations have already started this Wednesday with the Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister, Korean and Japanese ministers are en route.

But what can you get for them? An opinion piece That Trumps most important advisor in the Peter Navarro trade – Financial Times Publication can serve as a guideline. « For those world leaders who, after years of cheating, suddenly offer lower levies-knows that this is just the beginning, » wrote this Handelshavik from the Trump government. « We are not about negotiating. For the US there is a national emergency situation caused by trade shortages caused by a system that has been abused. » Those words could imply that relatively little can be achieved with negotiations.

Everything on the table

Other signals also come from Trump’s government. Stephen Miran, chief economist in the White House, invited trading partners to put everything on the table that they can offer the US. « A narrow focus on taxes will not be enough to get a deal, » he said.

The Americans want to put an end to everything they regard as unfair trade barriers. This concerns, for example, the VAT that countries count, safety and health requirements that countries set to products (no meat from animals that have received hormones, no chlorinated chickens), export subsidies or manipulating their own currency to make export goods cheaper.

But Miran is aiming for more. He calls on other countries to contribute to investments in the US, encouraging companies to move their production and to make large spending on defense in the US, for example, to pay for the American defense paraplu. According to him, the question that every country should ask: « What did we recently do for the US? »

Finance Minister Scott Bessent said earlier this week that he hopes « that » through good negotiations we will see the height (of input taxes) go down « .

And then there is Elon Musk – De Teslamiljardair, lender of Republican campaigns and influential adviser to Trump. On X he has turned fiercely against Navarro in recent days – the architect of Trumps trade policy. Musk was committed to a free trade agreement with the EU and wrote on Tuesday that « Navarro is Dommer than a bag of stones. »

Pressure means

For the negotiators from other countries it is so difficult to estimate what they should bet on. The trade barriers differ per country that the US complain about. Trump speaks of « customized agreements per country ». The high American import duties are such a means of pressure that other countries, ally or not, must force concessions.

Various governments that have now sent a minister to Washington have already indicated what concessions they want to do. And there are big differences in between. This Wednesday, the Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc is the first to visit for a conversation with Bessent. An earlier range of Vietnam to set zero rates were labeled as encouraging, but completely inadequate. Dumping practices and the implementation of products from China, among others. Vietnam immediately announced measures to prevent the latter.

Japan has made commitments, but that will probably not be enough

South Korea tries to spawn the US by promising investments. For example, it would like to help rebuild the American shipbuilding, after the US has seen almost all recruiting in the past decades towards China and South Korea disappear. Trump also said in a telephone conversation with temporary President Han Duck-Sooo, the possibility of investments by Korea in pipelines for LNG in Alaska.

Japan has made similar commitments, but that will probably not be enough. The country is under great pressure from the US because of the low course of the Yen and the Americans demand that the Japanese central bank will buy Yens to strengthen the coin and help make the dollar cheaper. The Japanese Minister of Finance Kato indicated that he was willing to talk about it.

Europe

What concessions Europe wants to make, it still has to be seen these days. With a European offer to mutually count a zero rate for many goods such as cars, machines and chemicals, the US is not satisfied. Trump has already indicated that he believes that Europe should buy more LNG and Oil from the US. He added ‘the beautiful clean coal’ from the US on Tuesday. He even stuck a value of $ 350 billion on it, with which the trade deficit in the US goods would have disappeared immediately. Large -scale weapons of arms in the US would also form a way to spawn the Americans.

The EU takes a little more time and threatens openly than Japan, South Korea and Vietnam with retaliation measures. The EU will in tension wait to see if and how the first negotiators from the Asian countries can achieve something.

Is Trump really out on deals? Where does he settle for? Or does it fall for the temptation of 2,000 billion in annual income from import duties. Because that is the amount that he stuck on Tuesday on the estimated revenues of the levies incurred. « I know damn well what I am doing, » said the American president. Now it is up to the negotiators of the trading partners to understand that.

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