What happened to Trump's 90 trade deals in 90 days?

Just over three months ago, US president Donald Trump unveiled his most sweeping volley of tariffs yet — holding up large charts from the White House Rose Garden to outline new import taxes that the US would soon slap on goods from nearly every country in the world.

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But in line with much of Trump's on-again, off-again trade policy playbook, the bulk of those ‘Liberation Day’ levies were postponed just hours after they took effect in April. The 90-day suspension arrived in an apparent effort to quell global market panic and facilitate country-by-country negotiations.

At that time, the administration set a lofty goal of reaching 90 trade deals in 90 days. Since then, however, the US has only announced pacts with the United Kingdom and Vietnam — as well as a “framework” agreement with China in a separate trade dispute. And the overall outlook for implementation has been murky.

News of these deals often trickled out at first through social media posts from the president and, even when countries on both sides of a negotiation table made more official announcements, many key details — including timing — seemed sparse.

The 90-day window was technically set to expire on 9 July, but that deadline is now also getting an extension. On 7 July, Monday, the US began sending out letters to certain countries warning that higher tariffs could kick in 1 August — not this week. This includes to Japan and South Korea, which Trump said will both face 25 per cent levies next month.

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Even with negotiations ongoing, most countries have still faced a minimum 10 per cent levy on goods entering the US over the past three months, on top of punishing new taxes targeting foreign steel and aluminium as well as auto imports. The current pause pushed back additional steeper rates, which Trump calls “reciprocal” tariffs, for dozens of nations.

Here’s what we know about the trade deals announced throughout the pause.

Vietnam

On July 2, Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam that he said would allow US goods to enter the country duty-free. Vietnamese exports to the US, by contrast, would face a 20 per cent levy.

That’s less than half the 46 per cent “reciprocal” rate Trump proposed for Vietnamese goods back in April.

But in addition to the new 20 per cent tariff rate, Trump said the US would impose a 40 per cent tax on ‘transshipping’ — targeting goods from another country that stop in Vietnam on their way to the United States. Washington complains that Chinese goods have been dodging higher US tariffs by transiting through Vietnam.

It wasn't immediately clear when these new rates would go into effect or whether they would come on top of any other previously-imposed levies. Like most other countries, Vietnam has faced Trump's 10 per cent baseline tariff for the last three months.

United Kingdom

On 8 May, Trump agreed to cut tariffs on British autos, steel and aluminium, among other trade pledges — while the UK promised to reduce levies on US products like olive oil, wine and sports equipment. The deal was announced in grandiose terms by both countries, but some key details remained unknown for weeks.

When the deal was announced, for example, the British government notably said that the US agreed to exempt the UK from its then-universal 25 per cent duties on foreign steel and aluminium — which would have effectively allowed both metals from the country to come into the US duty-free.

But the timing for when those cuts would actually take effect stayed up in the air for almost a month. It wasn’t until early June, when Trump hiked his steel and aluminium tariffs to a punishing 50 per cent worldwide, that the US acknowledged it was time to implement the agreement.

And even then, US tariffs on British steel and aluminium did not go to zero. The UK was the only country spared from Trump's new 50 per cent levies, but still faces 25 per cent import taxes on the metals — and Trump said that rate could also go up on or after 9 July, Wednesday.

The UK did not receive a higher ‘reciprocal’ rate on 2 April, but continues to face the 10 per cent baseline tax.

China

At its peak, Trump’s new tariffs on Chinese goods totalled 145 per cent — and China’s countertariffs on American products reached 125 per cent. But on 12 May, the countries agreed to their own 90-day truce to roll back those levies to 30 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

And last month, in June, details began trickling in about a tentative trade agreement.

On 11 June, following talks in London, Trump announced a “framework” for a deal. And in late June, the US and China both acknowledged that some sort of agreement had been reached.

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that China had agreed to make it easier for American firms to acquire Chinese magnets and rare earth minerals critical for manufacturing and microchip production.

Meanwhile, without explicitly mentioning US access to rare earths, the Chinese commerce ministry said that it would “review and approve eligible export applications for controlled items” and that the US would “lift a series of restrictive measures it had imposed on China”.

More specifics about those measures — and when they would actually go into effect — were not immediately clear.

But on 4 July, Friday, the ministry of commerce acknowledged that the US was resuming exports of airplane parts, ethane and other items to China. And when Trump first announced the framework on 11 June, the US had said it agreed to stop seeking to revoke the visas of Chinese students on US college campuses.

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