Financial Times: US officials seek to narrow trade agreement scope, striving to reach agreement before July 9th

BlockBeats News: On July 1st, according to the Financial Times, Trump's senior trade officials are scaling back their ambitions to reach comprehensive reciprocal agreements with foreign countries, seeking smaller agreements to avoid the United States imposing tariffs again. Four sources said that US officials are seeking to reach a phased agreement with the countries with the highest level of participation, and they are striving to reach an agreement before July 9th. This smaller and fragmented plan for a new agreement marks the White House's abandonment of its commitment to reach 90 trade agreements during the 90 day suspension of comprehensive "equivalent" tariffs announced by the President on April 2, but also provides an opportunity for some countries to reach moderate agreements. Insiders say that BRICS countries are seeking to reach a "principled agreement" on a few trade disputes before the deadline. Countries that agree to these narrower agreements will be exempt from imposing stricter equivalent tariffs, but will still need to impose the existing 10% basic tariff, while negotiations on more challenging issues continue. However, negotiations are still complex, and the US government is still considering imposing tariffs on key industries. (Golden Ten)