Washington has developed a common approach to trade negotiations with 18 countries, but Canada, China and Mexico are unlikely to be among them, writes the Wall Street Journal, citing its sources.
According to their information, the scheme for conducting trade negotiations was prepared by the office of the US representative in trade negotiations. It aims to simplify the discussion of mutual tariffs on imports. The plan includes categories such as tariffs and quotas, non-tariff trade barriers, digital trade, rules of origin and economic security.
The negotiations are expected to continue in stages over the next two months: six countries in the first week, another six in the second and another six in the third, after which the cycle will repeat. The administration of US President Donald Trump hopes to reach reciprocal tariff agreements with 18 major trading partners by July 8.
It is not yet known which countries will be negotiated under the general scheme and which will be subject to a different approach. The Wall Street Journal believes that the plan is unlikely to apply to Canada and Mexico, since their goods are subject to separate 20 percent tariffs, and the reduction in tariffs to 10 percent does not apply to them. China is also unlikely to be among these 18 countries, since US tariffs on Chinese imports have already reached 145%.
The publication notes that some US trading partners are still waiting for Washington to come up with proposals for negotiations. European Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told The Wall Street Journal that the EU had not yet received specific requests from the Trump administration, but a spokeswoman for the US trade negotiator told the newspaper that the US position on the tariffs had been communicated to European countries repeatedly.