The US authorities plan to impose a new common framework for negotiations on President Donald Trump's retaliatory tariffs with many of its partner countries, the American newspaper "Wall Street Journal" reported, quoted by Reuters.
The common approach will affect negotiations with 18 countries, but Canada, Mexico and China are unlikely to be among them, the publication notes.
The framework for conducting trade negotiations was prepared by the office of the US chief trade negotiator. It aims to simplify the discussion of reciprocal tariffs on imports.
The plan includes categories such as tariffs and quotas outside of tariff-rate trade restrictions, online trade, rules of origin and economic security.
The negotiations are expected to take place in stages over the next two months, with six countries being negotiated in the first three weeks, and the cycle will be repeated after that.
The Trump administration hopes to reach reciprocal tariff agreements with 18 major trading partners by July 8.
It is not yet known which countries will be under the general scheme and which will be treated differently.
Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said he was "encouraged" by the "productive" preliminary trade talks with Japan and South Korea this week.
In a statement issued a day after a bilateral meeting in Washington with Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato, the U.S. Treasury said Bessant "welcomes the strong start of bilateral trade discussions".
The Treasury also said Thursday's tariff talks with South Korea were aimed at promoting greater trade between the two trading partners.
During Thursday's meeting, Bessant, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, South Korean Finance Minister Choi San-mok and South Korean Trade Minister Ahn Duk-gyun
agreed to "further productive discussions, including on currency policy," the U.S. Treasury said in a separate statement.