President Trump on Wednesday said he had reached a trade deal with Vietnam, one week ahead of a July 9 deadline for tariffs to snap back to higher levels for US partners.

Trump said Vietnam's goods imported to the US would face a 20% tariff, lower than the 46% tariff he had levied as part of his "Liberation Day" plans but higher than the blanket 10% tariff currently in effect. He also said Vietnamese goods would face a higher 40% tariff "on any transshipping" — when goods shipped from Vietnam originate from another country, like China.

Trump said that US goods exported to Vietnam would not face a tariff.

"In other words, they will 'OPEN THEIR MARKET TO THE UNITED STATES,'" Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The deal would be the second the US has struck with a trade partner since Trump paused those sky-high "Liberation Day" duties, in addition to a pact with the United Kingdom. The US has also agreed with China on a framework to move toward a larger trade deal.

Trump's July 9 deadline has come back in focus in recent weeks as more countries struggle to get over the hump. Trump earlier this week said negotiations with Japan had soured, saying he would force Japan to accept higher tariffs of "30%, 35%, or whatever the number is that we determine." Notably, that proposal is higher than the 24% "Liberation Day" level.

“I’m not sure we’re going to make a deal," Trump said. "I doubt it with Japan. They’re very tough. You have to understand, they’re very spoiled."

With Japan as his jumping-off point, Trump renewed threats that he may stick to his self-imposed July 9 deadline for making trade deals and issue new tariff levels to trading partners, forgoing another pause to "Liberation Day" duties.

"I’ll be writing letters to a lot of countries," he said.

Meanwhile, the European Union has signaled it was willing to accept a 10% universal tariff on many of its exports but is seeking exemptions for pharmaceuticals, alcohol, semiconductors, and commercial aircraft as part of a trade deal.

On the North American front, Canada has scrapped its digital services tax that was set to affect large US technology companies. The White House said trade talks between the two countries had resumed after Trump threatened to cut off trade talks.

Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet

Here are the latest updates as the policy reverberates around the world.

President Trump followed up his previous announcement of a trade deal with Vietnam with some additional details on social media.

\\"It is my Great Honor to announce that I have just made a Trade Deal with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam after speaking with To Lam, the Highly Respected General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam,\\" Trump posted on Truth Social.

Trump wrote that the two sides agreed to a 20% tariff rate on all goods sent from Vietnam to the US and a 40% tariff rate on transshipment — essentially, when goods from China or other countries are routed through Vietnam. Tariffs on goods from the country were previously set to return to 46% on July 9.

Vietnam also lowered tariffs on US goods to zero, Trump said, and is lowering trade barriers. The president suggested US automakers could introduce more SUVs to the Southeast Asian country.

\\"In return, Vietnam will do something that they have never done before, give the United States of America TOTAL ACCESS to their Markets for Trade,\\" Trump wrote. \\"In other words, they will 'OPEN THEIR MARKET TO THE UNITED STATES,' meaning that, we will be able to sell our product into Vietnam at ZERO Tariff.\\"

It is my Great Honor to announce that I have just made a Trade Deal with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam after speaking with To Lam, the Highly Respected General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. It will be a Great Deal of Cooperation between our two Countries. The…

— Unofficial Trump on X (@trump_repost) July 2, 2025

President Trump had targeted Vietnam with some of the highest tariffs of any country on his April \\"Liberation Day.\\" That's at least partly because he and top advisers have made Vietnam an example of a country that is allegedly \\"ripping off\\" the US.

Vietnam has become the US's 10th-largest trade partner, according to US Census data. And it is the seventh-largest source of imports, sending goods worth over $130 billion. It contains factories for some of the biggest US-based apparel makers, including Nike (NKE) and Lululemon (LULU).

Vietnam became a destination for companies looking to diversify manufacturing as US-China tensions escalated over the past decade. Vietnam's trade surplus with the US ballooned to over $123 billion last year.

This year's US trade deficit with Vietnam stood over $50 billion through just April as companies raced to move more operations out of China.

The US and Vietnam are said to be very close to a establishing a trade framework that will see goods given a scaled range of tariffs depending on the percentage of foreign content, according to people familiar with the talks.

Reuters reports:

Exports to the US that contain the highest proportion of foreign components would be charged at the top end of the range, around 20% or above, the people said, asking not to be identified as the talks are confidential. Products that contain a lower percentage of foreign components would be set a slightly reduced rate, while those entirely from Vietnam would face the lowest rate — potentially the existing universal 10% levy, the people said. The details continue to be discussed and could still change.

Vietnam has been engaged in weeks of intense diplomacy with the US, its largest export market, during which the US has pressured Hanoi to get tougher on trade fraud and do more to prevent Chinese goods being rerouted and repackaged through Vietnam to skirt higher tariffs.

Read more here.

Tariffs have hit electric vehicle maker, Rivian (RIVN) who reported a sharp fall in second-quarter deliveries on Wednesday as demand for its EVs took a hit from competition and tariff-driven economic uncertainty.

Reuters reports:

Trade tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump have led to a surge in manufacturing costs for the sector, with carmakers scrambling to reorganize supply chains to mitigate the hit to their businesses.

High interest rates are also holding back some buyers, while many are taking to cheaper hybrid- and gasoline-powered cars to avoid pure-electric vehicles due to their higher sticker prices and upkeep costs.

Rivian delivered 10,661 vehicles in the quarter ended June 30, a fall of 22.7% from the same quarter last year, but in line with Visible Alpha estimates.

Read more here.

President Trump said that his administration has struck a preliminary trade agreement with Vietnam a week before the self-imposed deadline of July 9.

\\"I just made a Trade Deal with Vietnam. Details to follow!\\" Trump posted on Truth Social.

I just made a Trade Deal with Vietnam. Details to follow!

— Unofficial Trump on X (@trump_repost) July 2, 2025

While we don't yet know the details of the deal, Vietnam had been seeking to secure tariffs in the range of 20% to 25%, below Trump's \\"Liberation Day\\" rate of 46% for goods from the country, according to a Bloomberg report.

The US had been looking to stop the flow of goods from China that had been rerouted through Vietnam to circumvent tariffs. Vietnam had offered to remove all tariffs on US goods and step up trade enforcement, according to people familiar with the talks.

When President Trump imposed his 25% tariffs on imported Japanese cars, the expectation had been higher sticker prices for US consumers and a drop in sales. It was expected that the added costs to exporters would be passed on to the consumer. However, the policy has been in place for months and the outcomes has proven far less intense.

Bloomberg News reports:

Japanese automakers’ US sales have shown surprising resilience. Toyota (TM), for example, hit a global sales record in May, with North America sales up more than a tenth. Part of that is thanks to their local US production.

Behind the stable sales figures, export data tells a more troubling story. In May, the number of vehicles shipped to the US declined by just 3.9 per cent, according to official data. When export value is divided by the number of units sold, the average price per vehicle drops to about ¥3.5mn, or $24,000, roughly a fifth less than the previous year. By total value, Japan’s vehicle exports to the US fell by nearly a quarter.

If the cost of the tariffs had been passed on to consumers by raising prices, export volumes would probably have declined. But export value would have held steady, reflecting the higher per unit cost. Instead, both volume and value have fallen. That suggests carmakers are absorbing a large chunk of the tariff burden themselves.

This may be an effective short-term strategy. The US remains the most lucrative market for Japanese automakers. Even modest price increases risk undermining market share, as the companies face aggressive competition from American and South Korean rivals. For companies such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan, keeping prices stable could protect their long-term positioning in the country.

Read more here.

A key group of US employers would face direct costs of $82.3 billion from President Donald Trump's current tariff plans. These costs could lead companies to hike prices, layoff staff, lead to hiring freezes and lower profit margins, according to analysis by the JP Morgan Institute.

AP reports:

The analysis by the JPMorganChase Institute is among the first to measure the direct costs created by the import taxes on businesses with $10 million to $1 billion in annual revenue, a category that includes roughly a third of private-sector U.S. workers. These companies are more dependent than other businesses on imports from China, India and Thailand — and the retail and wholesale sectors would be especially vulnerable to the import taxes being levied by the Republican president.

The findings show clear trade-offs from Trump’s import taxes, contradicting his claims that foreign manufacturers would absorb the costs of the tariffs instead of U.S. companies that rely on imports. While the tariffs launched under Trump have yet to boost overall inflation, large companies such as Amazon, Costco (COST), Walmart (WMT) and Williams-Sonoma (WSM) delayed the potential reckoning by building up their inventories before the taxes could be imposed.

Read more here.

Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has blasted American cars, saying they are a tough sell in Japan. Ishiba added that his government needs to discuss with the US how to boost car imports from America.

Bloomberg News reports:

“We can’t sell left-hand drive, huge, fuel-inefficient cars made in the US,” Ishiba said Wednesday. “We’ll discuss with the US how to produce better products and bring them into Japan, while considering Japan’s safety.”

The prime minister’s comments, made during a pre-election debate with opposition party leaders, come as US President Donald Trump revives his long-held criticism over the lack of American cars in Japan. The president is threatening Japan with across-the-board tariffs of up to 35% on its exports to the US, beyond the 24% penciled in on July 9

Read more here.

As the US gets ready to celebrate its Independence Day on July 4, the day it was liberated and rebelled against British rule, there is still one area that it may still be dependent on and thats China.

Bloomberg News reports:

This year, the price tags for roman candles, sparklers and bottle rockets lit for Independence Day won’t likely reflect President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes. But plans for the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026, along with New Year’s Eve and other festivities before then, have American fireworks purveyors worried about a future hampered by trade barriers between the world’s largest economies.

China, which invented explosive fireworks more than a millennium ago, produces 99% of the world’s consumer fireworks, and 90% of those used by professionals. Trump’s latest trade policy means those products now face a 30% import tax in the US — a 10% “reciprocal” rate plus a 20% duty tied to a fentanyl crackdown. This year, the hit is likely to be more on margins than on the end-users.

“The tariffs were levied so late in the preparation for the 2025 Fourth of July season that many businesses were not contractually able to pass on the increase in cost,” Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, said in a statement last month seeking a government exemption from levies. The APA represents retailers, distributors and fireworks show producers.

Read more here.

For many companies, the process from manufacture to sales has always started in China. When Plufl co-founders, Yuki Kinsohita and Noah Sliverman, began making dog beds for humans and pitched their prototype to Shark Tank in 2022, they envisioned making their plush, memory foam beds in China and selling them at retail in the US for $299.

Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner both invested $200,000 for a 20% share in the business, which went on to make over $1 million in sales in 2023, via Amazon and on their company website.

However, this dream changed overnight when President Trump slapped a 145% tariff on items imported from China in April. The business leaders sprang into action and started to look at retailers and whether they would be interested in selling a US-made version of the human dog beds.

Reuters reports:

The retail price might go higher, but they thought a \\"made-in-the-USA\\" label might be an attractive selling point and help ease some U.S. retailers' concerns about the impact of China tariffs.

Silverman and Kinoshita had previously toured a factory in Las Vegas that could make the memory foam beds for $150 per unit compared to the $100 overall cost to make the beds in China. But that $150 manufacturing cost didn’t include the faux fur lining for the cover, which would still need to be imported from China—adding another $100 per unit.

They pitched a sub-$500 made-in-the-USA version to Costco, which it turned down, saying it couldn’t stock the product this year and might revisit the idea next year. Costco did not respond to a request for comment.

Read more here.

The risk that tariffs pose to the global economy have never been more real and now for Italy the macroeconomic pressures that President Trump's tariffs bring are very concerning, with the head of the main Italian lobby saying on Wednesday that Italy risks losing around $23.6 billion in exports and 118,000 jobs if the US imposes tariffs of 10%.

Reuters reports:

\\"Italy does not just export luxury products - with a demand that isn't very sensitive to prices - but mainly machinery, means of transport, and leather goods,\\" Confindustria President Emanuele Orsini told daily Il Corriere della Sera in an interview.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently downplayed the potential impact of such a level of tariffs on Italian companies, stating it would not be particularly harmful.

Orsini, however, warned that tariffs of 10% would be unsustainable for the Italian economy.

He added that they would effectively translate into a 23.5% duty as the impact of the dollar depreciation against the euro since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, amounting to 13.55%, needed to be taken into account too.

Read more here.

If investors are expecting a seasonal lift for Asian equities this summer, they may have to think again. Tariff pressures and macroeconomic concerns have started to dampen sentiment.

Bloomberg News reports:

Markets are bracing for heightened volatility ahead of the July 9 deadline for countries to cut trade deals with the US. Uncertainty over the outcome of these negotiations poses a hurdle for regional shares to maintain an average return of 1.36% for July — the second-best performing month of the year — over the past decade.

Investors are “somewhat holding back on fresh allocations to emerging Asia,” said Christian Nolting, global chief investment officer at Deutsche Bank’s Private Bank (DB). “While recent comments from high-level negotiators suggest constructive progress in ongoing talks with major Asian trading partners,” uncertainties remain high given that trade disputes during President Donald Trump’s first term lasted one and a half years, he added.

While the MSCI Asia Pacific Index has gained for three consecutive months through June, a potential return of “Liberation Day” tariff rates could send shares plunging in a similar way they did in early April.

Trump ruled out delaying the July 9 deadline for imposing higher levies on trading partners and renewed threats to hike tariffs on Japan. That saw Japanese shares leading losses in Asia early on Wednesday, with the Nikkei 225 (^N225) down about 1%.

Even if trade deals materialize, some levels of tariffs are likely to stay. That would be a drag on the region’s export-led economies. A number of central banks in Asia have lowered their growth outlooks for the year. Meanwhile, elevated US interest rates may curb the scope for Asian central banks to further lower borrowing costs.

Read more here.

For several months, the back and forth between the US and Japan has been an ongoing concern as the two parties attempt to reach a trade deal and avoid skyrocketing tariffs.

Now Trump has threatened Japan with tariffs of up to 35%. This is a worst-case scenario for Japan and has started to raise doubts over Tokyo's tactics in trade talks.

\\"Japan should be forced to pay 30% or 35% or whatever number we determine, because we have a very big trade deficit with Japan,\\" Trump said on Tuesday, calling the country \\"spoiled.\\"

Experts have warned about taking Trump's comments at face value and believe that a deal will get done. However, they have also said that now is perhaps the time for Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to take a less friendly stance when it comes to trade negotiations.

“There is some risk of a US tantrum that results in higher punitive actions by Washington this month,” said Kurt Tong, a former senior US diplomat in Asia who’s now a managing partner at the Asia Group. “If that happens, Japan may have no choice but to hit back with its own specific countermeasures.”

Bloomberg News reports:

Japan has so far stood firm in negotiations over across-the-board reciprocal tariffs, insisting that they be removed along with additional sectoral tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum. The car duties are particularly painful for Japan as the industry contributes the equivalent of almost 10% of gross domestic product and employs around 8% of the workforce.

Tokyo has insisted that a “win-win” deal must encompass all the tariffs in one go with Ishiba preferring no deal to a bad deal ahead of a July 20 upper house election. The prime minister on Wednesday reiterated his view that focusing on jobs and investment in the US was the way forward, just like it was for Nippon Steel as it patiently sought to change Trump’s view and take over US Steel.

“Japan is the biggest global investor in the US and the world’s biggest contributor to US jobs,” Ishiba said in Tokyo on Wednesday. “That means Japan is different from other countries.”

But as July 9 gets closer, some observers say more needs to be done to convince the US to back off.

Read more here.

President Trump on Tuesday, amid days of renewed whiplash on the tariff front, suggested he wouldn't extend a July 9 deadline for higher tariffs to resume on trade partners. He also threatened a tariff level on goods from Japan that would be higher than those he levied on the country in April.

From Bloomberg:

“No, I’m not thinking about the pause,” Trump said Tuesday when asked by a reporter aboard Air Force One about whether he would extend the negotiating period with trading partners. “I’ll be writing letters to a lot of countries.”

The president deepened his criticism of Tokyo for not accepting US rice exports and said that auto trade between the two nations is imbalanced. He said he would force Japan to “pay 30%, 35% or whatever the number is that we determine, because we also have a very big trade deficit with Japan.”

“I’m not sure we’re going to make a deal. I doubt it with Japan, they’re very tough. You have to understand, they’re very spoiled,” Trump said.

Notably, that 30% or 35% would be a higher level than the 24% he had laid out as part of his \\"Liberation Day\\" duties.

Bloomberg added that Trump \\"sounded more optimistic\\" about an agreement with India.

When asked about the prospects for an agreement over the next week, Trump said “possibly. That’s going to be a different kind of a deal.”

“It’s going to be a deal where we’re able to go in and compete. Right now, India doesn’t accept anybody in. I think India is going to do that, and if they do that, we’re going to have a deal for much less tariffs,” he said.

Read more here.

US manufacturing remained weak in June. New orders were low and input costs went up slightly. This shows Trump's tariffs on imports are still making it hard for businesses to plan.

Reuters reports:

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Tuesday that its manufacturing PMI nudged up to 49.0 last month from a six-month low of 48.5 in May. It was the fourth straight month that the PMI was below the 50 mark, which indicates contraction in the sector that accounts for 10.2% of the economy. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the PMI little changed at 48.8.

The survey joined weak data on the housing market, consumer spending and swelling unemployment rolls that have suggested the economy's underlying momentum slowed further in the second quarter even as gross domestic product probably rebounded as the drag from a record trade deficit faded due to falling imports.

A measure of domestic demand grew at its slowest pace in more than two years in the January-March quarter. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, which have led businesses and households to front-run imports and goods purchases to avoid higher prices from duties, have muddled the economic picture. Economists warned it could take time for the tariff-related distortions to wash out of the economic data.

Read more here.

The European Union has hardened its stance in trade trade talks with US President Donald Trump and are insisting the US drops its tariffs on the EU immediately as part of any framework deal ahead of the July 9 deadline.

Trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič has been told he must take a tougher line on his trip to Washington this week as Brussels attempts to remove or at least cut Trump's levies in the long term.

The FT reports:

Washington has indicated to Brussels that the most likely first-stage agreement is a UK-style phased deal that leaves some tariffs in place while talks continue, according to EU officials.

Ambassadors from EU member states on Monday asked for Šefčovič to insist that any such deal includes, from July 9, reductions in the current 10 per cent “reciprocal” tariff, according to four people briefed on the matter. They are also demanding reductions to higher sectoral levies.

In the UK case, US tariffs on cars and steel continued for some weeks after the initial agreement to allow lower duty or duty-free quotas.

The EU’s 27 members have struggled to display a united front during almost three months of talks. But European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen asked leaders at a summit on Thursday to endorse a tougher stance, according to the people.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

Japan’s efforts to maintain a steady, friendly approach to trade negotiations are being tested as President Donald Trump ramps up pressure for a deal ahead of a looming tariff deadline.

With higher US tariffs set to take effect on July 9, Tokyo’s cautious strategy has yet to deliver a breakthrough, raising the risk that it could become an easy target in the Trump administration’s push for fast wins.

Unlike China, which has taken a more retaliatory stance to US pressure, Japan remains dependent on Washington for trade and security, leaving Tokyo with little appetite for direct confrontation. Instead, chief trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa is likely to stick to his playbook of keeping talks frequent, polite and firm, not wanting to risk a bad deal with a national vote looming on July 20.

“The government is stuck between US expectations and domestic pressure not to give up too much before the election,” said Rintaro Nishimura, an associate at The Asia Group.

Japanese officials responded cautiously on Tuesday, trying not to inflame tensions. Akazawa — who’s made seven trips to Washington in recent months — may have had the most reason to be frustrated. On his latest visit, he didn’t get to meet Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and two of his three conversations with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick happened over the phone.

“Most times I’m taking off from Haneda Airport without a confirmed schedule of meetings,” Akazawa said Tuesday on his return to Tokyo.

Read more here.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that tariffs are causing the central bank to take its time before cutting interest rates.

Powell is speaking today about the Fed's policy stance at an ECB forum in Sintra, Portugal. When asked if the Fed would have cut interest rates by more by now if it weren't for higher tariffs, Powell stated, \\"I think that’s right.\\"

\\"In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs,\\" Powell continued. \\"Essentially, all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs.\\"

Powell noted that the US economy remains healthy overall but that he expects to see the effects of tariffs if they filter through the economic data in the coming months. In recent days, Powell has faced increased pressure from President Trump to lower interest rates, including in the form of handwritten notes.

\\"Ignore the tariffs for a second,\\" Powell said of the economy. \\"Inflation is behaving pretty much exactly as we have expected and hoped that it would. We haven't seen effects much yet from tariffs, and we didn't expect to by now.\\"

Watch Powell speak live below:

Perhaps the moral of this story really is — as Amex likes to say — \\"Don't leave home without it.\\" Nowhere was this more true than for CEO Robert Keeley, who when faced with an $11,000 tariff bill decided to cash in 1.83 million American Express reward points to pay it.

Bloomberg News reports:

“It’s like a needle pin holding back a crack in the dam,” said Keeley, who runs Keeley Electronics, a guitar-pedal manufacturer with 35 employees in Oklahoma City.

Keeley’s scramble is part of a broader reckoning for America’s smaller businesses, which are being whipsawed by volatile trade policies. Another blow could land on July 9, the deadline President Donald Trump has imposed on other countries to secure trade deals with the US to avoid higher tariffs.

The stakes are especially high for manufacturers with fewer than 100 employees, which account for 93% of the roughly 240,000 US industrial firms. Unlike global conglomerates, these companies often lack the cash reserves, lobbying muscle or supply-chain flexibility to absorb steep tariff hikes or pivot production.

Read more here.

From President Trump's tariffs to the Federal Reserve rate cut saga, the US stock market has just completed a roller-coaster first half of the year. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) is up 5% year to date, rebounding from its April slump after Trump's \\"Liberation Day\\" tariffs were announced. But what should investors watch for in the second half of 2025? Here's a look at six key questions facing US stock investors at the start of the second half.

Reuters reports:

Will tariffs bite, or just bark?

While worst-case fears about Trump's tariffs have eased, more near-term volatility could be in store as the U.S. seeks to hammer out trade agreements in the coming weeks. A July 9 deadline on many tariffs, if it holds, could be an early second-half test for stocks.

Even if some of the harshest levies are rolled back, higher effective tariffs this year still could drive up inflation and cut into company profits and consumer spending. The effective U.S. tariff rate based on announced policies has climbed to 13% from 3% at the start of the year, Goldman Sachs analysts said last week.

After strong first-quarter profits, U.S. corporate earnings will be a critical gauge to assess whether Wall Street has properly factored in the fallout from tariffs. Second-quarter reports begin later this month, with S&P 500 (^GSPC) earnings in the period expected to have increased 5.9%, according to LSEG IBES.

Read more here.