Trump to levy tariffs on imports from Korea, Japan, South Africa, additional nations

President Donald Trump announced that 25% tariffs would be levied on goods from South Korea, Japan, and a number of other countries starting on August 1. 

In letters that he released on Truth Social, Trump wrote to a number of leaders, saying that their imports would be subject to tariffs, including Tunisia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos, Bosnia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Serbia, and Myanmar. 




The president said, "We have decided to move forward with you, but only with more balanced, and fair, TRADE. Therefore, we invite you to participate in the extraordinary Economy of the United States, the Number One Market in the World, by far."

The letters went onto say that the "trade deficits" between the countries and the US have been caused by tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers with the United States. South Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, and Japan will be getting a 25 percent tariff, “Please understand that the 25% is far less than what is needed to eliminate the Trade Deficit disparity we have with your Country,” Trump wrote.   
  
The president similarly wrote that South African and Bosnian products would be subject to a 30 percent tariff and that Laos and Myanmar would be see a tariff of 40 percent. A 32 percent tariff was placed on Indonesia, 35 percent on Bangladesh as well as Serbia.  

The letters all went onto to say that if those nations raise their tariffs in response to the policy from the US, "the number you choose to raise them by will be added onto the" respective tariff the US has imposed.

The announcement from Trump follows a number of moves on tariffs that the president has made, starting with his "liberation day" tariff announcement in April. After a high number of tariffs were announced in April, Trump paused the implementation of the policy for 90 days in order to work out negotiated deals with different countries and has worked out some trade negotiations since that time.  

The announcements of deals as well as tariffs have caused trading markets to shift and the Dow Jones Industrial Average along with the S&P 500 dropped in reaction to the news.