President Donald Trump has said he signed 12 tariff letters which will be sent out on Monday, after earlier saying they will be sent on Friday amid expectations in Sri Lanka of getting a communication early.
“I signed some letters and they’ll go out on Monday, probably twelve,” Trump told reporters Saturday.
“Different amounts of money, different amounts of tariffs.”
Sri Lanka was slapped with a 44 percent Trump tariff which was suspended till July 09 after reducing the tariff to 10 percent.
Sri Lanka was among the first set of countries to start negotiating with the US.
Cabinet spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa said last week that Sri Lanka expected a letter before the July 09 deadline.
“We have an expectation from our side that we can get some amendment of the tariff to minimise the effect on the economy and our exporters as a result of interventions the government has made,” he said.
There have been reports that the rate in the ‘Trump letter’ will go into effect from August 01.
It is not clear what Trump meant by ‘different amounts of money’ in his latest comments on Saturday. But some countries had promised higher imports, and Trump had also remarked that ‘small’ countries would get some relief.
Sri Lanka is keen not to be at a disadvantage with competitors, which would lead to a shift of business, especially apparel.
India, which had more imports from the US and a lower trade surplus, proportionately than Sri Lanka was hit by only a 26 percent Trump tariff, Pakistan 29 percent and Bangladesh 37 percent.
Trump said he had struck a deal with Vietnam leader To Lam for a 20 percent tariff (down from 46 percent), but details are not clear given his tendency to make sweeping generalizations.