Tariff letters to go out to other countries from Monday afternoon: Trump

The Trump administration is poised to dispatch letters to U.S. trade partners starting Monday unilaterally informing them of their respective tariffs if related negotiations have failed to bear fruit.

Our Moon Ji-young starts us off.

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced via Truth Social that the U.S. will start delivering tariff letters to other countries starting 12 noon, Eastern Time, on Monday.

Currently, it is unknown which nations will be receiving the letter or have made deals.

Earlier that day, Trump told reporters:

"We be sending letters out on Monday having to do with the trade deals. Could be 12, maybe 15 .they'll be going out on Monday and some will go out on Tuesday and Wednesday. And it'll and we've, we've made deals also. So we're going to have a combination of letters and some deals have been made."

Trump added that either a letter will be sent or a deal will be done by July 9th.

Following Trump's comments, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick indicated a three-week reprieve.

"The tariffs go into effect August 1st. But the president is setting the rates and the deals right now."

This comes after Trump's announcement of the tariffs in April, which included a 10 percent base rate for most countries and additional rates, which in some cases went up to around 50 percent, although he later delayed the effective date for all but the 10 percent tariffs until July 9.

Meanwhile, National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac is in Washington, D.C. for three days to discuss pending issues.

On his way to the U.S. on Sunday, he told reporters that Seoul and Washington have been discussing issues related to trade and security.

"As the current negotiation phase is becoming quite critical, I'm stepping up my involvement, which is why I'm visiting the United States."

He is expected to meet with his U.S. counterpart Marco Rubio.

When asked about defense cost-sharing, he indicated that a range of issues were open for discussion, implying that cost-sharing could be on the agenda.

The agenda is also expected to include coordination for a summit between President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Moon Ji-young, Arirang News.