"In the two weeks since President Trump unleashed his sweeping set of reciprocal tariffs, many U.S. trade partners have a clear plan to convince Washington against reimposing stiff duties on their exports to the U.S.: Buy more American goods.
Many are rushing to do so in a bid to eliminate their trade imbalances with the U.S., while others are urging a collective response to stave off pressure from Washington. Some countries, however, can't, or won't, open their wallets.
Washington is negotiating with more than 70 nations over the sky-high reciprocal tariffs Trump announced on April 2, which Trump termed "Liberation Day." He later paused the levies until July.
Trump said on Thursday he would have "very little problem" making a deal with the European Union to reduce tariffs in exchange for access to a U.S. market he said has "something everyone wants."
"There will be a trade deal, 100%," Trump said during meetings at the White House with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy. She invited Trump to visit Italy and to meet EU officials for trade talks.
Vietnam, which has a surplus of more than $120 billion with the U.S. and saw tariffs on its goods rise to 46% on April 2, shows how anxious countries are to stave off the duties. It recently closed a $300 million financing deal to buy a fleet of new Boeing jets. It pushed through the authorization of Starlink, the satellite internet service owned by Elon Musk, a close Trump adviser. And it accelerated the approvals for a $1.5 billion Trump resort.
Demand is bustling for U.S. goods and services elsewhere, too. In Thailand it is corn feed, while Europe has suggested it could boost soybean purchases. South Korea plans to send a delegation to Alaska to discuss participating in a $44 billion liquefied-natural-gas project.
The pledges come as Washington starts an initial round of talks, with the U.K., Australia, South Korea, India and Japan among Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's top targets, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Japanese trade officials have traveled to Washington for a meeting with Trump. Vice President JD Vance said there is a "good chance" of a deal with the U.K., while South Korea's top economic officials plan to meet with Bessent next week.
A promised splurge on U.S. goods has worked to calm trade friction before. During Trump's first term, Beijing halted its trade war with Washington, in part by vowing to boost U.S. purchases of manufactured goods and other services by $200 billion over two years.
The question today is whether buying more U.S. goods and reducing trade imbalances will appease Trump. It might be a hard sell: China fell short on its promises before the deal it struck during Trump's first term petered out.
This Trump administration appears to want more than just an uptick in business. It is seeking big-dollar investments in the U.S., the elimination of non-tariff measures and steps to counter China, said Wendy Cutler, vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former U.S. trade official.
India has said it aims to nearly quadruple its current trade with the U.S. to $500 billion, with Trump urging more purchases of U.S. defense equipment.
Officials from the EU have floated raising purchases of U.S. LNG and soybeans. Trump has suggested the trade war could be called off if the EU bought $350 billion more in U.S. energy products. This week, the EU -- which currently gets 45% of its LNG imports from the U.S. -- expressed interest in boosting those imports.
In recent days, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia have told grain producers in Argentina that they might buy from the U.S. to help their countries lower their trade imbalances and negotiate a better tariff deal, said Gustavo Idigoras, head of a group that represents Argentina's biggest grain processors and exporters.
During a White House visit last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel promised to get rid of his country's $7.4 billion trade surplus for goods with the U.S.
Some lower-income countries that are unable to load up on U.S. goods have either promised not to retaliate or have pledged to remove their own tariffs on U.S. imports. Eliminating trade imbalances altogether isn't feasible in some cases. But Trump's trade gambit could win some concessions, such as prying open certain markets for U.S. agricultural goods or relaxing data restrictions that could benefit U.S. tech companies.
Not all countries are gearing up to spend. Canada and Mexico are already the world's biggest buyers of U.S. products. Much of Latin America buys more than it sells to the U.S., with the region largely subjected to the minimum 10% tariff rate.
Some U.S. allies, including Australia and Japan, have suggested banding together to contend with Trump's tariffs. On Monday, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan said his country would approach negotiations with the "interest of the entire world" in mind. "We may fail if we rush."
As the U.S.'s trading partners rush to offer Washington concessions, China is the outlier. The administration has maintained tariffs of more than 100% on the country, and the two sides haven't engaged in meaningful talks. Yet Trump's goal of rewiring global commerce and bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. is heavily dependent on rebalancing trade between the world's two economic giants. China carries a global trade surplus of nearly $1 trillion, while the U.S. has a $1.2 trillion trade deficit.
The trade chaos does hand China a chance to siphon away business from countries that rely on exports to the U.S., said Roland Rajah, lead economist at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank. For that to occur, Beijing would need to open its economy further to foreign firms, he said." [1]
1. Countries Across the Globe Are Vowing to Buy American. Martin, Timothy W; Kim Mackrael in Brussels; Dube, Ryan; Peru. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 18 Apr 2025: A1.
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