MORRISTOWN, New Jersey — The United States is close to finalizing several trade pacts in coming days and will notify other countries of higher tariff rates by July 9, President Donald J. Trump said on Sunday, with the higher rates set to take effect on Aug. 1.

Since taking office, Mr. Trump has set off a global trade war that has roiled financial markets and sent policymakers scrambling to protect their economies, through efforts such as deals with the United States and other countries.

In April Mr. Trump unveiled a base tariff rate of 10% on most countries and additional duties ranging up to 50%, although he later delayed the effective date for all but 10% until July 9. The new date offers countries a three-week reprieve.

Mr. Trump, whose remarks to reporters on Sunday came just before his return to Washington from a weekend golfing in New Jersey, had flagged the Aug. 1 date earlier, but it was unclear if all tariffs would increase then.

Asked to clarify, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters the higher tariffs would take effect on Aug. 1, but Mr. Trump was “setting the rates and the deals right now.”

In a posting on his Truth Social website, Mr. Trump later said the US would start delivering tariff letters from 12:00 p.m. ET (1600 GMT) on Monday.

In a separate post, he rolled out a wholly new tariff policy, calling for countries “aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies” of the BRICS developing nations to be charged an extra 10% tariff, with no exceptions to be granted.

The first BRICS summit in 2009 was attended by leaders from Brazil, China, India and Russia, with South Africa joining later while Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were included last year.

Mr. Trump has close ties to leaders of some of those countries, such as Saudi Arabia and UAE, and has been touting the prospect of a trade deal with India for weeks.

On Sunday, BRICS leaders condemned attacks on Gaza and Iran, called for reforms to global institutions and warned that the rise in tariffs threatened global trade.

It was not immediately clear if Mr. Trump’s tariff threat would derail trade talks with India, Indonesia and other BRICS nations, however.

Earlier on Sunday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN’s State of the Union that several big trade agreements would be announced in the next days, adding that European Union talks had made good progress.

Mr. Trump would also send letters to 100 smaller countries with which the United States does not have much trade, notifying them of higher tariff rates, he added.

“President Trump’s going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don’t move things along, then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level,” Mr. Bessent said.

“So I think we’re going to see a lot of deals very quickly.”

Kevin Hassett, who heads the White House National Economic Council, told CBS’s Face the Nation program there might be wiggle room for countries engaged in earnest negotiations.

“There are deadlines, and there are things that are close, and so maybe things will push back past the deadline,” Mr. Hassett said, adding that Mr. Trump would decide.

‘I HEAR GOOD THINGS’
Stephen Miran, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told ABC News’ This Week program that countries needed to make concessions to get lower tariff rates.

“I hear good things about the talks with Europe. I hear good things about the talks with India,” Mr. Miran said. “And so I would expect that a number of countries that are in the process of making those concessions… might see their date rolled.”

Mr. Bessent told CNN the Trump administration was focused on 18 important trading partners that account for 95% of the US trade deficit. But he said there had been “a lot of foot-dragging” among countries in finalizing trade deals.

Thailand, keen to avert a 36% tariff, is now offering greater market access for US farm and industrial goods and more purchases of US energy and Boeing jets, Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira told Bloomberg News on Sunday.

India and the United States are likely to make a final decision on a mini trade deal in the next 24 to 48 hours, local Indian news channel CNBC-TV18 reported on Sunday, with average tariffs of 10% on Indian goods shipped to the US, it said.

Mr. Hassett told CBS News that framework agreements already reached with Britain and Vietnam offered guidelines for other countries. He said Mr. Trump’s pressure was prompting countries to move production to the United States.

The Vietnam deal was “fantastic,” Mr. Miran said.

“It’s extremely one-sided. We get to apply a significant tariff to Vietnamese exports. They’re opening their markets to ours, applying zero tariff to our exports.” — Reuters

BEIJING — Chinese government advisers are stepping up calls to make the household sector’s contribution to broader economic growth a top priority at Beijing’s upcoming five-year policy plan, as trade tensions and deflation threaten the outlook.

Leaders are gathering proposals for their 15^th five-year plan, a voluminous document that lays out priorities up to 2030. The plan is expected to be endorsed at a December Communist Party conference and approved by parliament in March.

Policy advisers told Reuters while they expect the document will elevate household consumption to a top goal in principle, it is likely to stop short of laying out an explicit target.

Household consumption currently accounts for 40% of gross domestic product (GDP) — some advisers propose China should aim for 50% over the next two five-year cycles.

Economists have long urged Beijing to switch to a consumption-led economic model and rely less on debt-fueled investment and exports for growth.

While China has so far largely withstood pressures from higher US tariffs, fresh worries about industrial overcapacity, factory deflation and the resulting stress on jobs and incomes have heightened calls for a shift in long-term strategy.

“Relying on external demand makes us vulnerable to global shocks,” a policy adviser said on condition of anonymity due to the topic’s sensitivity.

“We should strengthen domestic consumption as a key driver of growth and economic transformation,” said the source, echoing calls from two other advisers Reuters spoke with.

A fourth adviser said his proposals would not include this recommendation as “this is not something that can be easily achieved without the correct policies and reforms.”

NEW URGENCY
Calls for a more robust consumer sector are not new.

While Beijing has pledged structural changes for more than a decade, its household consumption share of GDP is roughly where it was in 2005 and far below the OECD average of 54%.

The difficulty, analysts say, is that China has to shift resources from the business and government sectors to households in ways that could slow growth. Japan entered its decades-long stagnation period with a household share of GDP of 50% in 1991. That only grew to 58% by 2013, before dipping back to 55%.

A 14^th five-year plan progress report from 2023 lamented “insufficient mechanisms” to boost consumption.

The policy proposals for the 15^th plan are largely the same ones Beijing had promised before, the advisers said.

These include bolstering welfare, relaxing an internal passport system blamed for deep urban-rural inequality, and other measures — including tax changes — to redistribute income towards those who have less and are more likely to spend it.

New proposals include using state-owned assets to shore up pension funds and propping up the wobbly stock market and the crisis-hit property sector to increase households’ investment earnings.

“We have to increase household incomes, we have to boost transfers to low-income groups, but we’ve seen wage cuts,” said a second adviser.

He added household demand has taken on increased importance at the upcoming five-year plan with discussions focusing on whether China should set a specific consumption target.

Yang Weimin, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges think-tank, said last month China should raise household consumption to over 50% of GDP by 2035.

BALANCING ACT
The advisers expect a goal from the 14^th plan to keep the manufacturing share of GDP relatively stable will survive another five years.

State-guided investment has turned manufacturing into a key growth engine.

But an argument is emerging that investing more in an industrial complex that already accounts for a third of global manufacturing brings diminishing returns.

A prominent Communist Party magazine last week called for a crackdown on price wars in various industries, in a nod to China’s overcapacity and deflation.

Peng Sen, chairman of the China Society of Economic Reform, said in comments posted on the WeChat account of the Changan Avenue Reading Club, an informal body backed by senior officials, that sluggish consumption also hurts manufacturing profits and endangers jobs.

Mr. Peng said in March that China should boost final consumption, which includes household and government spending, as a share of GDP to 70% by 2035. The share stood at 56.6% in 2024.

But not all of China’s policy thinkers favor consumer-led growth.

In a June article in financial outlet Yicai, government economist Yu Yongding said the concept was “theoretically incorrect” and incompatible with long-term development.

“Without investment, there is no growth and without growth, sustained consumption is difficult to achieve,” Mr. Yu wrote.

As with the previous five-year plan, China is unlikely to set a specific GDP growth target for the next cycle, the advisers said. China targets growth of around 5% this year, the same goal as in 2024.

But ambitions laid out in 2021 to double the size of the economy by 2035 remain, the advisers said. This, as in the past, might mean delaying painful reforms needed to rebalance the economy towards consumption, analysts say.

“Growth during this period cannot be lower than 4%,” said a third adviser. “We won’t accept anything less.” — Reuters

POCHEON, South Korea — The equipment activist Lee Min-bok uses to send balloons laden with anti-Kim Jong Un leaflets across the border from South Korea unto the North has been gathering dust and cobwebs for months.

When it became clear that center-left politician Lee Jae Myung was on track to win the June presidential election, Lee Min-bok was among several South Korea-based activists who stopped their missions, anticipating a crackdown by the new, pro-engagement administration.

Lee Jae Myung, a former human rights lawyer, is pushing to ease tensions with Pyongyang and last month said activists should be “severely punished” if they continue the balloon operations that anger North Korea.

“I’ve been doing it quietly and what’s wrong with that? Provoking North Korea? No way,” 67-year-old Lee Min-bok told Reuters as he stood next to a rusting truck equipped with a hydrogen tank for filling balloons.

“But realistically, look how serious it is right now. Police are out there and if I move, everything will be reported.”

For years, police have monitored Mr. Lee from the home next door — one plainclothes officer told Reuters they are there to protect him from potential North Korean threats — but instead of checking weather reports for ideal balloon launching conditions, Mr. Lee now spends his days writing online posts criticizing the South Korean government.

CALLS TO ACTIVISTS
The activists, many of whom are North Korean defectors like Mr. Lee, are used to being at the center of geopolitical tensions.

An attempt by a previous liberal president to ban the balloon launches was struck down as unconstitutional. And last year, North Korea began launching waves of its own balloons into the South, some carrying garbage and excrement.

Mr. Lee, who took office on June 4, has promised to improve relations with the nuclear-armed North, saying tensions with Pyongyang have had a real negative economic impact. He has urged diplomacy and dialogue, and his administration has also suspended anti-North Korea loudspeaker broadcasts along the border.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, however, last year abandoned a goal of unification with the South and has shown little openness to diplomacy.

After Mr. Lee ordered measures to stop leaflet launches, officials and police discussed plans including deploying police to border regions to preempt launches, and punishing the activists by using regulations such as aviation safety laws, according to the Unification Ministry that handles inter-Korea affairs.

Several groups in the South regularly send balloons to the North carrying leaflets, bibles, food, money, and various media.

In the past year, police have investigated about 72 cases of anti-North leaflet activities and sent 13 to prosecutors, another police official said. They are still looking into 23 cases, the official added.

Police are also investigating six Americans who attempted to deliver around 1,300 plastic bottles filled with rice, dollar notes and Bibles to North Korea.

“Fear is spreading. The mood is bloody intense,” said another North Korean defector-turned-activist who had secretly flown balloons once or twice a month for more than a decade.

The activist said he had paused the launches this spring when polls showed Mr. Lee was likely to win the election.

“I get calls from the government recently that apparently want to check in, to see whether I am going to send the balloons or not,” said the Seoul-based activist, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals.

Choi Sung-yong, leader of the Abductees’ Family Union who works to bring home South Koreans abducted by North Korea, said his group had decided to suspend the balloon launches after receiving calls from new government officials.

Chung Dong-young, the Unification Minister nominee, said last month he rang Mr. Choi and thanked him for reconsidering the balloon launches which Mr. Chung described “a catalyst to confrontation and hostilities” between the two Koreas.

‘RIGHT BALANCE’
North Korean officials have labeled leaflet activists in South Korea “human scum” and in 2020 demolished an inter-Korean liaison office during a spat over leaflets. In 2022, they claimed the balloons could carry the coronavirus.

The Lee administration’s moves have been welcomed by some residents who have said the launches put them at risk.

“I feel much more comfortable and hopeful… People couldn’t sleep,” said Park Hae-yeon, 65, a farmer in Paju whose family runs a restaurant near the border. “Now I am hearing leaflets not being distributed, I see a sign of hope.”

James Heenan, who represents the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Seoul, told Reuters that leaflet operations are a matter of free expression that need to be balanced with legitimate national security concerns.

“We hope the right balance will be struck,” he said, noting that previous punishments were overly harsh. — Reuters