TMTPOST -- The Trump administration appears to press countries seeking deals through negotiations to speed up their talks ahead of a self-imposed deadline next month.

Credit：Xinhua News Agency

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has sent letters to trading partners to remind them of the deadline in trade negotiations, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, calling the letters “a friendly reminder” to push forward agreements.

“I can confirm the merits in the content of the letter,”Levaitt responded to a question about a recent Reuters report in a briefing on Tuesday. She told reporters :“USTR sent this letter to all of our trading partners, just to give them a friendly reminder that the deadline is coming up, and they are in talks. The president expects good deals, and we are on track for that.”

The Trump administration wants countries to provide their best offers on trade talks by June 4, Reuters on Monday cited a draft letter to negotiating partners, highlighting an urgency within the government to complete deals against its tight deadline. It was reported that the U.S. is asking trading partners to list their best proposals in lots of key areas, including tariff and quota offers for purchase of U.S. industrial and agricultural products and plans to remedy any non-tariff barriers.

The reported letter was “framed as a way to steer ongoing talks rather than an ultimatum,” Bloomberg on Tuesday learned from a recipient of the letter. The European Union officials have received the letter yet, a source familiar with the EU-U.S. talks told Reuters the same day.

Trump announced on April 9 in a post he has authorized a 90-day pause and “a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff” of 10% during this period, both effective immediately. The White House clarified that Trump’s announcement of a 90-day pause on tariffs means that the “tariff level will be brought down to a universal 10% tariff” during that time, while “negotiations are ongoing.”

A day later, Trump threatened the hefty reciprocal tariffs will return if countries fail to reach a deal with his administration within the 90-day period of pause, though he refused to rule out further pause on the sweeping tariffs.

“If we can’t make the deal that we want to make or we have to make or that’s, you know, good for both parties — it’s got to be good for both parties — then we go back to where we were,” Trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting on April 10. But when asked about if that means he would not extend the pause, Trump said, “We’ll have to see what happens.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned in interviews on May 18 that the Trump administration would resume its higher reciprocal tariffs on trading partners if they fail to make trade deals within the 90-day period of tariff pause.

Tariff rates will soon return the a “April 2 level” if countries don’s reach trade agreements during the aforementioned pause, Bessent told CNN. “President Trump has put them on notice that if you do not negotiate in good faith, you will ratchet back up to your April 2 level,” said Bessent, without specifying how fast the tariff rates could return the planned reciprocal level that the White House unveiled on April 2, a date U.S. President Donald Trump proclaimed “Liberation Day”.