TMTPOST -- More signs   on Thursday suggested   U.S. Donald Trump   could extend his July   9 deadline   for higher reciprocal   tariffs.

Credit：Xinhua News Agency

"The deadline is not critical," White Press press secretary Karoline Leavitt   said in a press briefing.   She told reporters   that   Trump "can simply provide these countries with the deal if they refuse to make us one by the deadline," and   that means the president   can pick   "a reciprocal tariff rate that he believes is advantageous for the United States."  

"Perhaps it could be extended but that ’ s a decision for the president,"   Leavitt responded   when asked   for clarity   in the briefing about the July 9   deadline.

In an   interview   released   earlier Thursday,   the White House Council of Economic Advisers chairman Stephen Miran   signaled the   July 9 deadline   is not so fixed date that can   not be adjusted   if major U.S. trading partners   want   to    push for   a   trade deal   in good faith.

"My expectation would be that for countries that are negotiating in good faith and making progress, that rolling back the deadline makes sense," Miran said. "I mean, you don't blow up a deal that's that's in process and making really good faith, sincere, authentic progress by dropping a tariff bomb in it."  

Miran said the trade deal may not result in   the aggregate tariff rate   much lower than   the current 10% baseline tariff,   but the levies   individual countries   facing may be various   depending   on their offers. The countries   making   aggressive   concessions   may   face lower   tariffs   below the baseline, while those refusing   to make such concessions   will "have the   'Liberation Day' tariff snap back up on them."

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later Thursday told Bloomberg White House will   finalize trade deals with 10   major trading   partners in   the next two week, and Trump could also   extend deadlines to allow   for more talks.

"Those who have deals will have deals, and everybody else that is negotiating with us, they ’ ll get a response from us and then they ’ ll go into that package," Lutnick said. "If people want to come back and negotiate further, they ’ re entitled to, but that tariff rate will be set and off we ’ ll go."

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."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent earlier   this month became the first   senior Trump official that has indicated some flexibility for the tariff pause when he testified before the House Ways and Means Committee.

Bessent emphasized throughout the hearing   on June 11   that he ’ s focused on negotiations with the 18 US trading partners who account for 90% of the trade and suggests that regional deals are possible with smaller countries.   Questioned about whether the so-called reciprocal tariffs would enter effect when a 90-day pause ends, Bessent responded the Trump administration is   "highly likely"   to delay tariffs for countries involved in good-faith trade talks.

"It is highly likely that those countries - or trading blocs as is the case with the EU - who are negotiating in good faith, we will roll the date forward to continue the good-faith negotiations," Bessent told   House of Representatives. "If someone is not negotiating, then we will not."