Letters revealing rates will be sent out within weeks as Washington lacks capacity for individual deals

Donald Trump has said the US will send letters to some of its trading partners to unilaterally impose new tariff rates, suggesting that Washington lacks the capacity to reach individual trade deals.

Trump’s comments expose the difficulty of the task the president set for his administration after imposing sweeping border taxes on goods imports from all of the US’s trading partners on his 2 April “liberation day”.

Washington has withdrawn some of its toughest measures after a backlash in the bond markets, including pausing “reciprocal” tariff rates on many trading partners, including the EU, striking a trade deal to lower tariffs with the UK, and agreeing a 90-day pause with China. A 10% universal tariff on all imported foreign goods remains.