Governments and markets around the world are bracing for yet another nail-biting trade deadline set to kick in at 12:01 a.m. on July 9.

If Donald Trump does not opt for another delay, consumers may soon find themselves spending more on various products. This is a tactic he has employed in the past.

Spanish ham, Dominican cigars and Japanese cars are on the list, with a multi-front trade war once again potentially roiling markets.

‘We have a choice. Either you’re going to crash the bond market, or we’re going to get another pause,’ warned a prominent conservative close to the White House.

Some are betting on another ‘TACO Tuesday’ – Washington parlance for when the president backs down from his threat to impose retaliatory tariffs on countries that haven’t struck new trade deals with the US.

(Trump snapped at a reporter recently who asked him about a ‘Trump Always Chickens Out’ meme that was spreading on Wall Street.)

‘I think you’ll see more agreements trickle in… A lot of countries [are] just a press release away from an agreement,’ House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, of Missouri, told the Daily Mail. 

‘It’s a work in progress,’ White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett told reporters Thursday at the White House when pressed about the state of play of dozens of trade deals.

President Donald Trump announced trade deals with Vietnam and China, but has said he is not thinking about extending a 90-day ‘pause’ on his ‘reciprocal’ trade tariffs

The tariffs have injected uncertainty into US trading relationships, although Trump has cheered tariff funds that have gone to the treasury

‘There’s lower inflation for import goods than for domestic goods, and so the sort of outdated theory that the tariffs are going to be inflationary has been disproved over and over in the data,’ he said. 

That theory could soon be put to the test if deals don’t materialize.

Trump stunned global markets when he imposed global tariffs April 2, slapping taxes as high as 50 percent on nations that included key allies and trading partners.

It soon became clear that the administration developed the individualized tariff rates by looking at US trade deficits with individual countries, not just specific policies that might handicap US producers.

Only after Trump announced a 90-day pause did markets settle and begin to recover prior losses.

There have only been a handful of countries to strike a deal with Trump so far – including the UK.

Then, Trump announced a deal was ‘done’ with China.  

Trump also said last week there was a deal in place for Vietnam – a major source of Chinese-made ‘transshipments’ to the US – hours after dumping on key trading partner Japan.

But Politico reported the agreement was more of a framework for further talks. 

It sets up a frenetic period immediately after the July 4th holiday for countries to try to forge a deal to put off the tariffs that could hammer their local industries.

If they don’t succeed, the result could be increased prices for Americans on products ranging from energy to sneakers to cars. It could also jolt a fragile economy and upset consumers in the months leading into next year’s midterm elections.

Depending on which countries get a reprieve and which companies don’t, the impact on prices Americans pay for products could be widespread. 

Based on the tariffs Trump has already announced, this could mean 16 percent on Norwegian salmon, 25 percent on Spanish ham, 25 percent on Colombian coffee and 10 percent on Canadian natural gas. The country-by-country taxes can be viewed in the tariff tracker by international law firm ReedSmith.

Trump insisted aboard Air Force One on Tuesday that he wasn’t contemplating issuing another ‘pause’. 

He was pessimistic about Japan, saying ‘I’m not sure we’re going to make a deal. I doubt it with Japan, they’re very tough. You have to say, they’re very spoiled.’

He accused the country of ripping off the US for decades, complaining about their unwillingness to accept certain US goods.

‘They won’t take any cars, but they’ll sell millions. So we tell them, sorry, you can’t do that,’ Trump said. ‘They need rice so badly, but they they won’t take rice.’

Trump paused his ‘reciprocal’ tariffs after a market plunge

Trump even described the letter he would pen essentially telling them, ‘no deal, pay 30 to 35 percent.’

‘We also have a very big trade deficit with the Japan… and it’s very unfair to the American people,’ he said. 

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has described the tariff threat as a ‘national crisis,’ particularly to its automotive sector, which relies heavily on the US market.

Trump has complained about barriers that keep US cars out of markets in Japan and Europe

Trump’s tariffs wreaked havoc on supply chains where countries like Vietnam manufacture goods like sneakers with lower labor costs and ship them to the US. Trump wants to crack down on ‘transshipments’ where countries like China evade tariffs by moving goods through third countries

The administration is also hoping to nail down a trade deal with India. Trump said a ‘very big deal’ is coming soon.

Even a handful of major deals would stop short of the benchmark set by Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro.

‘We’ve got 90 deals in 90 days possibly pending here,’ he said in comments to NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ back in April.

That has brought a renewed focus on a group of major partners, leaving the fate of smaller countries even murkier. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke about potentially lowering the bar.

‘If we can ink 10 or 12 of the important 18 – there are another important 20 relationships – then I think we could have trade wrapped up by Labor Day,’ he told CNBC.

Trump said other countries might just get a letter stating what the tariff would be. 

Although Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other officials have talked up the number of countries negotiating with the US, deals have only been announced with China and Great Britain in the weeks leading up to the new deadline.

Under the terms of the US-UK deal, first announced in the White House in early May, carmakers in the UK will be hit by a 10 percent rate when selling vehicles to the US rather than 25 percent.

In return, Britain is lifting tariffs on American companies’ shipments of products such as beef and ethanol.

The Department for Business and Trade also said the US has committed to removing tariffs on UK aerospace goods such as engines and aircraft parts.

However, there was a signal from Trump that agreement about tariffs on British steel exports to the US could take longer to finalize.

Asked if steel tariffs would be set to zero percent for the UK at the G-7 Summit last month, Trump replied, ‘We’re gonna let you have that information in a little while.’

Later in June, Trump declared a trade deal between the US and China ‘done’ and announced new rare earth minerals he said would be coming into the US from its top trade competitor.

‘Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,’ Trump posted Wednesday morning. ‘Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China.’

He also said Chinese students would continue ‘using our colleges and universities,’ something he said has ‘always been good with me’ despite his administration’s crackdown on foreign students at top universities.