Key deadlines for U.S. trade deals are looming.
The White House's 90-day pause on so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries ends on July 8. On July 9, higher tariffs against European Union trading partners are set to snap back into place.
But President Donald Trump said those deadlines weren't set in stone.
"We can do whatever we want," he said Friday. "We could extend it. We could make it shorter."
In an interview with Fox Business, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he thinks trade deals will be finalized by Labor Day.
Meanwhile, a new target date of July 21 is on the calendar for a deal between the U.S. and Canada after talks between the two countries resumed following Canada's decision to rescind its plan to tax U.S. technology firms.
President Trump announced Friday he was terminating talks with Canada because of that tax.
On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Canada's decision to reverse course shows Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney "caved" to President Trump."
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The uncertainty about if and when trade deals will get done, and what tariff rates will be in effect, is making it tricky for businesses to plan, according to Isaac Hetzroni, the CEO of Imprint Genius, a sourcing company.
"If tariffs are consistently going in and out, it's incredibly difficult for any business to be able to go and plan," he said. "What I hear most people complain about is not the fact that we have the tariffs. It's the fact they're consistently changing."
Some business leaders are now looking past potential tariffs until rates are finalized, according to Jonathan Colehower, the managing director of global supply chain management at UST, a consulting firm.
"I think that many businesses at this point are becoming skeptical of the tariffs," Colehower said. "I think that they have reached a point where it's, you know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, and they don't want to be fooled again."
The uncertainty has left other business leaders frustrated.
"They're tearing their hair out," said Rita McGrath a professor at Columbia Business School who advises Fortune 500 leaders. "They won't say so in public, but (they are) behind the scenes. How can you plan when, you know, one day it's 125% and the next day it is 200%, and then the day after that it's 25%?"
A spokesperson for the White House said "productive discussions" are ongoing between the U.S. and its trade partners and more announcements will be made soon, but the administration has not committed to a definitive timeline on when those deals will be announced.
