By Timothy W. Martin in Seoul, Kim Mackrael in Brussels and Ryan Dubé in Lima, Peru

In the two weeks since President Trump's "Liberation Day," many U.S. trade partners have a clear plan to convince Washington against reimposing stiff tariffs on their exports to the U.S.: buy more American stuff.

Many are rushing to do so in a bid to eliminate their trade deficits with the U.S., while others are urging a collective response to stave off pressure from Washington. Some countries, however, can't, or won't, open up their wallets at all.

Washington is negotiating with more than 70 nations over the sky-high reciprocal tariffs that Trump announced on April 2. He paused the levies until July.

Vietnam, which has a $124 billion deficit with the U.S. and saw tariffs on its goods rise to 46% on Liberation Day, shows how anxious countries are to stave off the duties. It recently closed a $300 million financing deal to buy a fleet of new Boeing jets. It pushed through the authorization of Starlink, the satellite internet service owned by Elon Musk, a close Trump adviser. And it accelerated the approvals for a $1.5 billion Trump resort.

Demand is bustling for U.S. goods and services elsewhere, too. In Thailand it is corn feed, while Europe has suggested it could boost soybean purchases. South Korea will soon send a delegation to Alaska to discuss participating in a $44 billion liquefied natural gas project -- one touted by Trump as "truly spectacular" -- after rebuffing it not long ago.

The pledges come as Washington starts an initial round of talks, with the U.K., Australia, South Korea, India and Japan among Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's top targets, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week. Japanese trade officials have traveled to Washington for a meeting with Trump, who touted "Big Progress!" on his Truth Social platform. Vice President JD Vance said there is a "good chance" of a deal with the U.K., while South Korea's top economic officials plan to meet with Bessent next week.

A promised splurge on U.S. goods has worked to calm trade friction before. During Trump's first term, Beijing halted its trade war with Washington, in part by vowing to boost U.S. purchases of manufactured goods and other services by $200 billion over two years.

The 'buy more' strategy

The question today is whether buying more American goods and reducing trade imbalances will appease Trump. It might be a hard sell: China fell short on its promises before the deal it struck during Trump's first term petered out.

This Trump administration appears to want more than just an uptick in business. It is seeking big-dollar investments in the U.S., the elimination of non-tariff measures and steps to counter China, said Wendy Cutler, vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former U.S. trade official.

"While splashy purchasing announcements are welcome, they are often short-lived," Cutler said. "It's easier to implement a 'buy more' strategy than negotiating structural measures typically found in trade agreements."

That is not stopping countries from trying. India has said it aims to nearly quadruple its current trade with the U.S. to $500 billion, with Trump urging more purchases of U.S. defense equipment. Trade talks between the two countries plodded along during Trump's first term, but ultimately went nowhere. Not this time, India's Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said earlier this month, "We are certainly geared up for a very high degree of, I would say, urgency," he said.

Officials from the European Union have floated upping purchases of U.S. LNG and soybeans. Trump has suggested the trade war could be called off if the EU bought $350 billion more in American energy products. This week, the EU -- which currently gets 45% of its LNG imports from the U.S. -- expressed interest in boosting those imports, especially as a way to diversify its energy needs away from Russia. "The U.S. is absolutely one of the options," an EU spokeswoman said Monday.

In recent days, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia have told grain producers in Argentina that they might buy from the U.S. to help their countries lower their trade imbalances and negotiate a better tariff deal with Trump, said Gustavo Idígoras, head of a group that represents Argentina's biggest grain processors and exporters. "That's a big risk for us," he said.

During a White House visit last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to get rid of his country's $7.4 billion trade surplus for goods with the U.S. He said he told Trump: "This is not difficult for us. We will do it."

Some lower-income countries that are unable to load up on American goods have either promised not to retaliate or have pledged to remove their own tariffs on American imports. That includes Zimbabwe, whose leader called for the immediate suspension of import restrictions on U.S. goods in an attempt to create a "mutually beneficial and positive relationship" with Washington.

Trade trouble

Eliminating trade deficits altogether isn't feasible in some cases. For instance, Cambodia, which exports garments and footwear, has a trade surplus of more than $12 billion with the U.S., or more than a quarter of its annual gross domestic product. Trump's trade gambit could win some concessions, such as prying open certain markets for American agricultural goods or relaxing data restrictions that could benefit U.S. tech companies.

Not all countries are gearing up to spend. Canada and Mexico are already the world's biggest buyers of American products. Much of Latin America buys more than it sells to the U.S., with the region largely subjected to the minimum 10% tariff rate.

"History teaches us that trade wars have no winners," Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at a recent economic conference with Chinese officials in attendance.

Some U.S. allies, including Australia and Japan, have suggested banding together to contend with Trump's tariffs. On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said his country would approach negotiations with the "interest of the entire world" in mind. "We may fail if we rush, " Ishiba said.

The planned tariffs have lent urgency to some purchases already near the finish line. Earlier this month, the U.S. approved the purchase of new F-16 fighter jets by the Philippines, but Manila says the levies could leave the country short of funds.

As the U.S.'s trading partners rush to offer Washington concessions, China is the outlier. The administration has maintained tariffs of more than 100% on the country and the two sides haven't yet engaged in meaningful talks. Yet Trump's goal of rewiring global commerce and bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. is heavily dependent on rebalancing trade between the world's two economic giants. China carries a global trade surplus of nearly $1 trillion, while the U.S. has a $1.2 trillion trade deficit.

The trade chaos does hand China a chance to siphon away business from countries that rely on exports to the U.S., said Roland Rajah, lead economist at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank. For that to occur, Beijing would need to open its economy further to foreign firms, he added.

"It is an opportunity for China," Rajah said. "The question is whether or not they take it."

Write to Timothy W. Martin at Timothy.Martin@wsj.com, Kim Mackrael at kim.mackrael@wsj.com and Ryan Dubé at ryan.dube@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Vietnam has a $124 billion surplus with the U.S. "Anxious Trading Partners Promise to Buy American to Stave Off Trump's Tariffs," at 4:39 a.m. ET, incorrectly said it had a $124 billion deficit with the U.S.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 17, 2025 10:51 ET (14:51 GMT)

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