President Trump on Monday said the U.S will impose 25% tariffs on goods from South Korea and Japan by Aug. 1, while also threatening to hit a dozen other nations with steep import duties by next month.

The country’s new president, in office for a little over a month, had just dispatched his senior deputies to Washington to try to work out a trade deal.

By Jeff Mason and Leika Kihara WASHINGTON/TOKYO (Reuters) -Powerhouse Asian economies Japan and South Korea said on Tuesday they would try to negotiate with the U.S. to soften the impact of sharply higher tariffs that President Donald Trump now plans to impose from the start of August.