When President Trump talks about making deals with other countries, it makes the rules about taxes on goods unclear. His team seems happy with this because they say Trump uses this unclear situation to help him.

Trump says the US does not have to sign any deals, but could sign many now. He wants good deals for everyone and does not care about other countries' markets. He says his team can talk about a deal, or he might just put taxes on goods himself.

Chad Bown from the Peterson Institute for International Economics wrote in an email, 'It is difficult for me to understand it.'

Trump's team says his book "The Art of the Deal" shows he has a good plan. But many people around the world are worried. This has made the stock market change a lot, companies are not hiring new people, and things are not clear. But Trump still says new factories and jobs will come soon.

Trump wants to keep some taxes on goods from other countries in any agreement. He thinks these taxes can make a lot of money for the government. But other countries want to remove these taxes in a deal.

Trump recently said that tariffs are good for the country. He said that if we use them, we will become very rich. He thinks that with the money from tariffs, we can pay off debt and make taxes much lower. He said taxes could be even lower than the tax cut that is planned.

The US government has collected $45.9 billion from tariffs this year. This is about $14.5 billion more than last year.

To pay back the $36 trillion debt and lower taxes, Trump's tariffs would need to collect at least $2 trillion every year. This would be very hard to do without hurting the economy and making the government collect less tax money in total. It seems almost impossible if you look at the numbers.

The government says 17 of their 18 main trading partners have shown them what they might agree to in talks.

But leaders from other countries are not sure what Trump wants or how agreements can be made strong and last a long time. They also remember that Trump agreed to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in 2020, but then he put new taxes on those two countries this year.

When Canada's leader Mark Carney met with Trump, he said the new agreement should be better. He wanted to stop Trump from putting unfair taxes on Canadian goods again, like he did this year with taxes on a drug called fentanyl.

Some things need to change, Carney said.

High taxes on goods from China and the US make the trade talks difficult.

The US and China will meet for the first time this weekend in Switzerland. They will probably try to make things less tense so they can have important discussions later.

The main problem is that China makes most things in the world and sells them to other countries. This can hurt businesses in those countries. China doesn't buy many of its own products, so other countries buy what China makes because people in China don't buy enough. The U.S. wants to make trade fairer, but it has also put extra taxes on products from countries that could be friends and help protect their car and technology businesses from China.

It's clear that China is the biggest part of this trade problem,

China says the US should talk less strongly and stop the taxes to start the talks.

Lin said on Tuesday that if the U.S. wants to solve the problem by talking, they should stop threatening and pressuring. They should talk with China as equals, respecting each other, and helping each other.

On Wednesday, someone asked Trump if he would lower taxes on goods from China to start talking. Trump said, "No."

The president also said the Chinese government was wrong when they said his team wanted to talk in Geneva. "I think they should look at their papers again," Trump said.

Does Congress need to agree to any deals?

It's not always the case.

Mr. Trump put taxes on many things from other countries without asking Congress. He used a law from 1977 to do this. Because of this, people have started many court cases. The government also says they don't need Congress to change these taxes later.

Before, presidents like Trump could only make small deals about trade with countries like China. A report from April said this. Other small deals were made with other countries too.

The problem is that Trump also wants to talk about other things that make trade difficult, like rules about car safety and taxes in Europe. He wants other countries to change these rules if the U.S. lowers the new taxes it put on goods. Other countries might say they don't like it when the U.S. helps its own companies with money.

A report said that the House and Senate would need to agree on a deal to fix trade problems and change US laws.

Is it a good deal if Trump just says yes?

Trump might make deals only with companies in his country and decide on import taxes himself. He did this before, and it made the markets go down.

It looks like Trump will agree not to add the new taxes on goods if he thinks other countries are giving enough. This means the U.S. doesn't give up anything because the taxes are new. But Trump might also stop his taxes even if he doesn't get much back.

People know that Trump often asks for a lot at first, and then changes his mind later in talks. So, we don't know how long he will do this. An expert said that countries that want a normal trade talk where both sides give something are being told no.