The United States is close to reaching agreements on several trade deals ahead of a July 9 deadline when higher tariffs kick in, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday, predicting several big announcements in coming days.

Bessent told CNN's "State of the Union" programme that the Trump administration would also send out letters to 100 smaller countries with whom the US doesn't have much trade, notifying them that they would face higher tariff rates first set on April 2 and then suspended until July 9.

"President Trump's going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that, if you don't move things along, then on August 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level," Bessent said.

"So I think we're going to see a lot of deals very quickly." (Reuters)