Treasury Division Secretary Scott Bessent stated Tuesday the Aug. 1 date set by President Trump for tariffs to hit international locations that fail to barter offers with the U.S. is a “hard deadline.”
Bessent throughout an interview on Fox Enterprise’s “Mornings with Maria” stated international locations with out commerce offers might be hit with the tariffs Trump introduced within the spring, which triggered markets to drop amid fears of upper costs and an financial slowdown.
“I think Aug. 1 is a pretty hard deadline … for all countries, because what I think will happen is that the tariff level will boomerang back to the reciprocal level from April 2,” Bessent stated. “That doesn’t mean we can’t negotiate when the countries are at the higher level. As a matter of fact, I think President Trump may have created a pretty ingenious strategy here, that if you’re working at the high level you’re actually going to work faster.”
Companies are bracing for Trump to impose tariff charges of between 20 p.c and 50 p.c based mostly on his earlier warnings. The administration has downplayed any detrimental repercussions from the tariffs whereas arguing they’ll carry again U.S. manufacturing.
Bessent instructed CNBC on Monday the Aug. 1 deadline is meant to “put more pressure on those countries to come with better agreements.”
On Tuesday morning, Bessent additionally teased that new commerce offers might come out this week for industry-specific charges.
“We’re about to announce a rash of trade deals in the coming days, and a lot of these trade deals are going to include substantial investments in the U.S., whether it’s auto, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals,” Bessent stated.
Bessent is ready to journey to Stockholm early subsequent week for a 3rd spherical of talks along with his Chinese language counterparts concerning the U.S.-China commerce deal, which he stated is ready to run out Aug 12.
“We’ll be working out what is likely an extension then,” he stated about his expectations. “I think trade’s in a very good place with China.”
He additionally previewed that talks with China will embody sanctions on Russia oil, which might set 100% tariff on international locations who purchase it.
“President Donald Trump has changed the narrative here that tariffs can be used for negotiations, away from just economics, but for world peace,” Bessent stated.
Trump lowered the speed on Indonesia from 32 p.c to 19 p.c final week after placing a deal.
