Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned on Tuesday that the USA may announce commerce offers with main buying and selling companions as quickly as this week, however that negotiations with China over tariffs haven’t begun.
The feedback got here as Mr. Bessent was testifying earlier than a Home committee and fielding questions concerning the state of the U.S. economic system and President Trump’s commerce agenda. Mr. Trump’s tariffs on China and international locations all over the world have brought about economists to decrease their development forecasts and warn a few new bout of inflation, however Mr. Bessent argued that the measures would finally lead different international locations to decrease their commerce obstacles.
“I anticipate that we are able to see a considerable discount within the tariffs that we’re being charged, in addition to non-tariff obstacles — foreign money manipulation and the subsidies of each labor and capital funding,” Mr. Bessent mentioned.
The Treasury secretary and Mr. Trump have mentioned for weeks that many countries had been desperate to strike new commerce offers that may quickly be introduced, though none have to date materialized. Final month, Mr. Trump urged he’d additionally been in contact with China’s chief, Xi Jinping — however Chinese language officers insisted no such talks had been occurring.
On Tuesday, Mr. Bessent was clear: “China, we now have not engaged in negotiations with as of but.”
The negotiations with numerous nations began final month after Mr. Trump imposed a ten % common tariff on imports from all international locations and extra tariffs he described as “reciprocal” on dozens of them. These extra tariffs have been paused whereas the negotiations happen.
It was not clear whether or not the commerce agreements can be formal pacts or statements of mutual understanding about revised commerce phrases.
Mr. Bessent sought to fend off criticism of Mr. Trump’s commerce coverage, defending the tariffs as needed to repair commerce imbalances. “We’re aiming for honest commerce to convey again excessive paying precision manufacturing jobs to the U.S.,” he instructed lawmakers.
Mr. Bessent additionally dismissed forecasts that urged the nation was heading towards a recession. He mentioned that the financial information didn’t recommend that the economic system was contracting and he predicted that the disappointing first quarter development information can be revised upward.
