Treasury Secretary Says Trump Will Keep 10% Import Tariff, Raises Taxes on Chinese Imports

TIME

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Trump was pausing his so-called ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on most of the country’s biggest trading partners, but maintaining his 10% tariff on nearly all global imports. Imports tariffs on goods from China, though, would surge to 125% “effective immediately” Trump said on social media.

Transcript

00:00And we saw the successful negotiating strategy that President Trump implemented a week ago today.

00:06It has brought more than 75 countries forward to negotiate.

00:11It took great courage, great courage for him to stay the course until this moment.

00:16And what we have ended up with here, as I told everyone a week ago in this very spot,

00:25do not retaliate and you will be rewarded.

00:28So every country in the world who wants to come and negotiate, we are willing to hear you.

00:36We're going to go down to a 10% baseline tariff for them.

00:41And China will be raised to 125 due to their insistence on escalation.

00:47I'm not calling it a trade war, but I am saying that China has escalated.

00:53And President Trump responded very courageously to that.

00:57And we are going to work on a solution with our trading partners.

01:03And all this was, again, this was driven by the president's strategy.

01:07He and I had a long talk on Sunday.

01:09And this was his strategy all along.

01:12And that, you know, you might even say that he goaded China into a bad position.

01:20They responded.

01:21They have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors.

01:24And we are willing to cooperate with our allies and with our trading partners who did not retaliate.

01:33It wasn't a hard message.

01:35Don't retaliate.

01:36Things will turn out well.

01:37We've started with a 90-day pause.

01:39And we will see if more countries turn up, what will happen.

01:44But we have a meeting with Vietnam today.

01:48And we have one of the largest trade deficits with them.

01:51So I'm hoping it will move in a good direction.

01:55I was at the Japanese ambassador's house last night for the Cherry Blossom Festival, which is quite festive.

02:00And he and I had a good chat.

02:03They are going to send a deal team over.

02:06So we'll see.

02:07These are complicated negotiations.

02:08These are imbalances that have taken decades to create.

02:13But I think having seen the maximum level that Donald Trump is willing to go to,

02:20President Trump has created this negotiating leverage.

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