00:00Here with me now is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Thank you so much for being here. I very much appreciate it. I want to start with what President Trump said on social media, that there was much agreed to in negotiations on Saturday. What were some of the things that they agreed on in these talks in Switzerland?
00:20Well, first, I just have to wish you a happy Mother's Day. Thank you. What a great day to be alive. And I want to wish my wife a happy Mother's Day as well. The team is in Switzerland meeting with their counterparts from China. And they are hard at it. There's a lot to accomplish. There's both a lot to take care of and get off the table. And they're working hard at it. At the end of the day, they felt good. The president felt good. And I'm going to leave it to them.
00:49But it felt good yesterday. The president tweeted that out and truthed that out. But things feel really good.
00:56Well, he said even more than that, as you saw, the president said there was a total reset. So did something fundamentally change? Or is he sort of saying that to try to encourage the talks to continue?
01:11Well, I'm leaving it to the trade team. You know, they're there right now. They're in the room right now. So I'm just going to leave it to them to take care of that themselves.
01:19But they felt good yesterday. And that was really uplifting. I mean, what a day yesterday. I mean, ceasefire in India and Pakistan. I mean, how wonderful is that?
01:30Think of the lives that the United States, J.D. Vance and Senator Marco Rubio got involved. The president was involved.
01:37I mean, how wonderful to cause a ceasefire all the way on the other side of the world. Wonderful, wonderful day for Mother's Day.
01:44Yeah, definitely a lot going on. Just one other question. And I completely understand where you are, that it's the secretary of the Treasury who is over there.
01:54But do you have any sense, I know you're in touch with them, if China has made any concessions?
02:01Really, I want to leave it to the team to take care of that. I mean, this is really important for the United States. It's really important to China.
02:08Let's let the team take care of that. And they're hard at it right now. And everybody's rooting for them from both sides.
02:15But I think we're optimistic that things will work out well.
02:19OK. As the secretary of commerce, I do want to ask about the fact that there are no ships carrying goods from China bound for the West Coast right now.
02:29President Trump said earlier this week that drops in imports is actually a good thing because it's going to affect people's wallets and jobs.
02:39Well, he said it's a good thing because it shows that the imports are, that the tariffs are working.
02:44But in reality, it's going to affect people's wallets and jobs, truck drivers, port workers, American consumers.
02:51So my question for you is, how is that a good thing?
02:56Well, I think the point that the president makes with his tariffs is that America has a $1.2 trillion trade deficit.
03:05That means other people are selling us goods that more than we are selling them.
03:12And that's just not balanced. It's not fair.
03:14We're losing $1.2 trillion a year of which directly and indirectly to China, that's about a trillion dollars.
03:22You know, China sells goods to Vietnam. Vietnam repackages them and sells them to us.
03:28So the idea is the president wants balanced and fair trade and tariffs are the tool to create balanced and fair trade.
03:36It's just unsustainable for $1.2 trillion to be exported to the rest of the world, meaning our money is going to the rest of the world.
03:45It's building them up.
03:47And over time, it's taken us down.
03:49And the president's here to fix it.
03:51So that's what he's trying to do with his tariffs.
03:54And I understand what you're talking about with regard to sort of economic policy.
03:59But there's economic policy and then there's how people in the United States actually feel and the immediate effect on them.
04:06So just to be clear, are you saying that ultimately fixing what the president sees as a problem, which you just described,
04:14is going to mean that the American people, whether they work at a port or whether they're truck drivers or whether they're consumers,
04:21they're just going to have to suffer in the short term, maybe even longer?
04:26No, no, no.
04:26Let's take a look at the U.K. deal we did on, we announced on Thursday, right?
04:31We opened the pot, the opportunity for Americans to export to the United Kingdom $5 billion more than they've ever had the right before.
04:54So the idea for the president is, look, we published our rates on Liberation Day.
05:00Negotiate with us, bring those rates down by opening your markets to Americans who can export.
05:06So what's going to happen is we're going to have imports.
05:09Of course, our ports, we are the consumer of the world.
05:13I mean, we consume $20 trillion with the stuff.
05:17But that is stopping now.
05:19The world wants to sell us stuff.
05:20But it's not happening right now because of the president's tariff policies.
05:24No, no, no.
05:25It's only stopping, look, we are in a negotiation with China.
05:30We agree.
05:31We're in, it has stopped 145% on China.
05:34Of course that stops it.
05:36But that, they're negotiating that right now.
05:39That, we are optimistic that that will open.
05:41But what the president's tariff policy is, is let's open all the markets in the world that have been closed to us.
05:49Let's get that opportunity for Americans to export to them.
05:53Let's really, really help Americans export.
05:55And, of course, those people who import are going to have great businesses.
06:00We are the greatest economy in the world.
06:02Everybody wants to come here.
06:03As the president likes to say, everybody likes to shop here with our consumers.
06:08And it's going to work out great.
06:10This, the U.K. shows you how great it can really be.
06:15Yeah.
06:15But as you well know, because you worked on the U.K. deal, which I'll get to in one second,
06:19that's a very different kettle of fish than China and even some of the other countries that I know that you are trying to deal with directly.
06:28So, when it comes to, again, I'm talking about American jobs and American consumers in the short term.
06:36We're heading into the summer.
06:38And it could mean, tell me if this is wrong, that a lot of the goods that Americans are used to either buying or, you know, getting easily will either be more expensive or hard to get.
06:53We're talking about beach chairs, swimsuits, picnic supplies, fireworks.
06:56Is this something that Americans just need to understand is going to be harder to buy?
07:03Well, I think, look, the Chinese and our representatives are meeting now.
07:10So, you know, let's just leave what's possible with China to what happens on Monday, Tuesday, and next week.
07:17But the rest of the world is open for business, right?
07:19Remember, we have a low tariff on the rest of the world while we negotiate.
07:23But our expectation is that these countries are going to open their markets.
07:28Their tariffs are going to come down.
07:30The ability for us to export and grow our economy is going to be better than ever before.
07:35That's why President Trump talks about a golden age.
07:38Of course all these countries are going to come and sell their products to us.
07:42Of course we're going to have our shelves full of wonderful products made around the world.
07:46But we're going to make sure on their shelves that American products are finally given the fair treatment that they deserve.
07:54And I think what people forget is that we have been locked out of economy after economy after economy after economy.
08:01And President Trump is going to break down those barriers and let us sell.
08:05Imagine this.
08:06If we can let other countries accept our standards, then our small businesses can sell online to foreign purchasers.
08:17Imagine we're not allowed to do that now.
08:19It's just not fair trade.
08:22And President Trump is on trying to make it fair trade.
08:25You mentioned the U.K. agreement.
08:28You were the lead negotiator there, aside from the president, of course.
08:33And it does, you mentioned some of the aspects of it.
08:36But one other aspect is that it keeps in place a 10% across the board tariff on goods imported to the U.S. from the U.K.
08:44As you know, the cost of tariffs are paid by American consumers.
08:48We've been talking about this.
08:49So should Americans be prepared?
08:51Well, I disagree with that, you know.
08:53Well, okay.
08:54But many, most economists, I would say, disagree with you on that.
09:00And we have seen it being passed off time and time again to the American consumer.
09:05But regardless of that, just on the policy, this is what I want to ask you about.
09:09Is the 10% tariff that we're seeing in the framework for the U.K.
09:14going to be in place for the foreseeable future?
09:19So we do expect a 10% baseline tariff to be in place for the foreseeable future.
09:24But don't buy the silly arguments that the U.S. consumer pays.
09:29Businesses, their job is to try to sell to the American consumer.
09:34And domestically produced products are not going to have that tariff.
09:39So the foreigners are going to finally have to compete.
09:43They're going to have to compete.
09:44What happens is the businesses and the countries primarily eat the tariff.
09:48Look, we have 25% tariffs that were set under President Trump's first term.
09:55I don't hear a single word, not a single word about those tariffs.
10:00No consumers in America.
10:02Those were set in 2017 and 2018.
10:05No consumers in America sit here complaining about those tariffs.
10:09What happens is the currencies set it.
10:11Prices have gone up for lots of reasons.
10:13Oh, no, no, no.
10:15Don't talk about the Biden inflation.
10:17That's another whole gig.
10:19When we left, when President Trump in 2019 had the lowest inflation in history.
10:24So you know that this works really, really well.
10:28It works well.
10:29These countries and the businesses have to compete.
10:32They have to cut prices.
10:33You've seen it.
10:34The Asians have said they're not raising their prices.
10:37So who's paying those tariffs?
10:39The governments and the companies.
10:41They want to compete in the greatest store in the world.
10:43But you will know that company after company, business after business have said that they're
10:49going to pass it off to the consumer.
10:51I want to ask, because you are working on other deals, of course, many of them outside
10:55of what has happened and is happening with the UK.
10:59Is that 10% tariff kind of a baseline in the way you're approaching these other countries
11:04that you're negotiating with?
11:07Yes, we will not go below 10%.
11:10That is just not a place we're going to go.
11:12We will, country by country, address their particular issues.
11:18So, for instance, with steel and aluminum and aircraft parts, we said those could come
11:23into the country tariff-free, right?
11:26So Rolls-Royce engines could go on a Boeing jet that Boeing sells.
11:30And, of course, you saw that Boeing announced a $10 billion deal to sell those Boeing aircraft
11:35with Rolls-Royce engines to British Airways.
11:38So that's an example how we're going to be flexible and we're going to be super smart country by country.
11:46But at least you saw the rates that were published on Liberation Day.
11:50Those countries can take those rates down if they open their markets to Americans to export.
11:56Let Americans get their stuff on these foreign governments and foreign consumer shelves.
12:03And we'll be better as a country.
12:05I think what's happened is we just have never felt the fairness of our ability to export.
12:11Finally, the President of the United States is on our side.
12:14And that's what you're going to see in the U.K. and then country after country.
12:19We're going to announce, like we did with the U.K., how many tens of billions of dollars of new opportunity
12:25the President is negotiating for American small businesses and medium-sized businesses
12:30to sell their products overseas.
12:33That's the golden age that's coming.
12:35And everybody else is going to build in America to get around that tariff.
12:38Remember, there's no tariff if you build it in America.
12:42The entire world is hoping that what you are saying does come true and waiting for the next step.
12:49I also want to wish your wife a happy Mother's Day for kids.
