On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper about President Trump's tariff policies.
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00:00Let's turn to trade, because that's obviously where there's been a lot of focus.
00:04President Trump just put 150 countries on notice that their tariffs are about to go higher in the next few weeks
00:09if they don't reach a trade deal with the U.S.
00:11How exactly will you decide what those new tariff rates will be?
00:15Will they be what was previously announced on April 2nd, so-called Liberation Day?
00:19And when will they actually go into effect?
00:21So, Jake, we have a 90-day pause.
00:24There are 18 important trading partners, probably another 20 strong relationships.
00:31President Trump has put them on notice that if you do not negotiate in good faith,
00:37that you will ratchet back up to your April 2nd level.
00:42So the 90-day pause isn't just China? It's everybody?
00:45No, the 90-day pause was put on about a week after April 2nd.
00:51Oh, that first 90-day pause.
00:52The first 90-day pause.
00:54And I can tell you that with a few exceptions, the countries are coming with very good proposals for us.
01:02And I look at these proposals, and they want to lower their tariffs.
01:06They want to lower their non-tariff barriers.
01:09Some of them have been manipulating their currency.
01:11They've been subsidizing industry and labor.
01:14And I look at these proposals, and I think these are excellent proposals, but I wonder, how did we get here?
01:22How did the previous administrations allow this to happen to the American people?
01:26So 150 countries have been put on notice.
01:29How many deals do you think you're going to be able to announce, and how quickly?
01:32Well, again, it will depend on whether they're negotiating in good faith.
01:38And there are a lot of smaller trading relationships that we can just come up with a number.
01:46My other sense is that we will do a lot of regional deals.
01:51This is the rate for Central America.
01:54This is the rate for this part of Africa.
01:56But what we are focused on right now are the 18 important trading relationships.