Scott Bessent Asked About Trump's Plan To Hike Tariffs On 150 Countries If They Do Not Reach Deal

On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper about President Trump's tariff policies.

Transcript

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.