Trump to Cut Tariffs on Beef, Tomatoes, Coffee to Lower Prices

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00:00We want to take a look at the big picture now when it comes to policy out of Washington and

00:04bring in Josh Wingrove. He is our senior White House correspondent and he joins us now from

00:09the White House. And Josh, there's any number of directions we can go in here, particularly when

00:13it comes to the latest on the Jeffrey Epstein drama and the story there. But I want to start

00:18on tariffs and specifically how the U.S. government is now carving out some tariff exclusions

00:24because they need to address this affordability crisis that became very acute after the election

00:29results came out. Josh, what are you seeing? Yeah, we're told the president will sign an order

00:35today eliminating tariffs or reducing them at least. It's a little unclear on food products

00:40in particular that the U.S. either does not make at all or doesn't make enough of. Beef, coffee,

00:45bananas, tomatoes are among that list, we're told. My colleague Adriana and I just have a story on the

00:51terminal shortly about this. Speaking of all the things we could talk about today, forgive me if

00:55you hear a lot of sound behind me. The president is currently blaring a playlist on the Rose Garden

00:59and you could hear it all through the compound. What's the song that's playing right now?

01:03That's a good question, but we just got off Phantom before this. So, you know, he's, he's, he's,

01:07he's, he's, you know, he's signed up. I know he takes a lot of pride in that playlist.

01:11Yes, exactly. So this is obviously, look, the president, the administration is going to say

01:16that this is always part of the plan. There have always been exclusions. Jameson Greer,

01:19the U.S. trade representative, told us that earlier today here at the White House. It is also,

01:23of course, an acknowledgement that tariffs have an impact on the price of things,

01:27which Trump has downplayed throughout his tariff campaign. And so it is in some ways,

01:31at least a tacit sort of retreat or withdrawal. What is, I think, important and clear, or will

01:36become clear, and we just don't know right now, is how many of these exclusions apply to countries

01:40that have deals and how many are just to countries that don't. And if it don't, then that, I think,

01:46is more of a step back on the part of the administration. Whereas if they're just confining it

01:51to countries that have reached agreements, for instance, they announced four just last night,

01:56then that, you know, is maybe a bit more of a narrow action. So we just don't know the scope.

01:59We don't know what number of foods. We don't know whether the tariffs are simply being eliminated

02:03on them. You know, we just don't know what countries. A lot up in the air, but we're told

02:08as the president is signing it today, so we expect some details here pretty shortly.

02:12Josh, keeping with this tariff theme, of course, we do know news came out that the U.S. and Switzerland

02:16did reach a preliminary trade agreement to lower tariffs on many Swiss goods, including watches,

02:22from 39% to 15%. That sounds like a big drop to me here. Talk to us about the developments here

02:29between the U.S. and Switzerland. Yeah, and Liechtenstein, let's not leave them out of the

02:33party. Big deal with both of them. This has been in the works for quite some time. The Swiss were hit

02:38with a pretty high rate and argued that that was because of some weird distortions in the data and

02:43how trade is recorded, including flow of gold. And so they've been sort of clamoring to be treated the

02:48same as the EU. That's what this deal essentially, give or take, does. Treat them the same as the EU

02:54with a 15% rate. The flip side is the Swiss are agreeing to a $200 billion investment pledge over

03:01five years, $67 billion of it or one third in the next year here in the U.S. That follows models similar

03:07to what we saw, for instance, with the Japanese and Koreans. So they get a deal that they've been

03:11waiting for for a long time. Trump gets to, you know, boast about these pledged increased Swiss

03:17investments. But that really, that was sort of one of the sore thumb trade deals that came out with

03:21with the early math on how Trump calculated his tariffs. And I think is a signal on how

03:25a lot of this is really sort of still evolving, really. But between that and the deals announced

03:30last night, including with Argentina, but also some other Central American and South American

03:34countries, they're sort of starting to check off a lot of the list. And it will raise, you know,

03:40attention on the other countries, which is starting to be kind of a dwindling number for which Trump

03:44has not made a deal. India, for sure, is one of them. Canada and Mexico are sort of in a different

03:49bucket, but we're watching those as well. So he's trying to sort of, you know, knock these off. But

03:53the Swiss one is a big one. Yeah, I'm so glad you mentioned the countries that we don't have deals

03:57with, because I think about Canada and Mexico, they're our biggest trading partners, and we still

04:01haven't hammered out final details with them. Are there talks scheduled? My Canadian family do not

04:07let me forget it. Yeah, I'm sure. Every weekend. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot right now for Canada.

04:13Yeah, I think with Canada and Mexico, they're in a different bucket because they have that USMCA

04:16carve out. Trump doesn't like the word exclusion, but that's what it is. And so I think there's

04:21genuine conversation going on in both countries about how loud to complain, you know, because

04:25they have one of the lowest total average effective tariff rates in the world by merit of the fact that

04:30so much of the trade is simply not paying a tariff at all. So those two are in their own bucket.

04:34And we'll see where they go. Right now, there's really not a lot of momentum at all in either

04:38country for negotiations. This might just get rolled up in the USMCA conversation in the months

04:44and years to come. On the other countries, India, that has been a tough one to track. It was the

04:48first country that they announced trade progress with, and they just simply haven't gotten there.

04:52So I think it's anyone's guess where it'll go. The Swiss thing, I should give a shout out to our

04:56colleagues at Bloomberg in Switzerland. We scooped this story a few days ago that they were nearing the

05:00deal. We asked the president about it, and he dunked on me for asking all kinds of Swiss

05:04questions. But there was a reason, Mr. President. That's why we're here on the cusp of a deal

05:09for it. He asked whether I was buying Rolexes, and I cannot afford a Rolex. I don't know about

05:14everyone else, but I wish you well.

05:15You're right.

05:20So

05:22that's why I do.

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