Bessent urges nations to accept US demands to avoid 'reciprocal' tariffs
Bessent spoke in an interview with CNN on Sunday before a pause to the tariffs expires on Wednesday. Trump unveiled the levies on April 2, but later mostly suspended them.
Bessent said the US is "close to several deals as always" and that he "would expect to see several big announcements over the next couple of days."
However, the secretary argued that "there's a lot of foot dragging on the other side." In a message to countries that had not yet struck deals with the US, he said: "If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to go back to the old rate, that's your choice."
Bessent also said, "President Trump's going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don't move things along, then on August 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level."
Trump announced on Friday that he had signed letters to be sent to 12 countries on Monday to notify them of the tariff rates they would face. He stated that the rates would range "from 60 or 70 percent to 10 or 20 percent."
Bessent said the US is also "going to send out probably 100 letters to small countries where we don't have very much trade." But he added that the US is concentrating on "18 important trading relationships that account for 95 percent of our deficit."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nikkei Asia
16 minutes ago
- Nikkei Asia
South Korea considers playing US tech card as tariff deadline nears
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. The latter wants more time for tariff negotiations. (Nikkei montage/Source photos by Reuters) KIM JAEWON SEOUL -- South Korea is trying to fend off U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff pressure and buy more time ahead of a key deadline by suggesting Seoul could soften plans to regulate U.S. tech companies. Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo, Seoul's point man for negotiations, said the export-driven economy would take a "flexible" approach to U.S. tech companies in ongoing tariff talks in a bid to protect its own manufacturers.
Asahi Shimbun
2 hours ago
- Asahi Shimbun
Stocks slip in Asia on U.S. tariff confusion, oil skids
SYDNEY--Stock markets slipped in Asia on Monday amid confusion as U.S. officials flagged a delay on tariffs but failed to provide much detail on the change, while oil prices slid as OPEC+ opened the supply spigots more than expected. The United States is close to finalizing several trade agreements in the coming days and will notify other countries of higher tariff rates by July 9, President Donald Trump said on Sunday, with the higher rates to take effect on August 1. 'President Trump's going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don't move things along, then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level,' U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN. Trump in April announced a 10% base tariff rate on most countries and higher 'reciprocal' rates ranging up to 50%, with an original deadline of this Wednesday. However, Trump also said levies could range in value from 'maybe 60% or 70%,' and threatened an extra 10% on countries aligning themselves with the 'Anti-American policies' of the BRICS group of Brazil, Russia, India and China. With very few actual trade deals done, analysts had always suspected the date would be pushed out, though it was still not clear if the new deadline applied to all trading partners or just some. 'This renewed escalation in trade tensions comes at a time when major trade partners, including the EU, India and Japan, are believed to be at crucial stages of bilateral negotiations,' analysts at ANZ said in a note. 'If reciprocal tariffs are implemented in their original form or even expanded, we believe it will intensify downside risks to U.S. growth and increase upside risks to inflation.' Investors have grown somewhat used to the uncertainty surrounding U.S. trade policy and the initial market reaction was cautious. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures both eased 0.3%. EUROSTOXX 50 futures eased 0.1%, while FTSE futures fell 0.2% and DAX futures held steady. Japan's Nikkei lost 0.5%, while South Korean stocks went flat. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.6%, as Chinese blue chips dropped 0.5%. DOLLAR MIXED Safe-haven bonds were better bid, with 10-year Treasury yields down almost 2 basis points at 4.326%. Major currencies were mixed as the dollar index nudged up to 97.071. The euro held at $1.1771, just off last week's top of $1.1830, while the dollar was a fraction firmer at 144.76 yen. The dollar has been undermined by investor concerns about Trump's often chaotic tariff policy and what that might do to economic growth and inflation. The same worries have kept the Federal Reserve from cutting rates and minutes of its last meeting should offer more color on when the majority of members might resume easing. It is a relatively quiet week for Fed speakers with only two district presidents on the docket, while economic data is also sparse. The Reserve Bank of Australia is widely expected to cut its rates by a quarter point to 3.60% at a meeting on Tuesday, the third easing this cycle, and markets imply an eventual destination for rates of 2.85% or 3.10%. New Zealand's central bank meets on Wednesday and is likely to hold rates at 3.25%, having already slashed by 225 basis points over the past year. In commodity markets, gold slipped 0.3% to $3,324 an ounce though it did gain almost 2% last week as the dollar fell. Oil prices slid anew after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, a group known as OPEC+, agreed on Saturday to raise production by a larger-than-expected 548,000 barrels per day in August. The group also warned that it could hike by a similar amount in September, leaving analysts with the impression it was trying to squeeze lower margin producers and particularly those pulling oil from U.S. shale. 'We see OPEC+ targeting Brent oil futures around $US60-65/bbl as a result,' said Vivek Dhar, an analyst at CBA. 'This would challenge the economics of U.S. shale oil supply growth and prevent non-OPEC+ supply growth from taking market share in coming years.' Brent dropped 52 cents to $67.78 a barrel, while U.S. crude fell $1.01 to $65.99 per barrel.
Japan Times
2 hours ago
- Japan Times
Investors head into Trump tariff deadline benumbed and blase
Global investors are heading into U.S. President Donald Trump's Wednesday deadline for trade tariffs palpably unexcited and prepared for a range of benign scenarios that they believe are already priced in. Just days before the end of a 90-day pause he announced on his April 2 "Liberation Day" tariffs, Trump said the first batch of letters outlining the tariff levels they would face on exports to the United States would be sent to 12 countries on Monday. Investors who have been tracking this date for months expect more details to emerge in the coming days and protracted uncertainty too, anticipating Trump will not be able to complete deals with all of America's trading partners in the coming week. And they are not overly concerned. "The market has gotten much more comfortable, more sanguine, when it comes to tariff news,' said Jeff Blazek, co-chief investment officer of multi-asset at Neuberger Berman in New York. "The markets think that there is enough 'squishiness' in the deadlines — absent any major surprise — to not be too unsettled by more tariff news and believe that the worst-case scenarios are off the table now.' Both the tariff levels and effective dates have become moving targets. Trump said on Friday that tariffs ranging up to 70% could go into effect on Aug. 1, levels far higher than the 10% to 50% range he announced in April. So far, the U.S. administration has a limited deal with Britain and an in-principle agreement with Vietnam. Deals that had been anticipated with India and Japan have failed to materialize, and there have been setbacks in talks with the European Union. World stocks are meanwhile at record highs, up 11% since April 2. They fell 14% in three trading sessions after that announcement but have since rallied 24%. "If Liberation Day was the earthquake, the tariff letters will be the aftershocks. They won't quite have the same impact on markets even if they are higher than the earlier 10%," said Rong Ren Goh, a portfolio manager in the fixed income team at Eastspring Investments in Singapore. "This financial system is so inundated with liquidity that it is hard to cash up or delever at the risk of lagging the markets, with April serving as a painful reminder for many who derisked and were then forced to chase the relentless recovery in the subsequent weeks." Shipping containers in Oakland, California, on May 12 | REUTERS Investors have also been distracted by weeks of wrangling in the U.S. Congress over Trump's massive tax and spending package, which he signed into law on Friday. Stock markets have celebrated the passage of the bill, which makes Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent, while bond investors are wary the measures could add more than $3 trillion to the nation's $36.2 trillion debt. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes closed at record highs on Friday, notching a third week of gains. Europe's STOXX 600 benchmark is up 9% in three months. But the risks of tariff-related inflation have weighed on U.S. Treasurys and the dollar, and jostled expectations for Federal Reserve policy. Rate futures show traders no longer expect a Fed rate cut this month and are pricing in a total of just two quarter-point reductions by year-end. The dollar has suffered a knock to its haven reputation from the dithering on tariffs. The dollar index, which reflects the U.S. currency's performance against a basket of six others, has had its worst first half of the year since 1973, declining some 11%. It has fallen by 6.6% since April 2 alone. "The markets are discounting a return to tariff levels of 35%, 40% or higher, and anticipating an across-the-board level of 10% or so,' said John Pantekidis, chief investment officer at TwinFocus in Boston. Pantekidis is cautiously optimistic about the outlook for U.S. stocks this year, but the one variable he is watching closely is interest rate levels. For now he expects to see interest rates dip in the second half, "but if the bond market worries about the impact of the bill and rates go up, that's a different scenario.'
