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CNBC
4 days ago
- Business
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First on CNBC: Excerpts: Chevron CEO Mike Wirth Speaks with CNBC's 'Squawk on the Street' Today
WHEN: Today, Friday, July 18, 2025 WHERE: CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with Chevron CEO Mike Wirth on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" (M-F, 9AM-11AM ET) today, Friday, July 18. Following is a link to video on All references must be sourced to CNBC. WIRTH ON HESS ACQUISITION MIKE WIRTH: We're very pleased that the transaction has now closed. Creates a premiere international oil and gas company with strongest upstream portfolio in the industry, highest cash margins on our upstream production, largest one of the largest producers both oil and gas in the United States. Largest leaseholder in the Gulf of America and industry leading free cash flow per share growth not just for the next couple of years, but into the next decade. So good for Chevron and also good for the industry. WIRTH: This took a long time. It's unfortunate that Hess has shareholders, and employees have been put through this for nearly two years on something where in our view, the outcome was never in doubt. This was plain reading of a contract and the arbitration panel saw it that way. This could have been resolved much more quickly. WIRTH ON CAPEX WIRTH: It strengthens long-term cash flows for our company. It deepens our already deep resource position. We've had a very consistent track record of dividend increases 38 consecutive years, where we increased our dividend payout, share repurchases 18 of the last 22 years, record share repurchases the last two years. This provides the cash flow that will continue to support that. And we've got a very strong balance sheet. We've got AA credit rating, low net debt and this just creates an even stronger foundation upon to continue that track record. WIRTH ON DEAL LOOKING BETTER WIRTH: The deal looks better today at any price assumption than it did when we went into the deal two years ago. Hess' business has performed better than we assumed at that time. We've got a very strong view now on synergies. We've been prepared to integrate this. We'll be cash flow per share accretive by the end of this year. We'll deliver $1 billion in run rate synergies by the end of this year. WIRTH ON PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENTS WIRTH: Everything from processing seismic data, which is massive volumes of data that we collect when we shoot 3D seismic that can take months and months for us to process. We're seeing the that processing time dramatically reduced and all the way through the life cycle of operations to retirement of assets. I think we'll see productivity improvements in efficiency improvements from technology that will be significant. WIRTH ON TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WIRTH: It's very different. We've got an administration that sees American energy as a resource, that wants to see investment in American energy, that wants to see American energy industry succeed. That is a big shift from where we've been. WIRTH ON SUPPLIERS AND TARIFFS WIRTH: The biggest challenge is in certain specialty inputs to our industry that are manufactured, and maybe 1 or 2 places in the world, and those tend to be outside of the US. It can raise the cost of those inputs. I think on a lot of the other inputs we've got over time, the ability to try to move sourcing to lower tariff countries or domestically sourced materials. But there are whether it's specialty grades of steel or specialty equipment, there are some things that we use in our industry that are made by 1 or 2 suppliers in the world. WIRTH ON TRADE DISCUSSIONS WIRTH: We've had long history in Indonesia. We've recently reduced our footprint over the last few years, but we work with the administration on a variety of things. Trade being one, AI, power for data centers being a second. So we're engaged in in discussions across the board. And I have to say this administration wants to hear from business. And whether it's the president himself or his cabinet secretaries, they proactively reach out and seek input on a regular basis. WIRTH ON ECONOMY BEING IN A SOLID POSITION WIRTH: I think the economy is in a solid position. And notwithstanding a lot of the uncertainty and some of the ups and downs that that we saw earlier this year, everything we see at a fundamental level remains very, very solid.
CNBC
15-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
CNBC Transcript: United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Speaks with CNBC's Brian Sullivan on 'Halftime Report' Today
WHEN: Today, Tuesday, July 15, 2025 WHERE: CNBC's "Halftime Report" Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on CNBC's "Halftime Report" (M-F, 12PM-1PM ET) today, Tuesday, July 15. Following is a link to video on All references must be sourced to CNBC. BRIAN SULLIVAN: Yes, we're here at the Senator David McCormick Innovation and Energy Summit at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. President Donald Trump is scheduled to be here later this afternoon to host a roundtable. You have got many companies here. You have got Amazon. You have got Alphabet. You have got BlackRock and many others. ExxonMobil is here as well, along with members of the Cabinet, including your next guest. That is the secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick. Secretary Lutnick, thank you for making some time with us here. I mean, what a hell of an event that has been put together in a very short amount of time. We did interview the secretary of energy, speaking to the secretary of the interior. What is commerce's role in the energy and A.I. infrastructure build-out? What do you -- where do you direct the money and the knowledge base in this scheme? U.S. COMMERCE SECRETARY HOWARD LUTNICK: So, the NIST is part of commerce, the National Institute of Standards and Technology. So the key is, we set the standards for A.I. So we have got the A.I. Standards and Innovation Institute as part of the Department of Commerce. So we're the driver of A.I. standards and also cryptography standards and also cyber standards. So those are the key pieces inside of Commerce. SULLIVAN: So, Commerce, and you will forgive my lack of knowledge about the inner workings— LUTNICK: Well, but you're with me now. So it's OK. SULLIVAN: I literally have no idea. I should -- our D.C. team probably understands this a lot better than I do. So you're setting the rules of the road that will also shape investment. LUTNICK: Correct. SULLIVAN: So, all the stuff they talk about on "Halftime Report" every day, all the companies in A.I., they're going to have to follow rules that you and your team are ultimately going to mold. LUTNICK: Correct. So we try to set the guardrails to make sure that the American standards are the standards the world uses, right? That's what we want. We want everyone to use our technology stack, our way of thinking about A.I. and let the world be balanced on ours. Now, really, it's a competition between the American standards and the Chinese standards. So we're out there working hard to make sure that our standards, our foundation, if you will, is what the world uses for A.I. SULLIVAN: Well, I'm watching CNBC, as well as being on CNBC, and I'm looking at Nvidia getting a deal to be allowed to sell certain chips and do more business into China. That's coming from this administration. Is that a change of heart? LUTNICK: Well, it's funny, because the Biden administration allowed China to buy these chips last year. So, then we held it up, and then, in the magnets deal with the Chinese, we told them that we would start to resell them. So, remember, these are an older chip. Biden had had them available, and we rethought it. But now that Nvidia came out with their newest chip -- you realize the newest chip is called the Blackwell. Then they have the H200 and H100. This is like the fourth one down. So the fourth one down, we want to keep China using it. We want to keep having the Chinese use the American technology stack because they still rely upon it. And that's key. So we try to play that balance. We don't sell them our best stuff, not our second best stuff, not even our third best. I think fourth best is where we have come out that we're cool. SULLIVAN: Well, fourth best has given the stock a 4.5 percent pop today and an over— LUTNICK: Well, they can sell a lot of those chips. SULLIVAN: Well, you got an over $4 trillion market cap, right, which then, when Nvidia rises, it's kind of the tide that lifts a lot of different boats. You look at the Nasdaq. It's up today. But some would argue, why are we giving China any access to chips? How do we square that? LUTNICK: So the idea is the Chinese are more than capable of building their own, right? So you want to keep one step ahead of what they can build so they keep buying our chips, because, remember, developers are the key to technology. You want the world's developers to use your tech. So Nvidia is driven to make sure all the developers of the world are still using their technology. So you want to sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack. And that's the thinking. Donald Trump is on it. He thinks about it. And we have designed the platform model with Nvidia. Remember, we talk to our companies. SULLIVAN: Yes. LUTNICK: The Biden administration sort of hated American companies, and the Trump administration loves them. SULLIVAN: You can't say that. LUTNICK: Oh, come on. They tried to break them up and all this sort of stuff. The Trump administration— SULLIVAN: There was lawsuits on Amazon -- Alphabet, but— LUTNICK: The Trump administration embraces technology companies and we want to work with them and understand them and help them succeed. SULLIVAN: Let's talk about permitting. We're going to hear from the secretary of the interior in "Power Lunch." I know that's not your purview. That's his. Permitting is everything, because you can get $20 billion invested in the data center here in Pennsylvania, but unless you have a power line to go from the power plant to the data center, it's worthless. So, when we look at permitting, we think, OK, we want to build power lines. That's steel, aluminum and copper. There's some new fears of tariffs on those exact things. Does that hurt or slow down our ability to invest in A.I. infrastructure if there are tariffs on the stuff we need to build that stuff? LUTNICK: So let's think steel for a minute. We have all seen a steel blast furnace. SULLIVAN: We are in Pittsburgh. I think it's fairly— LUTNICK: You know what a blast furnace looks like, right? SULLIVAN: Yes. LUTNICK: It looks like pouring molten lava, right? That's what -- right? You have to use so much power to melt that iron ore, right? And the Chinese and the Japanese and the Koreans give that power for free or virtually for free to their steel companies. And then they dump steel on us and put our domestic steel companies out of business. And that's what's happened for years and decades, to the point where if all you do is import steel and all you do is import aluminum and all you do is import copper, how are you going to fight a war? We need steel to be made domestically. And so Donald Trump is saying, I'm going to take that government subsidy off the table. I'm going to put tariffs in to make it equal, so Americans build steel here so that if we want to fight a war, we can make our own ships, our own missiles. And that's the key to Donald Trump's thinking, national security here on our shores. SULLIVAN: But it's not -- I mean, these are raw materials, right, and minerals. Like it's not just building it. It's about being able to mine it out and take out the iron ore, take out the stuff, the copper from the ground. LUTNICK: Oh, yes. We don't charge tariffs on the raw material. We charge a tariff on the finished good. SULLIVAN: Yes. LUTNICK: The whole idea is, you can bring in the dirt, if you will, but when you try to melt that dirt in a refinery and make a blast furnace, that is the output that we want to make sure we protect American— SULLIVAN: So, let's just -- let's role-play using like a fake example, because I don't want to talk about any specific companies. So let's say Sullivan Copper comes to Howard Lutnick and says, well, Mr. Secretary, I'd like to spend a billion dollars, open some new copper mines, but I got 10 years in the permitting line. LUTNICK: Oh, we have got to break that. SULLIVAN: I will spend the money. I will spend the money, but it's worthless. I can't -- you and I talked about this in Phoenix, Arizona, at TSMC a few months ago. LUTNICK: We have got to break it. We broke it. SULLIVAN: There is that logjam where it doesn't matter. We have $90 billion in commitments being made here at this thing, but none of that money will go anywhere if that last mile is not fixed. And that's all I hear from companies is that last mile is the problem. How do we solve that? LUTNICK: Well, President Trump is on it. That's why he talks about the EPA. That's why we talk about permitting and regulation. We're going to make sure that the states that embrace production now, now, during this Trump administration, they're the ones who are going to get the investment. And if you're playing an old school, slow-rolling everybody, then other states are going to be successful. So the key is -- you're right. We have got to get those permits out the door. But the key is onshore. SULLIVAN: Yes. LUTNICK: Get that investment here. And then those states are going to want it to work and they're going to clear the path. SULLIVAN: Let's talk about something, but I don't want you to tell anybody. It's just between you and I. LUTNICK: OK, just between you and me. SULLIVAN: All right, just between you and I. In the next hour, we're going to be speaking with the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, probably a front-runner for the 2028 nomination. Who knows? He's a Democrat. Don't tell anybody. But he's a Democrat. Is he on board? Is he playing? Are we able to cross party lines? Because energy and A.I., that should all be bipartisan, should it not? Shouldn't everybody want to win at A.I. for the United States, regardless of party affiliation? LUTNICK: Look, the Democrats tried to close ANWR. They closed ANWR, right, the big oil in Alaska that's ours. They closed -- they closed coal plants, right? They close them, whereas President Trump calls it what, clean, beautiful coal, right? We need -- we need power. We need investments. And we think everyone should be on board. And if a governor is not on board, he's going to hurt his state. He's going to hurt his employees. SULLIVAN: Is Pennsylvania on board? We're here. We're here at Carnegie Mellon. And it's a beautiful day. We're in Pittsburgh. Is -- steel, right? LUTNICK: They have got the tools. Pennsylvania's got the tools to win. SULLIVAN: Water? Power? LUTNICK: Does the governor drive that permitting to make people successful who want to invest here? The government -- a state government has got to make sure that they embrace Donald Trump's vision of onshoring, reshoring and building America. And if they don't, those companies are going to find a nice red state to invest in. SULLIVAN: Well, we are going to ask him in the next hour. That will be live. So Governor Shapiro will join us as well. LUTNICK: Pennsylvania's a red state. Don't forget. It went for Donald Trump. It went for Donald Trump. SULLIVAN: But it's a mix. It's got a Democratic governor and maybe the most important county in America, Erie, just north -- kind of go a little bit northwest-ish of here. We're going to hit that. Stock market, Mr. Secretary, keeps going up. It feels like the market's not believing that the worst of the tariffs is going to happen, something, again, you and I talked about in Phoenix and you have talked about on CNBC with others before. Is the market getting it right? Because a lot of investors are watching the market go up, up, up. LUTNICK: President Trump is smashing down the barriers that have held American business back for 80 years. Tariffs were on America. So when we tried to sell elsewhere, there were tariffs. And when they tried to sell here, no tariffs. So our industries went overseas. President Trump is reversing that trend, zero tariffs away. Those are the deals he's made. Vietnam, he announced Indonesia just this morning, no tariffs there. They pay tariffs here, switching the asymmetry our way. Let's bring industry back. And that's going to unleash our farmers, our ranchers, our fishermen, and our industries are going to blow out. And that is what the stock market understands. Donald Trump understands business in America. SULLIVAN: You said in Phoenix that we had -- you had a deal in your hand. You wouldn't tell us who. You wouldn't tell -- I tried, but you wouldn't tell me who the deal was with. Turns out it was with the U.K. Are you confident we can get these big, the big ones, the big deals done? LUTNICK: I have them done. The question is, President Trump drives the strongest bargain. He's the dealmaker. He makes the deals. This morning, he was on with the president of Indonesia, and he makes the deals. That's how this administration works. We let the greatest dealmaker who's ever been in that office, he makes the deals. SULLIVAN: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. "I have the deals done." I have a feeling that could move the -- I think that's going to move the market. LUTNICK: I'm good with that. SULLIVAN: We shall see. I know you have got a panel. The president's going to be here in a couple of hours. Still got a long way to go. Really appreciate your time today, sir. LUTNICK: Pleasure.
CNBC
09-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
CNBC Transcript: U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Speaks with CNBC's 'Power Lunch' Today
WHEN: Today, Tuesday, July 8, 2025 WHERE: CNBC's "Power Lunch" Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on CNBC's "Power Lunch" (M-F, 2PM-3PM ET) today, Tuesday, July 8. Following are links to video on and All references must be sourced to CNBC. DOMINIC CHU: President Trump's Cabinet meeting just ending moments ago. Tariffs were obviously a very key topic of conversation. So, joining us now is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who just came from that meeting. Secretary, Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. We saw a lot of the conversation that happened within that room, but we want to hear for the record from you, the commerce secretary, about just where you think we are with regard to trade negotiations as a whole as we approach that previously stated July 9 deadline for tariff deals. U.S. COMMERCE SECRETARY HOWARD LUTNICK: So, you saw 14 letters went out yesterday. You should expect another anywhere from 15 to 20 letters to go out over the next two days, really setting down tariff lines for the key, driving countries. And then we will set out a general letter to the balance, sort of setting out where they're going to be. The president is setting these tariff lines. The president is driving this agenda. This is his agenda. He knows how he wants to play it. And that's what's happening. So we will be setting those tariff rates, and then they go into effect on August 1. CHU: Secretary, Mr. Secretary, the president may be driving the entire negotiation and conversation, but that doesn't mean that folks like you and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent aren't out there trying to execute the plans, along with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. What do you get as a sense for how these negotiations are going with these multiple parties? Do we feel as though there's going to be a more long, drawn-out, contentious conversation, or do we feel like we're in the seven, eighth, or even ninth inning with many of these major counterparties? LUTNICK: Oh, we're definitely in the eighth or ninth inning with these counterparties. So what's happened is, many of these countries have made us offers to finally open their markets. You know, they just -- they go slowly, they go with it, and then, finally, they come to the table at the very end, and they start to open their market. And the key is, the president wants to balance our trade deficit with the fact that these countries are finally, finally opening their market. And if you have something like Vietnam where they say, OK, we will really open, open our markets, then the president decides, OK, this is the rate we will do. If you're really going to open your market to our farmers, to our fishermen, to our machines, to our tools, to all of these things going into their country, then, OK, if you're going to give our people that opportunity, I'm willing to cut that rate, which he did with -- obviously, he did it with the U.K. He's done it with Vietnam. My guess is, he will do it with a few other countries. But, basically, if they don't really open their market and they come with these half-baked or a little bit here and a little bit there, the president is saying, look, we have got these huge trade deficits. It's time for you to pay the tariff to trade with the United States of America. Unless you're really going to open, that's how it's going to be. KELLY EVANS: It's Kelly, Mr. Secretary. And I snapped to attention when I heard the president saying 50 percent tariffs on copper, 200 percent potentially on pharmaceuticals. As we understand it, those -- so, the Commerce Department looks through all those sectors, right, and then make your recommendation. How close to final would you say the recommendations in those two sectors are at this point for 50 percent and potentially 200 percent? LUTNICK: So, copper is finished. We have done with our study. We have handed the study over to the president. The president knows that he has the ability, since we have studied the market of copper, to set the market tariff for copper. He announced it today at the Cabinet meeting that he intends to go to 50 percent, which will be similar to steel and aluminum, which are both 50 percent, so copper will be 50 percent. And the idea is to bring copper home, bring copper production home, bring the ability to make copper, which is key to the industrial sector, back home to America. We need that kind of production in America. It's important. So that will be out today. You will see the president will TRUTH about it this afternoon, will sign a proclamation, as that goes through the ordinary legal process, within a day or two days. That will come out, but then copper will be set, likely to be put into place the end of July, maybe August 1. So that's copper. With pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, those studies are being completed at the end of the month. And so the president will then set his policies then. And I'm going to let him wait to decide how he's going to do it. He said, if you don't build in America, they're going to be a high rate. But he may consider that if you're building in America to give you the time to build. I think he mentioned that in the Cabinet meeting. Give you time to build, say a year, year-and-a-half, possibly even two years of building, and then the tariff will be much higher. But that – those details will come at the end of the month, and the president will set them. EVANS: Got it. Thank you. Thank you for the clarity on all of those fronts. Obviously, our audience is closely tuned into what's going to happen there. Also, on the case of China, I remember, when you talked to Brian Sullivan a little while ago, you said, look, like, that's squarely your kind of purview, your remit, figuring out that trade relationship. I'm left a little bit confused as to whether we have reached a trade deal or not. I think the president made some remarks in that direction in the past couple of weeks, but it was unclear what ended up happening. So with rare earths as well, there still seems to be a little bit of confusion on whether those rare earth magnets are coming in, in kind of decent amounts and everything there. Can you just bring us up to speed? What is the trade situation? And is that an open or closed negotiation at this point? LUTNICK: OK, so we are settled with a 30 percent increased tariff. And then, during President Trump's first term, he had a 25 percent tariff. So, on much of China, they're paying 55 percent. And, on the balance, they're paying 30 percent. And that's where we have settled things for the time being. Now, they have agreed to approve our licenses on rare earth magnets. And, to their credit, they have been doing it swiftly and expeditiously. We decided we were satisfied with the movement that they were making. And so we took down our countermeasures. We started shipping ethane and software products to them and airplane parts and things like, that we're sort of balancing our relationship between the two of us. But we're in a pretty good place now. I think we're going to meet in early August and we're going to start kicking off a bigger trade conversation between the two largest economies in the world, China and the United States of America. So that's going to be kicked off in early August with myself, Secretary Bessent and Ambassador Greer. We will all be going together. We will be meeting our counterparts from China. And we will have a bigger -- start the process of a bigger conversation. I think that's going to take some time. But at least we're beginning the process of having a bigger conversation. CHU: There's also -- there's also, Mr. Secretary, more of a conversation now built around the European Union. Our own Silvia Amaro out in Europe was speaking to some of the top diplomats out there. And she had made at least reference to this idea that they are saying progress is being made, that there is -- there's still a ways to go, but that there might actually be carve-outs or certain concessions there as you work towards an overarching trade deal with the European Union. Can you take us through how you feel those negotiations are going right now? It is a massively significant trade relationship. We're talking not just about beverage, alcohol and airplane and auto parts, but also many different goods that go between our countries and the bloc over there across the Atlantic. LUTNICK: So, Europe is our biggest trading partner, and we have a $235 billion trade deficit, meaning they sell us more than we sell them. And that's because they block us on cars and they block us -- they don't pay for pharmaceuticals. All those topics, we need to settle. And it wasn't going anywhere for a while. The president then put out a TRUTH that said, look, if you're not going anywhere, you can pay us 50 percent. Their leaders called President Trump and said, no, no, no, no, no, we will get down to brass tacks and do it. And then they started making us real offers. The European Union, to their credit, has now made significant, real offers, meaning we're going to take down our barriers, we're going to open our markets to American farmers, ranchers, fishermen, really open their markets, and let Americans, finally American entrepreneurial spirit finally get to sell to Europe. The president's got those deals on his desk and he's thinking about how he wants to play them. And this is very tricky, because they have a huge trade deficit. So they have got to pay, but they're really going to bat, trying to say, look, we want to open our markets to you. We want to create a more balanced and fair relationship. Please, Mr. President, think about it. And that's what's on his desk right now. And that's really, really tricky, but he's thinking about it. EVANS: Lastly, we have had a couple of people point out, as we put these tariff levels back on, should the markets be reacting the way they were on April 2? And maybe there will be a delayed reaction or maybe it's -- you know what I'm saying? Can you kind of wear a little bit of both of your hats here both as a market maker and also as somebody working on optimal policy theoretically? Do you expect any more weakness as we churn through the effect of what these higher tariffs now will be? And it's odd that we had a huge panic a couple months ago, and now we seem to be taking this in stride. LUTNICK: Well, I think the markets should be taking it in stride, because, remember, there was all that fear that, if you set tariffs, there would be inflation, which there obviously is not inflation. There would be -- this would happen. And, obviously, none of those things happened. You have the whole world paying 10 percent now, and China paying 30 percent additional, and what's happened to the world? Stock market reaching new highs, America taking in more than $30 billion a month in revenues. So the world's gotten comfortable with the fact that Donald Trump knows what he's doing and he's out to make a better deal for America than these horrible trade deals of the past. So that's where we are. I think what you will see is these countries come and open their markets to President Trump and say, will you make us a better deal if we open our market? The president's going to go country by country, decide. Even when he sets the letter, you have seen in the letter, he said, if you change the way you treat America, we will listen and we will think about it. EVANS: Right. LUTNICK: I think what you're going to see is, rates will be a little lower than they were on April 2 because these countries are opening their markets, and then some countries will come forward with such good deals that they will literally change their rate. But that's what we're doing every day. We're talking about the offers. We had piles of offers in his office on Monday, piles of offers, saying, what do you think of this offer? What do you think of that offer? What do you think of this offer? And the president's deciding what the rate is because he's called it dead right up until now. And I think he's got the bull by the horns. And America's going to be so much better off, hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars better off, per year. EVANS: Right. LUTNICK: So, if you wanted to bet on anything, you would bet on President Trump and you would bet on America. EVANS: And we will see if the market continues to agree with that as we get closer to August 1 and beyond. Secretary Lutnick, thanks for making the time and joining us after that meeting today. We appreciate it. LUTNICK: My pleasure. Good to see you
CNBC
03-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
CNBC Excerpts: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Speaks with CNBC's 'Money Movers' Today
WHEN: Today, Friday, July 3, 2025 WHERE: CNBC's "Money Movers" Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC's "Money Movers" (M-F, 11AM-12PM ET) today, Friday, July 3. Following are links to video on and All references must be sourced to CNBC. BESSENT ON POTENTIAL OF BILL PASSING SCOTT BESSENT: It's going to, going to pass. And my expectation is that we'll get a vote around 1:30 today. BESSENT ON TARIFFS BESSENT: What we've seen so far is that tariff, tariffs haven't hurt. The dog that didn't bark was that tariffs were going to hurt the economy, were going to hurt the markets. Market had the fastest recovery ever, ever from the low in April, from a 15% decline. And we're at new highs in the market. BESSENT ON VIETNAM TRADE BESSENT: I haven't spoken to Jamison Greer who's heading the team. My understanding is that it's finalized in principle. BESSENT: We've seen that a huge amount of the trade that comes from Vietnam is what's called transshipment from China. So we'll see what happens with the, with the transshipment and the businesses have already adjusted to a 10% tariff. So we'll see what happens with the additional ten. BESSENT ON NO INFLATION FROM TARIFFS BESSENT: Thus far, we haven't seen any inflation from tariffs. And again, I would say that tariffs are not inflationary. You could get a one-time price bump. But in terms of a generalized economic inflation, I don't think that tariffs cause that. BESSENT ON TRADE TALKS BESSENT: We are. Of course, everyone waits till the last minute. They think that they can get the best deal. And as I've warned, when I've done other media, these countries should be careful because their rate could boomerang back to their April 2nd rate. BESSENT ON ELON MUSK BESSENT: I have great respect for Elon on rockets. I will leave that to him. He can leave the finances to me.
CNBC
27-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
CNBC Transcript: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Speaks with CNBC's Morgan Brennan on 'Closing Bell: Overtime' Today
WHEN: Today, Friday, June 27, 2025 WHERE: CNBC's "Closing Bell: Overtime" Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC's "Closing Bell: Overtime" (M-F, 4PM-5PM ET) today, Friday, June 27. Following is a link to video on All references must be sourced to CNBC. MORGAN BRENNAN: Let's turn back to those trade headlines now, President Trump saying the U.S. is "immediately terminating all discussions on trade with Canada," in a surprise announcement, the president citing what he called the egregious digital services tax. Joining us now to discuss is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Mr. Secretary, it's great to have you on "Overtime." Welcome. TREASURY SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Morgan, good afternoon. BRENNAN: Let's start right there. What happened with Canada? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, we knew it was coming. We hoped they wouldn't do it. Canada has this digital services tax. And several other countries do too. We disagree, and we think that they discriminate against U.S. companies. But what Canada did here, as of Monday, they're going to implement a retroactive tax. And we think that -- we don't like the taxes. And, obviously, we think it's patently unfair to do it retroactive. This was something from the Trudeau years. So we were hoping, as a sign of goodwill, that the new Carney administration would at least put a brake on that during the trade talks. They seem not to have. President Trump has responded. And my inclination is that Ambassador Greer over at USTR will be starting a 301 investigation into the digital services taxes to determine the amount of harm to the U.S. companies and the U.S. economy in general. BRENNAN: Why is a Section 301 investigation the way to go? And what could that outcome potentially yield? Would that be broad-based, looking at Canada and the possibility of tariffs, or very targeted on certain industries? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, no, the president can impose tariffs based on IEEPA, which is an emergency economic powers act. The 301 is more durable and could last longer. BRENNAN: So, in terms of 301 being more durable and lasting longer, would this be more broad-based, looking across trade of goods and services with Canada more broadly, or would it be more targeted to certain industries? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: No, it would be targeted across tariffs on Canadian products. And, again, we will have to see. We know the amount. I think it's about $2 billion of retroactive digital taxes, which seem patently unfair. We had been talking to the administration in Ottawa about this, and they decided to go ahead with it. BRENNAN: The European Union is doing something very similar in terms of a digital services tax. How is that factoring into negotiations there? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Oh, well, no, that's not right. The European Union does not have a digital service tax. Several countries within the European Union have digital service taxes. None of them have done those retroactively. And we're in active discussions with them to take those down, because, again, who has the great Internet companies of the world? It's the United States of America. So it singles out our great American companies. BRENNAN: So, Canada, possible escalation, depending on how this plays out over coming days. De-escalation, though, and that was the news of the morning, with China. What are the details of this China trade agreement? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, it's a continuation of the Geneva agreement, and the centerpiece of it is that we agreed. And it's away from the tariff measures because the tariffs came down immediately after Geneva. Post-Geneva, we had an agreement with the Chinese government to start the flow of rare earth magnets again. They were not as forthcoming as we'd hoped that they would be. So the U.S. implemented non-tariff countermeasures against the Chinese government. We believe that the rare earth magnets are starting to flow again under a licensing agreement that, or a licensing regime that the Chinese government implemented on April 4. And when we are certain that the magnets are flowing again, we will drop our countermeasures. BRENNAN: So, a lot of speculation out there about whether this July 9 deadline for trade deals is a hard line or whether there's some flexibility. Is there flexibility? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Again, it's going to be up to President Trump. We're going to follow his lead. What I would think is going to happen is, there will be a lot of smaller trading partners. We will just send them letters. There will be a group of deals that we will land before July 9, on or about. And, as Secretary Lutnick said yesterday, he believes there are 10 or 12 of those. And then there are probably another 20 countries where they could go back to the reciprocal tariff of April 2 as we work on the deal, or, if we think that they are negotiating in good faith, then they could stay at the 10 percent baseline. So, there are a lot of moving pieces here. A lot of it is based on the consistency of the negotiations. And, again, it will all be up to President Trump. BRENNAN: Historically, trade deals have taken years sometimes to craft. It's incredible how quickly you're moving here, when you're talking about 10 waiting in the wings and perhaps another 20 behind that here in the next couple of weeks, just to put it in context. TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Yes. BRENNAN: Another thing that seems to be poised to move quickly here, at least in the next couple of days, is, the Republicans have reached a tentative deal regarding the state and local tax deduction, SALT. At least that's what we're hearing. That had been a sticking point. My colleague Emily Wilkins is reporting there are a few other key topics still being worked out, but can this big, beautiful bill make it to the president's desk by July 4? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: I think there's a very good chance. And the only way to get there is for the Senate to start voting this weekend. I think there, I was just with the Senate Republicans, and I think they're going to start voting tomorrow. BRENNAN: Do you see potential roadblocks here over the next week? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Look, nothing's done until it's done. But President Trump's leadership has gotten us here at what people thought the, would not be a possible date. Leader Thune, Speaker Johnson have done an incredible job of holding small majorities together and getting the bill moving forward. So, I'm optimistic we could have a July 4 signing. BRENNAN: What does the bond market need to understand about this bill, what it's going to mean for government spending and the debt load? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, again, it is the largest cut in discretionary spending in – or non – excuse me – nondiscretionary spending in history. And the other thing too is, what do we care about? We care about growth, we care about spending. So if we can stabilize the spending and up the rate of growth, then that's how we start stabilizing the debt-to-GDP, this terrible situation we had, the deficit-to-GDP, 6.7 percent. We'd never seen anything like this when we weren't at war or in a recession. So this was a peacetime deficit, so we are going to slowly bring that down in a methodical way, and we will stabilize the debt-to-GDP level and start bending the curve down. BRENNAN: Interest rates are still elevated, even as the dollar continues to weaken against other major currencies. Do these market moves concern you? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Which market moves? BRENNAN: What we're seeing in the dollar as it weakens and the fact that interest rates are still elevated here. TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, they – a couple of things there, Morgan, is, I'm not sure why it would concern me that it's natural for currencies to move around. I have traded currencies 35, 40 years. So currencies move up and down. The U.S. still has a strong dollar policy, and we're putting the economic factors in place to continue that. On the other hand, we are seeing for the first time, a real attempt at defense spending in Europe. We're seeing the Germans take off the debt brake. So more fiscal spend would tell you that the euro should appreciate. BRENNAN: If we stick with rates, and particularly here in the U.S., the Fed was slow to respond to spiking inflation a couple of years ago. We know the president's been very vocal in criticizing the Fed chair. Is it the president's concern that the Fed is behind the curve again? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, I – not my words, but the president's, he calls Chair Powell "Too Late Jay," and so he's obviously worried that the Fed's behind the curve again. And, Morgan, I would just point out that studies have shown that people who fall down then tend to look at their feet, which makes them fall down more. And the Federal Reserve fell down on the American people in 2022, let the great inflation get away from them. They should have been hiking sooner, so maybe that's what we're seeing here. BRENNAN: There's a lot of market chatter emerging right now about the possibility of a shadow Fed. How disruptive would the nomination of a new Fed chair this far out from the end of the term of the current one be for the market? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, look, I don't think anyone's necessarily talking about that. There will be two seats opening -- or there will be one seat definitely opening in the beginning of the year, when board member Kugler leaves, and then the chairmanship will open up in May, when Chair Powell leaves. So, Chair Powell doesn't have to leave. He could stay on the board, not as chair. So there is a chance that the person who is going to become the chair could be appointed in January, which would probably mean an October-November nomination. BRENNAN: Your name has been floated in some media reports as a possible replacement for Fed chair come next year. Your response? Is that a job you would consider taking? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Look, I will do what the president wants, but I think I have the best job in Washington. We're making meaningful change, working on the president's agenda every day. I get to work closely with the president. I think that, as I like to say, we have done peace deals, trade deals, and tax deals. We spent the first 100 days setting the table on those. Now we're going to be landing all those over the next 100 days. So I think that's going to be pretty exciting. BRENNAN: All three of those, we have been talking about this week. Finally, the idea, and I think this is really key -- and it kind of brings us back to the beginning of this conversation with trade and tariffs, but this idea of higher inflation tied to tariffs, case in point, this morning. We haven't really seen it show up in the hard data. The Fed and Wall Street economists think that that's something that's going to materialize this summer. How are you and the administration gaming this out and thinking about this inflation dynamic? TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT: Well, look, as you said, it hasn't played out, and we're seeing very low numbers. And forget imported inflation, because, if we were to get it from tariffs, which has not happened, it doesn't have to happen, that's a small part of the inflation calculations. What we're seeing is service inflation drop. I think we're going to see the rent component drop and the overall housing component, which is implied owner's rents, drop. So, the Fed's measure of supercore inflation is way down. PCE year over year is down. So, it looks like the trends are quite good. We're at a four-year low in gasoline prices, so we're going to have a great summer travel season. And, Morgan, one thing. I heard you talking with your colleague earlier, where they talked about the April tariff panic. So we found out today this episode from April 3 to today is the fastest bounce-back after a 15 percent decline in S&P history, fastest bounce-back ever. So, we, the administration doesn't look at the stock market every day. What we tried to do was set in place economic fundamentals. And, presumably, the market had a chance to digest the panic and is looking forward. So I think it is telling you that the tariff panic, or, as I like to call it, tariff derangement syndrome, was overdone. We're seeing earnings growth. We're seeing a good path for interest rates. So I think the economy is looking pretty good. BRENNAN: And all of that has led to stocks at record highs today. Secretary Bessent, Scott Bessent, U.S. Treasury Secretary, great to speak with you. We covered a lot there. I do hope you will come back and join me again. Thank you so much. BESSENT: Thank you.
