close
close
Trump Live Updates: Mark Carney Meeting, Houthis announcement and more

Trump Live Updates: Mark Carney Meeting, Houthis announcement and more

by

Finance Minister Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that there was no movement in the patient situation of trade talks with China.Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times

Finance Minister Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that the United States could already announce trade agreements with large trading partners this week that negotiations with China have not started the tariffs.

The comments came when Mr. Bessent testified in front of a house committee and asked questions about the state of the US economy and the trade agenda of President Trump. The tariffs of Mr. Trump in China and countries around the world have prompted economists to reduce their growth forecasts and to warn of a new inflation, but Mr. Bessent argued that the measures would ultimately cause other countries to reduce their trades.

“I assume that we have a significant reduction in the customs duties we defend as well as non-tariff obstacle manipulation and subsidies for both work and the capital investment,” said Bessent.

The finance minister said that many trading partners had already contacted the United States with appealing offers. However, there was no movement in the patient situation about conversations with China.

“China, we have not yet dealt with negotiations,” said Bessent.

The Trump government is negotiating with 17 other large trading partners, and Mr. Bessent said that these talks could be completed by the end of the year. Some agreements could be announced in the coming days, he said.

Negotiations began last month after Mr. Trump imposed a universal tariff of 10 percent on imports from all countries and additional tariffs, which he described as “mutual” for dozens of them. These additional tariffs were carried out during the negotiations.

It was not clear whether the trade agreements would be formal pacts or statements of mutual understanding of revised trade conditions.

Mr. Bessent tried to ward off the criticism of Mr. Trump's trade policy and to defend the tariffs as needed. “We are aiming for fair trade to bring back highly paid precision workplaces to the USA,” he told the legislators.

Mr. Bessent also dismissed forecasts that pointed out that the country headed for a recession. He said that the business data did not indicate that the economy had merged, and he predicted that the disappointing growth data would be revised in the first quarter.

Leave a Comment