Trump Will Enforce Tariff Threats If Countries Don’t Negotiate In ‘Good Faith,’ Bessent Says
President Donald Trump will impose tariffs at the levels he threatened last month on trading partners that don’t negotiate in “good faith” on a deal, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a television interview Sunday.
He did not say what he meant by “good faith” negotiations or clarify the timing of announcing any decision to return a country to the tariffs Trump initially imposed on April 2.
Trump has changed course repeatedly since then, most notably on April 9, when he lowered his tariffs on most imports to 10% for 90 days to give negotiators time to work out deals with other countries. He separately lowered tariffs on Chinese goods to 30%. On Friday, he reiterated that his administration would send letters notifying countries of their tariffs.
On Sunday, Bessent said the administration was focused on its 18 most important trading relationships and that the timing of any deal would also depend on whether countries were negotiating in good faith, with letters being sent to those that were not.
"That means they're not negotiating in good faith. They're going to get a letter saying, 'Here are the tariffs.' So I hope everybody will come and negotiate in good faith," he told NBC News' "Meet the Press."
He added that countries that were notified would likely see their tariffs go back to the levels they were set on April 2.
Asked when a trade deal could be announced, Bessent separately told CNN's "State of the Union" program: "Again, it's going to depend on whether they're negotiating in good faith." "My other sense is that we're going to do a lot of regional deals — these are tariffs for Central America. These are tariffs for this part of Africa," he added.
Trump’s ongoing trade war has severely disrupted global trade flows and roiled financial markets as investors grapple with what Bessent called the Republican president’s “strategic uncertainty” in his efforts to reshape economic relationships in the U.S.’s favor.
Companies of all sizes have been rattled by Trump’s rapid tariffs and abrupt reversals as they try to manage supply chains, production, staffing and prices. Congress is also grappling with the tariffs as it considers revenue and tax cuts in its spending bill.
Walmart (NYSE:WMT), the world’s largest retailer, said last week that it would have to start raising prices in late May because of the high cost of tariffs, prompting Trump to lash out at the company for blaming the hikes on its trade policies.
“Between Walmart and China, as they say, they should ‘TAKE THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge their valued customers ANY,” Trump wrote online Saturday. Bessent said he spoke with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on Saturday and that the company would absorb some of the tariffs. Representatives for the retailer declined to comment.
"Walmart, in fact, will ... absorb some of the tariffs," Bessent told NBC. "I'm not putting any pressure on it."
Source: Investing.com
