Trump's Negotiators Say Talks Will Continue After Tariffs Hiked Aug. 1
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking on CNBC, did not say for sure that tariffs will go up on Aug. 1 on trading partners, but said, "I would think that a higher tariff level will put more pressure on those countries to come with a better agreement."
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Bessent, who was speaking July 21, said, "We are more concerned with high-quality deals than getting these deals by August 1. We're not going to rush for the sake of doing deals."
The day before, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, on "Face the Nation," was more definitive that the tariffs will not be delayed again.
"So, on August 1, the new tariff rates will come in. But nothing stops countries from talking to us after August 1, but they're going to start paying the tariffs on August 1," he said.
Lutnick told the show's host that the 10% tariff in place for most countries now will not be negotiated away in exchange for market opening -- and that "the small countries, the Latin American countries, the Caribbean countries, many countries in Africa, they will have a baseline tariff of 10 percent."
"And then the bigger economies will either open themselves up or they will pay a fair tariff to America for not opening themselves up and treating America unfairly," Lutnick said.
He predicted that there would be more than $300 billion in export opportunities as a result of the deals trading partners offer.
He also complained that Canada does not offer fair trade.
"Canada is not open to us. They need to open their market. Unless they're willing to open their market, they're going to pay a tariff. That's a simple message the president has," he said.
According to a Canadian professor interviewed by the Ontario-based news outlet Windsor Star, before Canada hit back over fentanyl tariffs on its goods, 99.4% of U.S. exports outside of agriculture entered duty-free, and 97.2% of ag exports were duty-free.
Canada has tariff rate quotas on dairy, eggs and poultry; the U.S. argues that Canada didn't liberalize the TRQs on dairy products as it promised in the NAFTA renegotiation. But dairy exports to Canada were more than $1 billion duty-free last year, within the TRQs. Dairy exports to Canada before the renegotiation of NAFTA were $619 million, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Lutnick said the U.S. would renegotiate USMCA in July 2026, to change the auto trade.
President Donald Trump "doesn't want cars built in Canada or Mexico, when they could be built in Michigan or ... Ohio," he said.
The host said that the EU's trade negotiator exited the last meeting with Lutnick "kind of downbeat."
She asked: "You think we are going to get a deal with the European Union?"
Lutnick replied, "I was on the phone with the European trade negotiators this morning, about a half-hour ago. So there's plenty of room.
"Look, the president and the European Union, these are the two biggest trading partners in the world talking to each other. We will get a deal done. I am confident we will get a deal done, OK? And it will be great for America because the president has the back of America."
Bessent was less sanguine, though he said "it doesn't have to get ugly" with the EU retaliating after the U.S. hikes tariffs again.
He said the country that exports more "feels it more" when tariffs are hiked.