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AsianFin -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned in interviews on Sunday that the Trump administration would resume its higher reciprocal tariffs on trading partners if they fail to make trade deals within the 90-day period of tariff pause.
Trump has put them on notice that if you do not negotiate in good faith, you will ratchet back up to your April 2 level,” said Bessent, without specifying how fast the tariff rates could return the planned reciprocal level that the White House unveiled on April 2, a date U.S. President Donald Trump proclaimed “Liberation Day”.
Bessent also said the U.S. is focusing on 18 “important” partners to solidify deals with, while for “a lot of smaller trading relationships that we can just come up with a number.”
On NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday, Bessent reiterated countries could face a return to reciprocal tariff levels if they fail to negotiate in “good faith” with the U.S.
Asked about if Trump’s recent remarks implying countries should expect a letter from Bessent about their respective tariff rate means negotiations with these countries are over, and how high should they expect tariffs to go above 10%, Bessent replied: "This means if they're not negotiating in good faith, they are going to get a letter saying, here is the rate. So, I would expect that everyone would come and negotiate in good faith."
"Well, I think that it would be the April 2 level. Some countries were at 10 percent; some were substantially higher," Bessent said when pressed if he expected the rate to be more than 10%. "If you don't want to negotiate, then it will spring back to the April 2 level," he added.
Trump on Friday said he would set tariff rates for other countries “over the next two to three weeks”, and Bessent and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would send letters to these nations “telling people what they will be paying to do business in the United States.”
Trump didn’t tell which countries would receive letters about his proposed tariff rates and which would have the opportunities to start negotiations, but stated there are 150 countries seeking to make a deal. "I guess you could say they could appeal it, but for the most part I think we're going to be very fair. But it's not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us," said the president.
The following is the agenda of the NEX-T Summit 2025 and the lineup released on Wednesday:
Sept. 27, 8:00 a.m. (PST) – Conference Check-in
9:00 a.m. (PST) – Opening Remarks
Opening Ceremony & Welcome
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Robin Lewis Master of Ceremonies | Summit Chair, NEX-T 2025; Chair of Worldview Global Impact (WGI); Senior Advisor, NextFin.AI；Former Associate Dean of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
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Fiona Ma 34th Treasurer of California
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Chiling Tong President & CEO, National Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce & Entrepreneurship
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Jany H.J. Zhao Founder, NextFin.AI; Chairperson, TMTPOST Group; Publisher of Barron’s China
Keynote/ Dialogue : Silicon Valley & AI Trends
