Scott Bessent, US treasury secretary, throughout a Bloomberg Tv interview in New York, US, on Friday, Could 23, 2025.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned Monday that implementing excessive tariff charges on international locations beginning August 1 “will put extra strain on these international locations to return with higher agreements.”
Bessent’s remarks counsel that he views President Donald Trump’s deliberate huge tariffs on prime buying and selling companions — which have been postponed till Aug. 1 — as not a lot a deadline to ink offers, however as one other negotiating tactic to squeeze the impacted international locations to acquiesce to favorable phrases for the USA.
“We’ll see what the president needs to do,” Bessent said on CNBC when requested whether or not subsequent month’s deadline may very well be prolonged for international locations which can be partaking in productive talks, an concept that has been endorsed by administration officers in current months.
“However once more, if we one way or the other boomerang again … I’d suppose {that a} increased tariff stage will put extra strain on these international locations to return with higher agreements,” mentioned Bessent.
Buyers and importers seem torn between bracing for Trump’s tariffs to really take impact subsequent month on one hand, and betting that Trump will postpone them but once more on the opposite.
The steep levies, some as high as 40%, could cripple each the U.S. financial system and the economies of buying and selling companions.
Bessent’s remarks come as prime Trump administration officers have insisted in current days that Aug. 1 is a “hard deadline.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, as an illustration, mentioned Sunday that “nothing stops international locations from speaking to us after August 1, however they’ll begin paying the tariffs on August 1.”
Bessent additionally mentioned that “our buying and selling companions had been advised that the charges might boomerang again towards the April 2 levels.”
“We are able to proceed speaking then, however once more, we’re continuing apace with the negotiations, however we’re not going to hurry for the sake of doing offers.”
Trump’s tariff deadline has shifted quite a few occasions since his April 2 announcement imposing steep levies on trading partners, casting doubt on whether or not the Aug. 1 deadline will maintain, or if it is seen throughout the administration as one other instrument to get buying and selling companions to the negotiating desk.
In one other signal that Bessent views Aug. 1 tariffs, as soon as imposed, as one other negotiating instrument, he mentioned Monday that the administration is “extra involved with top quality” commerce offers, than getting offers achieved by August 1.
“The vital factor right here is the standard of the deal, not the timing of the offers,” Bessent mentioned.