Caroline Levitt (4:35)

Latest statement regarding his America first trade plan. As you all know, the President just put out a statement announcing an additional tariff on China. The tariff on China will now go up to 125% because China imprudently decided to retaliate against the United States. And as I said at the podium yesterday, when you punch at the United States of America, President Trump is going to punch back harder. In that same vein, we have had more than 75 countries from around the world reach out to President Trump and his team here at the White House to negotiate better trade deals for the American worker. We have been overwhelmed with the amount of requests from countries around the world. I'll let the Secretary speak to that. We will continue with the tailor made negotiations that I spoke about yesterday. In the meantime, there will be a 90 day pause on the reciprocal tariffs as these negotiations are ongoing and the tariff level will be brought down to a universal 10% tariff. The Secretary here has been a huge part of the President's trade team, of course, and will continue to lead these negotiations moving forward to look out for the American worker, which is always President Trump's Goal. So I'll kick it over to our great Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessant.

Scott Bessant (5:41)

Good. Thank you. And we saw the successful negotiating strategy that President Trump implemented a week ago today. It has brought more than 75 countries forward to negotiate. It took great courage, great courage for him to stay the course until this moment. And what we have ended up with here, as I told everyone a week ago, they're in this very spot. Do not retaliate, and you will be rewarded. So every country in the world who wants to come and negotiate, we are willing to hear you. We're going to go down to a 10% baseline tariff for them. And China will be raised to 125 due to their insistence on escalation.

Reporter (6:34)

Secretary, thank you for doing this. Let me ask you three quick things for the sake of clarity, because the markets are open under one. First of all, Mexico and China, are they part of this 10% universal?

Scott Bessant (6:45)

Well, China, no. China, Mexico and Canada.

Reporter (6:48)

Mexico and Canada, are they part of the 10%?

Scott Bessant (6:50)

Yes.

Reporter (6:50)

Okay. Second, given then that you have the rest of the world essentially calling it not China, is this now just all about China?

Scott Bessant (6:59)

Well, it's about bad actors. And you know, what we will see is some of the very early countries are China's neighbors that we're going to see. I'm seeing Vietnam today. Japan's at the front of the queue, South Korea, India. So we will see. And as I've repeatedly said, and President Trump has been saying it for years, China is the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world. And they are the biggest source of the US Trade problems. And indeed, they are problems for the rest of the world. Because what we've seen is that as the US Announced the tariff wall last week, many of those goods have already started flooding into Europe.

Reporter (7:44)

So as you see it now, this trade war is China versus the rest of the world.

Scott Bessant (7:48)

Well, I'm not calling it a trade war, but I am saying that China has escalated. And President Trump responded very courageously to that. And we are going to work on a sol solution with our trading partners.

Caroline Levitt (8:07)

Excuse me, Raquel, If I could just add to what the secretary said. Many of you in the media clearly missed the art of the deal. You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact, we've seen the opposite effect. The entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets, they need our consumers, and they need this president in the Oval Office to talk to them. And that's exactly why more than 75 countries have called. Because the United States of America is the best place in the world to do business. And as the President has shown great courage, as the Secretary has said, in choosing to retaliate against China even higher. Elena, go ahead.

Scott Bessant (8:47)

Thank you.

Caroline Levitt (8:47)

Treasury Secretary Busset, can you explain more of the decision making on what feels like a reversal here? I mean, just these went into effect less than 15 hours ago. These tariffs. Why the pause now? What led to that?

Scott Bessant (9:00)

No, again, President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself and the witch terrorists went into effect 15 hours ago. The ones that we have lowered went into effect a week ago. They were announced a week ago. And we have just been overwhelmed, overwhelmed by the response from mostly our allies who want to come and negotiate in good faith. So we are expecting them to come with their best deal. As I said a week ago today, don't retaliate. Hold your ground. Let's see what happens. And China, they kept escalating and escalating and now they have 125% tariffs that will be effective immediately.

Caroline Levitt (9:43)

Mr. Secretary, go ahead. Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for doing this. The 90 day pause on the reserve tariffs, is that because of the whiplash that we've been seeing across the financial markets? How much was what we saw in the stock markets a part of this decision?

Scott Bessant (9:57)

No, it's because it's going to because of the large number of inbounds. We've had more than 75 countries contact us and I imagine after today there will be more. So it is just a processing problem. Each one of these solutions is going to be bespoke. It is going to take some time and President Trump wants to be personally involved. So that's why we're getting the 90 day pause.

Caroline Levitt (10:24)

Mr. Secretary, there was a tweet that UN Secretary Lutnick, when the Oval Office. Was the President talking about this? Can you talk about what that conversation looks like and what you guys said before or nothing?

Scott Bessant (10:35)

Look, it's the President's decision and the President had a level in mind to raise the China tariffs. And then he had the three month, essentially the three month pause in mind. And we were discussing the exact wording.

Caroline Levitt (10:57)

Sorry, of course it's the President's decision.

Scott Bessant (11:02)

It was the President's decision to wait until today. And again, as I said, said in the past, no one creates leverage for himself like President Trump.

Ben Ferguson (11:12)

No one creates leverage for himself like President Trump. This is a monumental moment and a great response that was well explained by the treasury secretary and the press secretary there saying President Trump will take proper action. For decades, Democrats, they, they don't understand how to get America first in our policies. They are constantly allowing other countries to walk all over us. As the treasury secretary said there, the president's going to work forward and move forward. These 75 plus countries that have all said they want to meet, they're negotiating right now. And the president created the leverage for himself that he needed. As for China, they are now more isolated than they have ever been, especially on the world trade front. This is the opposite of what they were hoping for. So as Caroline Levitt said a moment ago, you and the media got it wrong and the president got it right. You said people are going to run to China and now they're talking and running to America.

Ben Ferguson (12:18)

Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And for more in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson Podcast and we will see you back here tomorrow.