Treasury Department SecretaryScott Bessent has said that countries should be taking President Donald Trump seriously over his actions around Tariffs and sanctions.
During an interview with Fox Business and āMornings with Mariaā host Maria Bartiromo, Bessent was asked whether some of Trumpās policies were ājust theatre,ā to which Bessent replied that Trump is serious.
āAs weāve learned with President Trump, you should take him at his word, this is not theatre,ā Bessent said. āThe April 1st deadline is for a study that the Commerce Department is doing on global Tariffs that apply to U.S. products country by country, and also, weāre not just looking at Tariffs, but weāre looking at non-tariff barriers ā¦ and weāre also looking at currency manipulation.ā
Bessent noted that Trump is serious about negotiating the best deal for the U.S.
āAs Iāve repeatedly said, the U.S. has a strong dollar policy but because we have a strong dollar policy, it doesnāt mean that other countries get to have a weak currency policy,ā Bessent said. āSo, weāre gonna come up with what is the equivalent of an index, what I would call reciprocal index country by country. The outstanding Tariffs, non-tariff, the trade barriers, and currency manipulation, and President Trump is serious about negotiating this.ā
He added, āLook, I donāt understand why thereās any push back on this, that if they want to bring all these barriers down, then we will have more frictionless global trade.ā
Bessent said he expects Trump will implement reciprocal Tariffs in April if he needs to.
āIām expecting that will get this report and we will see how our trading partners choose to respond, but I can tell you, if he needs to, he will implement them, and as he said ā¦ this can be a big revenue source for the U.S government.ā
Bessent added that those who oppose the proposed Tariffs are stuck in āold thinkingā and noted this is why the U.S. has ābeen taken advantage ofā by other countries for years.