TMTPOST -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday signaled the quality of trade talks is more important for President Donald Trump after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick a day earlier stressed August 1 is a hard deadline for trading partners’ negotiations to avoid higher reciprocal tariffs.
Credit：Xinhua News Agency
“Talks are moving along. But the important thing here is the quality of the deal, not the timing of the deals ,” Besssent replied to a question about progress in negotiations with some of big U.S. partners. He continued that the tariffs that Trump has leveraged aims to address trade imbalances built up over the past 20, 30, or 40 years. “We are more concerned with high quality deals than getting these deals done by August 1st,” Bessent told CNBC.
Bessent suggested levying higher tariffs on trading partners will increase pressure on them to reach better agreements. Asked whether the deadline could be extended for countries engaged in productive talks with Washington, Bessent said Trump would decide. “Our trading partners were told that the rates could boomerang back toward the April 2nd levels. We can continue talking then. But again, we’re proceeding apace with the negotiations, but we’re not going to rush for the sake of doing deals,” he said.
Unlike Bessent’s remarks outweighing quality over deadline, Lutnick in an interview with CBS News insisted on August 1 as the “hard deadline” for new reciprocal tariffs. When asked if August 1 a hard deadline for negotiations with the European Union or is that going to slide, Lutnick made it clear the date is inevitably a hard deadline. “No, no, that's a hard deadline. 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 also expressed upbeat on more trade deals on the horizon before August 1. "The next two weeks are going to be weeks for the record books. President Trump is going to deliver for the American people," Lutnick said.
Trump has so far released letters to heads of more than 20 U.S. trading partners, dictating new tariffs starting August 1, and only one trading partner following his treat successfully lowered his planned tariffs through talks.
Trump on July 7 disclosed tariffs on 14 countries in a series of social media posts, hitting imports from Japan, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia,Tunisia, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Serbia, Thailand, Cambodia,Laos and Myanmar with tariffs ranging from 25% to 40%.
Trump on July 9 posted letters to the leaders of eight countries on his social media platform Truth Social, informing all the goods imported from the Philippines, Brunei, Moldova, Algeria, Iraq, Libya, Sri Lanka and Brazil will face tariffs ranging from 20% to 50%. A day later, Trump announced in the letter that he would slap Canada with 35% tariffs, and said 15% or 20% blanket tariffs would be imposed on all the remaining countries. Trump on July 12 sent letter informing the EU and Mexico of 30% tariffs.
Trump last Tuesday said he reached a trade deal with Indonesia that will charge a 19% tariff on the Southeast Asian economy, while U.S. exports to the country “are to be Tariff and Non Tariff Barrier FREE.” “If there is any Transshipment from a higher Tariff Country, then that Tariff will be added on to the Tariff that Indonesia is paying,” he added in a social media post.
Trump in the post revealed he finalized the deal after speaking with Indonesia’s president Prabowo Subianto, and Jakarta agreed to open up its “entire market” to the U.S. “This landmark Deal opens up Indonesia’s ENTIRE MARKET to the United States for the first time in History,” Trump wrote in the post.
If the tariff rate Trump announced is accurate, Indonesia would become the first trading partner receiving the Trump administration’s cut in planned tariffs through trade negotiations by August 1. The 19% tariffs are lower than the 32% rate Trump threatened in his letter on July 7.
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