Karoline Leavitt (00:00):
Trump is going to punch back harder.
(00:01)
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.
(00:31)
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 take it over to our great Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent.
Scott Bessent (00:46):
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 in this very spot, do not retaliate and you will be rewarded. So every country in the world 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.
Reporters (01:32):
Is this a question-
(01:32)
Mr. Secretary-
(01:32)
Mr. Secretary-
(01:32)
Mr. Secretary-
(01:32)
So are you backing down?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Treasury Secretary, thank you for doing this. Let me ask you three quick things, if I could, just for the sake of clarity because the markets are open and they're wondering. First of all, Mexico and China, are they part of this 10% universal?
Scott Bessent (01:50):
Well, China. No, China-
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Mexico and Canada. Mexico and Canada, are they part of the 10%?
Scott Bessent (01:54):
Yes. Are you-
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Okay. Second, given then that you have the rest of the world essentially calling, and it's not China, is this now just all about China?
Scott Bessent (02:04):
Well, it's about bad actors and what we will see is some of the very early countries are China's neighbors that we're going to see Vietnam. I'm seeing Vietnam today, Japan's at the front of the queue, South Korea, India. So, we will see.
(02:21)
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 problem. And indeed, they are a problem 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.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So as you see it now, this trade war is China versus the rest of the world?
Scott Bessent (02:53):
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 solution with our trading partner.
Reporters (03:08):
Mr. Secretary-
(03:08)
Secretary-
(03:08)
Mr. Secretary-
(03:08)
[inaudible 00:03:09]-
(03:08)
You got that?
Raquel (03:09):
Mr. Secretary, what happened to the countries-
Karoline Leavitt (03:13):
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 have 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.
Reporters (03:51):
Mr. Secretary-
(03:51)
Mr. Secretary-
(03:51)
Is there-
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Hi. Thank you, Treasury Secretary Bessent. 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 decision?
Scott Bessent (04:05):
No, again, president Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself and which tariffs went into effect 15 hours ago? The ones that we have lowered went into effect a week ago, or they were announced a week ago, and we've 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'll be effective immediately.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Mr. Secretary-
Reporters (04:47):
Mr. Secretary-
(04:47)
Mr. Secretary-
Karoline Leavitt (04:47):
Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for doing this. The 90-day pause on the reciprocal 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 Bessent (05:02):
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.
Reporters (05:27):
Mr. Secretary-
(05:27)
Mr. Secretary-
Karoline Leavitt (05:27):
Emily?
Raquel (05:27):
A clarification-
Emily (05:29):
Mr. Secretary, there was a tweet that you and Secretary Lutnick were in the Oval Office with the president talking about this. Can you talk about what that conversation looked like and what you guys said to one another that was the decision?
Scott Bessent (05:41):
Look, it's all the president's decision. And we were… 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.
Reporters (06:00):
Mr. Secretary-
(06:03)
Does the president-
Speaker 6 (06:03):
Is the three-month in writing?
Raquel (06:03):
What about the other countries-
Scott Bessent (06:03):
Sorry?
Speaker 6 (06:07):
Is the three-month pause in writing?
Scott Bessent (06:07):
Of course.
Karoline Leavitt (06:07):
It's the president's decision always.
Scott Bessent (06:08):
It's the president's decision. It was the president's decision via to wait until today. And again, as I've said in the past, no one creates leverage for himself like President Trump.
Reporters (06:17):
Mr. Secretary-
(06:18)
Mr. Secretary-
Karoline Leavitt (06:19):
Shelby? Shelby, go ahead.
Shelby (06:20):
Mr. Secretary, what does the president want to see by this, I think it's July 9th, deadline to keep things paused. Is it just trade barriers coming down or is it more than that?
Scott Bessent (06:29):
Well, these are trade negotiations, but if countries want to come and offer other things, I talked about yesterday that we are thinking about a big LNG project in Alaska that South Korea, Japan, Taiwan are interested in financing and taking a substantial portion of the offtake. But again, in essence, that is trade because it will decrease the trade deficit that we have with those countries. So, everything's on the table.
Reporters (07:07):
Mr. President-
(07:07)
Mr. Secretary-
Karoline Leavitt (07:07):
Raquel, go ahead.
Raquel (07:19):
Mr. Secretary, a clarification on the pause. What happened to those countries who just had a 10% baseline tariffs, like Brazil and others? Are they still going have these 90-day pause? Because you were saying that there will be a tariff 10% for others. So what happened to those who just had a 10%?
Scott Bessent (07:27):
Yeah, that's going to remain.
Reporters (07:27):
Mr. Secretary-
(07:27)
Mr. Secretary-
(07:27)
Secretary-
Raquel (07:27):
And do you call this an embargo to China?
Scott Bessent (07:27):
Pardon?
Raquel (07:27):
Do you call this an embargo to China, a trade embargo?
Scott Bessent (07:35):
Well, I am not sure what you mean by the word embargo.
Raquel (07:38):
125% tariffs, like those, that impose 84%. Isn't this an embargo?
Scott Bessent (07:47):
Well, look, it's China's decision that we have the deficit with them. They sell us almost five times what we sell them. So again, I think it's an own goal by China.
Reporters (07:59):
Mr. Secretary-
(08:00)
Secretary-
Karoline Leavitt (08:00):
Meredith?
Meredith (08:01):
Mr. Secretary, does this signal that you're confident that you're going to be able to strike a satisfactory deal with all these 75 nations that have approached you?
Scott Bessent (08:11):
It signals that President Trump cares about trade and that we want to negotiate in good faith. And as I said, each one of these is going to be a separate bespoke negotiation. So we are confident that, having seen the other side of where this could go, and it was like I said last week, that the market didn't understand, those were maximum levels. The countries can think about those levels as they come to us to bring down their tariffs, their non-tariff trade barriers. We're going to discuss currency manipulation, subsidy of labor and industry.
Reporters (08:52):
Mr. Secretary-
(08:52)
[inaudible 00:08:53]-
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Mr. Secretary, as far as you, will the pause also apply to the sectoral tariffs that the president has announced? Pharma, lumber, anything else?
Scott Bessent (09:00):
No, it's on the reciprocal.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
So those will still be coming here soon. Right?
Karoline Leavitt (09:08):
Correct, yes.
Reporters (09:08):
Mr. Secretary-
(09:08)
Mr. Secretary, as far as the negotiations with the 75 countries-
Karoline Leavitt (09:08):
Andrea. Andrea, go ahead.
Andrea (09:08):
Mr. Secretary, I want to ask you about what you're doing here. So the market is reacting crazily, right?
Scott Bessent (09:12):
I haven't seen it.
Andrea (09:12):
Do you think that this move is going to change and calm down the market reaction?
Karoline Leavitt (09:12):
What?
Andrea (09:25):
Do you think the markets… The markets have tanked, right? There's been a lot of volatility in the market, not just in terms of stock markets, but also in terms of [inaudible 00:09:34]. So will this move, in your mind, do you anticipate that this is going to calm the markets down?
Scott Bessent (09:41):
Well, I think what we've seen, I think the willingness by more than 75 countries to come and negotiate, I think now the market understands that everything they saw last Wednesday was a ceiling. And now we have a 10%, the temporary floor. And I think the market, my 35 years in the market, I always wanted certainty, so I think we've got more certainty.
Maggie (10:05):
But Mr. Secretary, why do people assume this is the-
Reporters (10:10):
Mr. Secretary-
(10:10)
[Inaudible 00:10:11]-
Karoline Leavitt (10:10):
Maggie. Maggie, go ahead.
Maggie (10:11):
Mr. Secretary, why do people assume this is the last word? The president began this morning saying, "Be cool." Five hours later, he announces a new policy. Why will investors in the market assume that this is it?
Scott Bessent (10:19):
Because again, as I said, we've given 90 days and the only certainty we can provide is that the US is going to negotiate in good faith and we assume that our allies will too. And in terms of certainty, we will see what China does. But what I am certain of, what I'm certain of is that what China is doing will affect their economy much more than it will ours because they have an export-driven, flood the world with cheap export models, and the rest of the world now understands because when we put up our tariff wall, those exports were already flowing to the rest of the G7 and to the Global South.
Meredith (11:03):
And you think that [inaudible 00:11:04]-
Reporters (11:04):
Mr. Secretary-
Karoline Leavitt (11:04):
Jackie, go ahead.
Jackie (11:04):
Mr. Secretary, how much of this decision was driven by the bond market cratering overnight? What is happening with bonds is China, selling their bonds?
Scott Bessent (11:14):
I have nothing that says that, and we actually had quite a good 10-year auction today. And all this was, again, this was driven by the president's strategy. He and I had a long talk on Sunday, and this was his strategy all along. And that you might even say that he goaded China into a bad position. They responded. They have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors. And we are willing to cooperate with our allies and with our trading partners who did not retaliate. It wasn't a hard message, "Don't retaliate. Things will turn out well."
Reporters (11:53):
What is your message to the people of America?
(11:54)
Mr. Secretary-
Jackie (11:54):
And then following up on that, there's a Politico article saying that countries were getting calls back-
Karoline Leavitt (11:54):
John, go ahead.
John (12:02):
Mr. Secretary, these negotiations with these 75 countries. How long will that take? Will it be a matter of weeks? Will it be a matter of months? Do you expect financial markets to be stable during that time period?
Scott Bessent (12:09):
Well, we've started with a 90-day pause and we will see if more countries turn up, what will happen. But we have a meeting with Vietnam today and we have one of the largest trade deficits with them, so I'm hoping it will move in a good direction.
(12:28)
I was at the Japanese Ambassador's house last night for the Cherry Blossom Festival, which was quite festive, and he and I had a good chat. They are going to send a deal team over. So, we'll see. These are complicated negotiations. These are imbalances that have taken decades to create, but I think having seen the maximum level that Donald Trump is willing to go to, President Trump has created this negotiating leverage.
Reporters (12:59):
Mr. Secretary-
(12:59)
[inaudible 00:13:00] just to clarify, are sectoral tariffs-
Karoline Leavitt (13:01):
Excuse me, everybody. Excuse me, excuse me. The secretary is obviously a very busy man. As he has said, he's had more than 75 countries that the trade team has to respond to. I'd just like to end with this.
(13:09)
For decades, Republicans and Democrats have said that these unfair trade practices are ripping off the American people, are ripping off our country, but nobody has ever done anything to address it. We finally have a president here at the White House who is playing the long game, who is doing what is right for the American worker in our industries here at home, and he has put together a fantastic team in Secretary Bessent, secretary Lutnick, the entire trade team who will be focusing on negotiating these good deals to put the American workers first. And we're going to get to work to do that. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
What about the EU? What about the EU? They retaliated this morning. Why are they being treated like China?
