Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that the United States could announce trade agreements with large trading partners this week, but that negotiations with China about rates have not started.
The comments came when Mr Bessent testified to a house committee and asked questions about the state of the American economy and the trade agenda of President Trump. Mr Trump’s rates for China and countries around the world have led economists to lower their growthrognoses and warned of new inflation, but Mr Bessent argued that the measures would ultimately lead to other countries to lower their trade barriers.
“I expect that we can see a substantial reduction in the rates that we will be charged, as well as non-Tariff Barrières-Malutamanipulation and the subsidies from both labor and capital investments,” Mr Bessent said.
For weeks, the Minister of Finance and Mr Trump said that many countries wanted to conclude new trade agreements that would be announced quickly, although none has been announced so far. Last month, Mr. Trump suggested that he had also had contact with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping – Chinese officials insisted that no such conversations took place.
On Tuesday, Mr Bessent was clear: “China, we have not yet been busy with negotiations.”
Negotiations with different countries started last month after Mr Trump had imposed a universal rate of 10 percent on imports from all countries and extra rates he described as “mutual” on dozens of them. These extra rates have been paused while the negotiations take place.
It was not clear whether the trade agreements would be formal pacts or statements of mutual understanding of revised trade conditions.
Mr. Bessent tried to ward off the criticism of Mr Trump’s trade policy and to defend the rates to determine trading balance. “We strive for fair trade to reduce jobs for well -paid precision production to the US,” he told the legislators.
Mr Bessent also rejected predictions that suggested that the country was on his way to a recession. He said that the economic data did not suggest that the economy contracted and he predicted that the disappointing growth data from the first quarter would be revised upwards.
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