The economic advisor of US President Kevin Hassett said on Sunday that over 50 countries asked the White House to negotiate trade conditions after the announcement of new duties. At the same time, the Minister of Trade Howard Lutnick suggested that the customs duties would remain and sold the offer reduction offer, including from Vietnam.
“The fact is that the countries are furious and retaliate, but – incidentally – they sit down to the table. Yesterday evening I got a report that over 50 countries asked the president to start negotiations,” said the director of the National Economic Council in an interview with ABC television. He also assessed that consumers in the US would not significantly feel the effects of new duties.
The head of the President's advisers also denied that Donald Trump intentionally would like to cause a crash on the stock exchange, despite the fact that the president twice in the last three days passed the video film in social media that the film claiming that this is his plan.
In the clip on a thicket posted by the anonymous creator of “Americanpapabear”, the narrator claims that Trump is striving for a crash on the stock exchange, including In order to reduce interest rates, as well as a reduction in the profitability of American bonds, which would allow refinancing American debt at a lower cost. The author of the film said that this is a brilliant movement that will enrich the Americans. Hassett has assured that the White House does not intend to apply “political coercion” towards the federal reserve to lower interest rates.
On Sunday, the adviser was one of several representatives of the Trump administration, who in the interviews defended the decision to impose high duties on almost all goods from almost all countries of the world. However, in Sunday programs they did not speak with one voice, especially by answering the question of how long the new duties may apply and whether the president is willing to lower them by negotiations.
When asked about this, the finance minister Scott Bessent said in an interview on NBC television that “he would see what other countries offer and whether it is credible.”
“I think we will have to see the path forward,” he added. He noted, however, that this will not happen within the “days or weeks”. Both he and Hassett claimed that contrary to forecasts, among others JPMorgan Chase analysts, due to duties, will not recess in the US.
The USA will not give up customs?
Meanwhile, Minister of Trade Howard Lutnick suggested in an interview with CBS television that customs would remain for good. When asked why companies would move their factories to the US, if they were not sure about the durability of customs duties, he assured that “the president would always protect those investing in the US.” He added that the idea behind the introduction of duties is to “reset the US strength against allies and opponents.” He also confirmed that the new duties would enter into force as planned, on April 9.
Lutnick recalled the example of Vietnam, to which as much as a 46 % duty is to be imposed, and which in recent days offered a complete abolition of duties, to zero. He emphasized that the administration is not so much about lowering the duties themselves as equalizing the trade balance and buying products from the US by other countries.
“The problem is that this is not only duties (…). Vietnam sends us goods worth $ 120 billion each year. And we only have about $ 12 billion. So it has nothing to do with the customs. If they went to the level (customs) 0-0, they would go to (surplus) 200 billion with us. We must stop this ripple,” said Lutnick.
He claimed that thanks to the introduced iPhone tariffs (currently installed in China and India), they would be produced in the US not by the “army of millions and millions of people screwing small screws”, but by machines that will be built and served by “Americans with secondary education”.
When asked why uninhabited islands such as Australia, the island of Heard and McDonald belonging to Australia, were also included in the list of rates for individual countries, the minister stated that it was necessary to take all territories so as not to allow countries to avoid duties by directing trade through these territories. In fact, the list, however, bypassed a number of countries and territories, including Russia, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cuba, Somalia and Greenland.
Earlier, Hassett stated that Russia was not included in the list due to negotiations on the war in Ukraine. However, Ukraine itself was included, although it received a minimum rate of 10 percent. According to the formula used to calculate customs duties by the White House, goods from Russia should be covered 42 %. duty.
India is unlikely to respond to Trump's customs, they count on trade talks
India does not plan to answer 26 % The duties of the US President Donald Trump, said an Indian government official, citing ongoing talks about a trade agreement between countries, he donated Reuters on Sunday.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi looked at the clause of the Trump's tariff regulation offering a possible postponement for trading partners who “take significant steps to remedy improperly commercial arrangements,” said the official who refused to give the name because the details of the conversation are confidential.
The new Delhi sees the advantage in the fact that he is one of the first countries that have started talks about the commercial agreement with Washington, and is in a better situation than Asian partners, such as China, Vietnam and Indonesia, which were covered by higher US customs tariffs, told Reuters a second government official, also anonymously.
On the days after Trump announced the duties that shook global markets, India joined countries such as Taiwan and Indonesia, which ruled out the retaliation duties.
India and the USA agreed in February to conclude a trade agreement by autumn 2025 to terminate the impasse on tariffs. Reuters informed in March that the new Delhi is open to lowering tariffs from US imports worth $ 23 billion. Modi's government took steps to convince Trump to lower the tariffs, proposing the abolition of tax on digital services that affected American technological giants.
Trump's duties can slow down India's economic growth by 20-40 base points in the current financial year and paralyze the Indian diamond industry, which sends over a third of its exports to the USA, emphasizes Reuters. (PAP)
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