US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Tuesday said the Trump administration could announce Commercial agreements With some of the largest trade partners in the United States this week, but has given no details on the countries involved.
He said the administration was negotiating with 17 major business partners, but has not yet engaged with China, the second world economy after the United States.
He said many business partners have made very good offers and that Trump officials were “regretting” those now.
“I expect that we can see a substantial reduction in the prices that we are charged, as well as non-tariff obstacles, manipulations and money subsidies, both investments in labor and capital,” he told the Chamber’s credit committee.
President Donald Trump and his senior officials are committed to a wave of meetings with business partners since the president on April 2 imposed a 10% rate on most countries, as well as higher rate rates for many business partners who were then suspended for 90 days. The American president also imposed 25% tariffs on cars, steel and aluminum, 25% prices in Canada and Mexico, and 145% prices on China.
China responded by increasing its 125%American products. A senior European Union official said on Tuesday that the 27-country block was preparing countermeasures if no trade agreement was concluded with Washington, adding that it was contacted by other countries seeking to forge more in-depth commercial links with the EU.
Bessent said that around 97% or 98% of the American trade deficit was with around 15 countries, most of whom were major business partners and that discussions were going well with a lot.
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“I would be surprised if we have no more than 80 or 90% of those enveloped in the end of the year, and it could be much earlier,” he said. “I think that maybe this week, we will announce trade agreements with some of our largest business partners.”
Bessent has faced questions from the Democrats in the Chamber on Trump’s pricing policies, including representative Mark Pocan du Wisconsin, who has repeatedly scored to who paid the prices and to speak during investor conferences instead of focusing on the impact on owners of small businesses.
“Right now, we have screwed to the right and left because of the blind use of prices. This is reality for Main Street,” said Pocan.
Bessent a lean that he had met more than 50 small lenders.
He also rejected questions about a possible American recession, saying that data had not shown any slowdown and predicting that data from the trade department showing a contraction in the first quarter would probably be revised upwards.
The Commerce Department reported last week that GDP had decreased to an annualized rate of 0.3% in the last quarter, said the first contraction in three years.
Trump and senior officials, keeping an eye on the negative feeling in the financial markets, have planned an announcement of the trade agreement for weeks. Trump told journalists on Sunday that some trade agreements could arrive this week, but have given no details.
The main Wall Street indices decreased on Tuesday as investors were trying to navigate the uncertainty surrounding the prices, while waiting for the interest rate decision of the federal reserve this week.
Administration officials suggested that India and Japan may be the first countries to sign a trade agreement to reduce the rate rates that Trump has threatened. Trump told the Newsnation television network last week that he had “potential” trade agreements with India, South Korea and Japan.
Bessent’s comments on the lack of negotiations with China came after Trump said on Sunday that he did not intend to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, but American officials were talking with Chinese officials “different things”.
In an interview with NBC News broadcast on Sunday, Trump acknowledged that he was “very hard with China”, essentially reducing trade between the two best savings in the world, but said that Beijing now wanted to reach an agreement.
“They want to conclude an agreement. They want to conclude an agreement very badly. We will see how it all goes, but that must be a good deal,” he said at the time.