Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expects the U.S. to announce trade deals with major trading partners as early as this week. Bessent said that since President Donald Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 2, countries around the world have approached the administration with very good offers.
“In negotiating with some of them, they may not like the tariff wall that President Trump has put up, but they have them. So if tariffs are so bad, why do they like them?” Bessent said during a hearing with the House Appropriations Committee Tuesday May 6.
As Bessent puts it, the United States has 18 important trading relationships, and there are ongoing negotiations with 17 of them. China is the lone holdout.
Bessent did not name the top partners, but according to data from the Department of Commerce they are, in order of importance: Mexico, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, United Kingdom, India, Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, France, Brazil, Singapore, Switzerland and Thailand.
Bessent said he’d be surprised if 80% to 90% of those top partners haven’t signed deals by the end of the year.
Bessent added that the trade deals won’t just cover tariffs, but other barriers to what the administration perceives as an equal playing field, including currency manipulation and subsidized labor and capital investment, which Bessent described as insidious.
The administration also wants to put Americans who are concerned about price increases at ease, as well as blunt criticism from Democrats.
“Who pays tariffs, Mr. Secretary?” Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., asked Bessent.
“It’s a very complicated question,” Bessent responded.
“No, people pay tariffs,” Pocan asserted.
The U.S. trade deficit was $140.5 billion in March, according to newly released data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The U.S. imported $419 billion worth of goods while it exported $278.5 billion. The deficit is a 14% increase compared to February. Some of that is attributed to companies importing extra goods to stock up ahead of Trump’s tariffs announcement.
Meanwhile, there has been a back-and-forth between the U.S. and China on negotiations. Last week, the Chinese government released a statement that said, “If it’s a fight, we will see it through to the end. If it’s talk, the door is open.”
