US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained that US President Donald Trump has taken a 90-day pause in the tariff system because more than 75 countries have expressed a desire to negotiate, and it will take some time.
This is reported by Reuters.
So, when asked why Trump took the pause now, Bessent explained that this was due to the number of applications from countries to resolve the issue.
"Two days ago, the President truthed out that he was willing to negotiate with all these different countries that were interested. And then yesterday, he said he would do it in a bespoke fashion, you know, one by one, individually. And the calls were unbelievable. And the key was it wasn't just calls from all these countries, because over 75 called, but they started calling and making real offers… How would you like to deal with this? We have so many countries, and they all want to do it now, like now… But with all these other countries, let's give them a chance to negotiate these deals, and that's what happened today,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
"I think what's going to happen is they are going to be pushed out for the 90 days, so they have time to negotiate with the president without having something hanging over their head," Lutnick told reporters at the White House.
He said the U.S. was pressing for action to address non-tariff barriers in addition to existing duties.
At the same time, Bessent said that Trump has created for himself maximum leverage in the negotiations.
He said they were stunned by the reaction of most of the allies who want to come and negotiate in a spirit of goodwill. So, they expect them to come with the best offers.
In addition, he commented on the situation with tariffs on China.
He said he and Trump had a long conversation on Sunday, and this has been his strategy from the very beginning.
“Trump and I had a long talk on Sunday and this was his strategy all along. You might even say that he goaded China into a bad position. They have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors,” Bessent said.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Trump announced a 90-day pause in the new tariff system for everyone except China - for it, the American President raised the tariff to 125% and left it in force.
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