Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that the U.S. is in the midst of negotiations with 17 of the country’s largest trading partners, and previewed a timeline for concluding those pending trade deals.
Bessent said in his testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government that the timing of trade deals “will be path dependent on our trade partners.”
“There are 18 very important trading relationships. We are currently negotiating with 17 of those trading partners. China – we have not engaged in negotiations with as of yet,” he said.
“Approximately 97% or 98% of our trade deficit is with 15 countries, 18% of the countries are major trading partners, and I would be surprised if we don’t have more than 80% or 90% of those wrapped up by the end of the year,” Bessent said.
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“And that may be much sooner, I would think that perhaps as early as this week, we will be announcing trade deals with some of our largest trading partners.
Bessent went on to say that while the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump have hit U.S. trading partners, they have also helped underscore the tariff and non-tariff barriers that those countries have in place.
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“They have come to us with very good offers, and what I will tell you is that, 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? And then more insidious, we can see that from a practical matter and from academic research, are the non-tariff barriers,” Bessent said.
“I expect that we can see a substantial reduction in the tariffs that we are being charged, as well as non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation and the subsidies of both labor and capital investment. So that is proceeding very well,” he added.
Bessent’s remarks come after Trump on Sunday told reporters that his administration may announce some trade deals this week, without offering details about which countries may be involved.
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