In an interview on NBC News, Kevin Hassett responded to a question on whether Trump could change the tariff rates again if the market reacted as it did in April, when the tariff announcement sent stocks tumbling. Responding to a question on the future tariff rate change, Hassett said, “The markets have seen what we’re doing and celebrated them, so I don’t see how that would happen.”
Host of NBC News’s “Meet the Press” Kristen Welker pressed Hassett: “OK, but not ruling it out?” “No, I would rule it out,” Hassett responded. “Because these are the final deals,” he said
The US president signed an executive order that changed tariff rates for dozens of countries after twice postponing plans to implement “reciprocal” tariffs on other nations. Tariff rates now range from as high as 41 percent on goods from Syria to as low as 10 percent. According to the executive order signed by Trump, all imports will face a 10 percent tariff, effective August 7.
Some countries have separately negotiated trade deals to set their tariff rates, including Indonesia and Thailand, which agreed to a 19 percent tariff. Meanwhile, South Korea and Japan secured 15 percent rates, and the United Kingdom finalized a 10 percent tariff. Other nations that did not negotiate deals are set to face higher tariffs.
Hassett hails tariff deals
Hailing the tariff deals struck by Trump, Hassett said that those rates are “more or less locked in” as other countries are expected to continue to press for negotiations, even after the tariffs kick in.
“We have eight deals that cover about 55 percent of world GDP with our biggest trading partners, the EU, Japan, Korea, and so on,” Hassett said. “I expect that those matters are more or less locked in, although there will have to be some dancing around the edges about exactly what we mean when we do this or that,” he added.
“For the deals that aren’t ready yet, they’re going to get the reciprocal rates soon, and then we would expect that there might continue to be negotiations with those countries,” he continued.
