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The Trump administration’s trade deal with China that sharply lowered the tariff rate on Chinese imports is expected to be extended past its Aug. 12 deadline, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted Tuesday, though he maintained higher tariff rates on other countries’ imports are still slated to take effect Aug. 1 as scheduled.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent talks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington on June 24.
Bessent will hold trade discussions in Stockholm, Sweden, next Monday and Tuesday with his Chinese counterparts, the Treasury Secretary told Fox Business on Tuesday, during which the two countries will “be working out what is likely an extension” to the current deadline.
The Trump administration and Chinese government announced a 90-day trade deal in May, which lowered the tariff rate on most Chinese imports into the U.S. from a combined 145% down to 30%.
Bessent said he thinks trade is “in a very good place with China” but suggested the Trump administration still has more it wants Beijing to agree to, such as China pulling back on its manufacturing and building more of a “consumer economy,” as well as ending its practice of buying sanctioned Russian oil.
While it remains to be seen what tariff rate on Chinese goods could become permanent, Bessent suggested the Trump administration will likely keep the 30% rate, saying it was able to move on to other issues in its negotiations with China “now that trade has kind of settled in at a good level.”
The Treasury Secretary was less flexible when it came to projecting what will happen on Aug. 1, when the tariff pause on every other country’s tariffs expires, calling it a “pretty hard deadline” for “all countries.”
The Trump administration has so far only sent out letters to only some countries that impose new tariff rates, scheduled to take effect on Aug. 1, and reached full negotiated trade deals with even fewer. Countries that have received new tariff rates include major trading partners like the European Union (30% tariff rate), Mexico (30%) Japan (25%), South Korea (25%) and Brazil (50%). While he suggested the administration still intends to impose more new tariff rates in the coming days, Bessent said Tuesday he expects that any countries that haven’t had a new rate imposed by Aug. 1 will just “boomerang” back to the tariff rates that President Donald Trump first imposed during his April “Liberation Day” announcement. Those tariffs range between 10% and 50% depending on the country. The Treasury Secretary also suggested that even if new tariff rates take effect on Aug. 1 as scheduled, the administration will still continue its trade negotiations with other countries. The deadline “doesn’t mean we can’t negotiate when the countries are at the higher level,” Bessent told Bartiromo, claiming the president’s high tariff rates are a “pretty ingenious strategy” by Trump to inspire other countries to reach trade deals faster.
If the tariffs will actually take effect as scheduled. Trump has already extended the deadline on his tariff pause once before, from July 9, and has come under scrutiny in the past for backing off the worst of his tariff plans as they’ve caused the stock market to drop—earning him the Wall Street nickname “TACO Trump,” for “Trump always chickens out.”
Bessent also expressed confidence in Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell in his Tuesday interview with Fox, amid speculation that the Fed chair could either resign or be ousted by Trump—which the president has so far denied he’ll do. “I know Chair Powell. There’s nothing that tells me that he should step down right now. He’s been a good public servant,” Bessent told Bartiromo. “His term ends in May. If he wants to see that through, I think he should. If he wants to leave early, I think he should.”
Trump has made tariffs the centerpiece of his economic policy, rolling out tariffs on nearly all countries in April despite longstanding concerns from economists that doing so would raise prices for consumers and harm the economy. The president’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs initially briefly took effect on April 9, but the worst of the tariffs were swiftly paused, with Trump putting only a baseline 10% rate in place for 90 days after the markets plunged. While the Trump administration vowed to use the pause to negotiate trade deals—promising “90 deals in 90 days”—the government has so far only announced deals with a few countries, prompting Trump to start just sending out letters imposing new tariff rates before announcing the deadline was extended. Trump initially imposed the harshest tariffs on China, which he previously had a trade war with during his first term. The president levied a combined 145% tariff rate on the country during the 90-day pause, even as other nations had their rates dropped down to 10%, before the two governments were able to broker a deal in May.