"A week ago, Scott Bessent attempted to calm a bunch of bankers by describing that he would take a lead role in negotiations with 70 countries in the wake of Trump's tariff flip-flops. He claimed the US still has things called "allies" who would be willing to reach quick deals that would allow him to isolate China. Bessent said there was great interest in negotiating with the U.S. to lower tariffs, noting that Trump had already spoken with the leaders of Japan and South Korea,"
"The Trump administration plans to use ongoing tariff negotiations to pressure U.S. trading partners to limit their dealings with China, according to people with knowledge of the conversations. The idea is to extract commitments from U.S. trading partners to isolate China's economy in exchange for reductions in trade and tariff barriers imposed by the White House. U.S. officials plan to use negotiations with more than 70 nations to ask them to disallow China to ship goods through their countries,"
Scott Bessent proposed taking a lead role in negotiations with roughly 70 countries to secure quick deals that would allow the United States to isolate China. He said allies showed strong interest in negotiating lower tariffs and noted President Trump had spoken with Japan and South Korea and U.S. officials planned to meet a Vietnamese delegation. Bessent characterized the administration's reciprocal tariffs as a ceiling if partners did not retaliate and identified China as the primary escalator in the global trading system. U.S. officials intend to use negotiations to extract commitments from partners to limit economic dealings with China in return for tariff reductions.
Read at Emptywheel
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]