Various Trump administration officials spoke about the new US tariff policy on Sunday as the European Union (EU) prepares an initial set of countermeasures and markets brace for more volatility.
Speaking to CBS News, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asserted that the tariffs “are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks. That is sort of obvious. The president needs to reset global trade.”
Speaking to NBC News, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated: “I see no reason that we have to price in a recession.” Bessent, who is not seen as a driver of the tariff policy, added: “We get these short-term market reactions from time to time. The market consistently underestimates Donald Trump.”
Speaking to ABC News, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said that “more than” 50 countries had already reached out to the White House to begin trade talks. Asked about a video claiming the president was purposely “crashing the stock market by 20%” that Trump’s Truth Social account shared on Friday, Hassett said: “He’s not trying to tank the market. He’s trying to deliver for American workers.”
Last week, President Trump announced a blanket 10% tariff on all goods coming into the US in addition to new duties on goods from 185 countries that the president described as the “worst offenders” in terms of perceived unfairness on trade.
The tariff rate applied to the 27-nation bloc of EU countries under the policy is 20%, and about 70% of the EU’s exports to the US are covered. Elon Musk, appearing at an event on Saturday, said that “Europe and the United States should move, ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation.”
Read more: What are tariffs, and how do they affect you?
American customs officials began collecting the new 10% tariff on imports from many countries on Saturday morning after the US stock market saw its worst week since 2020. Bloomberg reports that Chinese investors “are bracing for a grim Monday as the nation’s markets return from an extended weekend.”
Various countries are still deciding how to respond (or not), and companies have begun adjusting to the new reality — largely by raising prices. Some countries responded with new tariffs of their own: Canada announced new duties on certain vehicles imported from the US, and China announced that it will impose countermeasures against the US starting April 10, including a 34% tariff on US goods.
“This is the single biggest trade action of our lifetime,” Kelly Ann Shaw, a trade lawyer and former White House trade adviser during Trump’s first term, told Reuters. Shaw added that while she expected the tariffs to evolve through negotiations, the new policy is “a pretty seismic and significant shift in the way that we trade with every country on earth.”
