Economic strategy: Truckers work the container yard at Bensenville Intermodal Terminal in Franklin Park, Illinois. A Trump social media post fuels global debate over whether the tariffs are part of a permanent new trade regime or simply a negotiating tactic. — AP
WASHINGTON: More than 50 nations have reached out to the White House to begin trade talks since US President Donald Trump rolled out sweeping new tariffs, top officials say as they defended levies that wiped out nearly US$6 trillion in value from US stocks last week and downplayed the economic fallout.
On Sunday morning talk shows, Trump’s top economic advisers sought to portray the tariffs as a savvy repositioning of the United States in the global trade order. They also tried to minimise the economic shocks from last week’s tumultuous rollout.
Wall Street stock futures opened sharply lower on Sunday, in a sign that another rough week could be in store.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said more than 50 nations had started negotiations with the United States since last Wednesday’s announcement, putting Trump in a position of power.
Neither Bessent nor the other officials named the countries or offered details about the talks.
But simultaneously negotiating with multiple governments could pose a logistical challenge for the Trump administration and prolong economic uncertainty.
“He’s created maximum leverage for himself,” Bessent said on NBC News’ Meet the Press.
Bessent downplayed the stock market drop and said there was “no reason” to anticipate a recession based on the tariffs, citing stronger-than-anticipated US jobs growth.
Trump jolted economies around the world after he announced broad tariffs on US imports, triggering retaliatory levies from China and sparking fears of a global trade war and recession.
JPMorgan economists now estimate the tariffs will result in full-year US gross domestic product declining by 0.3%, down from an earlier estimate of 1.3% growth, and that the unemployment rate will climb to 5.3% from 4.2% now.
The Republican president spent the weekend in Florida, playing golf and posting a video of his swing to social media last Sunday.
US customs agents began collecting Trump’s unilateral 10% tariff on all imports from many countries last Saturday.
Higher “reciprocal” tariff rates of 11% to 50% on individual countries are due to take effect tomorrow.
Some governments have already signalled a willingness to engage with the United States to avoid the duties.
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te last Sunday offered zero tariffs as the basis for talks with the United States, pledging to remove trade barriers and saying Taiwanese companies will raise their US investments.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would seek a reprieve from a 17% tariff on the country’s goods during a planned meeting with Trump yesterday.
An Indian government official said the country does not plan to retaliate against a 26% tariff and said talks were under way with the United States over a possible deal.
In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – a Trump ally – pledged last Sunday to shield businesses that suffered damage from a planned 20% tariff on goods from the European Union.
Italian wine producers and US importers at a wine fair in Verona last Sunday said business had already slowed and feared more lasting damage.
Tariff-stunned markets face another week of potential turmoil after the worst week for US stocks since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis five years ago.
The S&P 1500 Composite Index, among the widest measures of the US market, lost nearly US$6 trillion in value in the two days after Trump’s announcement and has had almost US$10 trillion wiped out since mid-February, a significant blow to millions of Americans’ retirement nest eggs.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett denied that the tariffs were part of a Trump strategy to crash financial markets to pressure the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.
He said there would be no “political coercion” of the central bank.
In a social media post last Friday, Trump shared a video that suggested his tariffs aimed to hammer the stock market on purpose in a bid to force lower interest rates.
The social media post fuelled global debate over whether Trump’s tariffs were part of a permanent new tariff regime or simply a negotiating tactic that could lead to the tariffs being eased through concessions by other countries.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested on CBS News’ Face the Nation that they could be the latter, saying the tariffs would remain in place “for days and weeks”. — Reuters
