Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned countries to avoid retaliating against the United States after President Donald Trump announced a broad swath of tariffs of at least 10 percent on all imports into the country.
“My advice to every country right now is do not retaliate. Sit back, take it in, let’s see how it goes, because if you retaliate, there will be escalation. If you don’t retaliate, this is the high-water mark,” Bessent told Fox News’s “Special Report” on Wednesday evening.
Baier then asked Bessent about the message the administration has for individuals concerned about their retirement plans, including 401(k)s or Roth IRAs, in light of the tariffs. On Thursday morning, major U.S. stock indexes dropped, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by 1,500 points at one point.
“Bret, I say that what we are doing is, we’re setting the stage for long-term economic growth, that we were on our way to a financial crisis,” the Treasury secretary said in response.
“I used to teach a history of financial crises. And with that gigantic government spending, it was unsustainable.”
Bessent then pointed to previous stock index declines, saying that “it looked great right before everything collapsed.” The Trump administration has “taken us off that trajectory” for a market crash, “and we are putting ourselves back onto a sound trajectory,” he added.
Trump on Wednesday announced that the base 10 percent tariffs will go into effect on April 5 and that higher reciprocal rates on certain countries will be imposed starting on April 9. Tariffs of 25 percent on vehicle imports took effect at midnight.
The new levies include a 34 percent tariff on imports from China, 46 percent on Vietnam, 24 percent on Japan, and 20 percent on Europe. For China, it means that the total levies will rise to 54 percent.
Announcing the levies, Trump spoke in terms of fairness, arguing that reciprocal tariffs were a response to duties and other non-tariff barriers placed on U.S. goods for years.
“In many cases, the friend is worse than the foe in terms of trade,” Trump said, calling it a declaration of independence, or “Liberation Day.”
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen described the tariffs as a major blow to the world economy and said the 27-member bloc was prepared to respond with countermeasures.
“Uncertainty will spiral and trigger the rise of further protectionism. The consequences will be dire for millions of people around the globe,” von der Leyen said in a statement, adding the EU was preparing to hit back if talks with Washington failed.
Chinese regime officials also said that the country would retaliate against the United States and that it opposed the new tariffs. Meanwhile, Trump recently signed a new order that closes a trade loophole that allowed low-dollar packages from China and Hong Kong to enter the United States without any duty fees, allowing companies such as Temu and Shein to break into the U.S. market in recent years.
During a Thursday morning interview on “Fox and Friends,” Vice President JD Vance said there may be some short-term pain associated with the tariffs but argued that such measures are needed to bring back American jobs and increase domestic manufacturing.
“We know a lot of Americans are worried,” he told Fox News. “What I'd ask folks to appreciate here is that we are not going to fix things overnight.”
During his successful 2024 campaign, Trump vowed to implement tariffs on a number of countries, including a minimum baseline tariff of 10 to 20 percent on all goods entering the United States.
He also said last year that he would want to see a minimum tariff of 60 percent on all Chinese goods.
