Bessent: Trump Will Revive Foreign Tariffs If Countries Don’t ‘Move Along’ By August 1

On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed that President Trump is intent on reviving tariffs that were paused if countries don’t “move along” by August 1.

Bessent appeared on CNN‘s “State of the Union” with host Dana Bash, who asked what was going to happen when the initial 90-day pause on foreign tariffs expired in three days.

“I’m not going to give away the playbook, because we’re going to be very busy over the next 72 hours,” Bessent answered. “President Trump’s going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners, saying that, if you don’t move things along, then, on August 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level. So I think we’re going to see a lot of deals very quickly. “

“So there’s basically a new deadline?” Bash asked.

“It’s not a new deadline,” Bessent replied. “We are saying this is when it’s happening. If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to go back to the old rate, that’s your choice.

Bessent explained that the “playbook” is “to apply maximum pressure. We saw that the E.U. was very slow in coming to the table. Three weeks ago, on a Friday morning, President Trump threatened 50 percent tariffs, and, within a few hours, five of the European national leaders had called him. And Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the E.U., was on the phone.”
“We are close to several deals,” Bessent continued. “As always, there’s a lot of foot-dragging on the other side. And so I would expect to see several big announcements over the next couple of days.”

“The thing about being the deficit country, Dana, is, when you are the deficit country, you have the leverage,” Bessent asserted. “These are surplus countries that they have exported more to us than we export to them. So we have the leverage in this situation.”

When Bash posited that small business owners have told her they are living with uncertainty because of the tariffs, Bessent replied, “I’d say two things, is, the other thing they would probably have been telling you is, it was the uncertainty around taxes. So, with the One Big Beautiful Bill, they now have great certainty on taxes. … When I’m out talking to businesses, they want trade and taxes. So we have certainty on taxes now. All businesses know that they will be getting 100 percent expensing for new plant and equipment. On tariffs, again, it is the 18 important trading relationships. And we’re moving through those.”