Trump administration officials on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s massive tariff action last week, saying it has triggered a flood of requests for negotiations from countries hit by the sweeping new duties.
“We’ve got 50 countries that are burning the phone lines into the White House up,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And probably the president’s cell phone as well, and probably [Commerce Secretary] Howard Lutnick as well. And I’ve heard from some as well.”
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” also said he had heard Saturday night from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative that “that more than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation.” Neither Rollins nor Hassett specified which countries had reached out.
In addition, Trump and other administration official have sent mixed signals about the primary aim of the tariffs — whether their purpose is to raise “trillions of dollars” of new revenue and boost domestic manufacturing, as Trump said last week, or to pressure countries into a negotiations to reduce their own tariffs and other trade barriers. The two goals are somewhat contradictory because the more Trump strikes deals to remove the tariffs, the less revenue they will bring in. More here
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Author: Joe Weber
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