During an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, National Economic Council Director, Kevin Hassett, was asked about President Trump's switch-up on his tariff policies.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Okay, let's talk about the overall investment environment.
00:04Nine days ago, President Trump announced to the whole world
00:07that those were the rules for doing business in America going forward.
00:11The tariffs were here to stay. His policies were not going to change.
00:14I'm just quoting him from his truth social messages.
00:17And then, of course, on Wednesday, he issued this 90-day pause on most of the tariffs.
00:21And in his own words, it was because the bond markets were getting queasy and yippy.
00:25So here's what one small business owner told CNN about the impact that this whiplash is having on her.
00:34A pause is better than no pause, but the uncertainty is still really chaotic for a small business like me.
00:40And now, even if I move out of China, how am I going to be certain that if I place an order today,
00:45I won't find a new tariff tomorrow?
00:47This up and down is just something as a small business I can't pivot to.
00:50So that's Sarah Wells from Sarah Wells Bags.
00:52Well, what do you say to small business owners or even big business owners
00:55who say they're having difficulty making long-term business decisions
00:59because the country seems right now to be run by capricious whim?
01:03Oh, I don't think at all it's run by capricious whim.
01:06The way that I would think about it is that in the previous administration,
01:10you can sort of say, if you're thinking about it in the football analogy,
01:13is that they were running out the clock.
01:15And that what's going on now in the Trump administration is across a wide array of policy areas,
01:20we're in a two-minute offense.
01:22And the two-minute offense is pushing, as you've seen, the reconciliation bill through
01:26so that we get tax relief for American people, deregulation, and, of course, trade policy.
01:32Now, on the trade policy, the whole point of the trade policy
01:34is to address the national emergency that we're too dependent on foreign products in the U.S.,
01:41especially if we were at a time of conflict.
01:44And we're doing something about that.
01:45And the reciprocal act was basically, guys, if you come to the table and negotiate us with us
01:50and treat us the same way we treat you, then you'll get your rate really low.
01:56And so right now, 130 countries have responded, and we're negotiating with them,
02:01and they've got their rate down to 10%.
02:04And so really, it's kind of almost a two-world system.
02:07There's a process about China, and that's very, very nascent, if at all.
02:12And then the process for everybody else.
02:14So the process for everybody else is orderly.
02:16It's clear.
02:17People are coming to town with great, great offers.
02:21We've got Japan, Korea, India.
02:24I was just talking to the foreign minister of India.
02:27And everything is moving forward very quickly.
02:29And so I guess the bottom line is that the small business owner has experienced over the last few weeks
02:36the start of a process that's settling down really quite quickly.
02:39Again, 130 countries are at 10% now.
02:42So let's talk about these 130 countries, because as you know better than I do,
02:45it typically takes months, if not years, to negotiate trade deals.
02:50Trump's signature trade deal from his first term, a great achievement,
02:54according to both Democrats and Republicans, NAFTA II, or the USMCA,
02:58that took 15 months to put together.
03:01How exactly are you and your team and the USTR team,
03:04how are you going to negotiate deals that actually deliver for the American people
03:09with more than 100 countries in less than three months?
03:13Oh, yeah.
03:14You know, first of all, just a little bit of more clarification.
03:18One of the things I like to ask people is,
03:19who's the chairman of the National Economic Council?
03:21And then everybody thinks, oh, it's you, Kevin.
03:23Well, no, I'm the director.
03:24The chairman of the National Economic Council is President Trump.
03:27And so what President Trump does is he sets out a path for everybody,
03:32for Howard Lettnick, Scott Bessett, and for Jameson,
03:35on how they would move forward on a particular policy matter.
03:38And then it's my job as director to make sure that the president's wishes are being fulfilled.
03:42I'm kind of there to help everybody succeed.
03:44And I can tell you, I've been watching the people who are assigned to different assignments
03:48working really, really hard on getting trade deals forward over the last many weeks.
03:53And so one of the things that we were thinking about this week
03:57was that we had a few of these deals that are so close to baked
04:00that we could announce that we have a deal in principle.
04:03You're right that getting the fine print out would maybe take a little longer.
04:07But we were thinking about announcing a deal in principle even this week.
04:10But then we were making so much progress so rapidly that the president decided to instead,
04:15instead of having one or two things right now, just go for the 10 percent pause.
04:18And I think it was the right answer,
04:20given the massive amount of momentum that we've been seeing.