Howard Lutnick: US 'Won't Go Below 10%' But Will Be 'Flexible' And Set Tariffs 'Country-By-Country'

On Sunday, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick spoke to CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" about President Trump's tariffs.

Transcript

00:00business have said that they're going to pass it off to the consumer. I want to ask,

00:04because you are working on other deals, of course, many of them outside of what has happened and is

00:10happening with the UK. Is that 10% tariff kind of a baseline in the way you're approaching these

00:16other countries that you're negotiating with? Yes, we will not go below 10%. That is just not

00:24a place we're going to go. We will, country by country, address their particular issues.

00:30So, for instance, with steel and aluminum and aircraft parts, we said those could come into

00:36the country tariff-free, right? So Rolls-Royce engines could go on a Boeing jet that Boeing sells.

00:42And, of course, you saw that Boeing announced a $10 billion deal to sell those Boeing aircraft

00:48with Rolls-Royce engines to British Airways. So that's an example how we're going to be

00:54flexible and we're going to be super smart country by country. But at least you saw the rates that

01:01were published on Liberation Day. Those countries can take those rates down if they open their markets

01:08to Americans to export. Let Americans get their stuff on these foreign governments and foreign

01:15consumer shelves and we'll be better as a country. I think what's happened is we just have never felt

01:21the fairness of our ability to export. Finally, the president of the United States is on our side

01:27and that's what you're going to see in the U.K. and then country after country. We're going to announce,

01:32like we did with the U.K., how many tens of billions of dollars of new opportunity the president

01:38is negotiating for American small businesses and medium-sized businesses to sell their products

01:44overseas. That's the golden age that's coming and everybody else is going to build in America

01:49to get around that tariff. Remember, there's no tariff if you build it in America.

01:55The entire world is hoping that what you are saying does come true and waiting for the next step.

02:02I also want to wish your wife a happy Mother's Day for kids. That's pretty awesome.

02:06Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thanks so much.