Trade conflict
US trade minister remains tough: “The tariffs come”
The first part of the new US customs package is already in force, the second part should follow in a few days. The US government emphasizes that there will be no backlog or a quick turnaround.
Despite criticism, the US government adheres to its global customs package. When asked whether the next round of new tariffs is still negotiable and the entry into force could be postponed, Minister of Commerce Howard Lutnick told the television station CBS: “There is no postponement.” He pushed after: “The tariffs come.” US President Donald Trump announced them and did not mean a joke. The tariffs wouldn’t disappear so quickly either. “The president has to regulate world trade,” said Lutnick.
US finance minister Scott Bessent also told the broadcaster NBC that the tariffs are nothing that could be negotiated within days or weeks. In an interview with the broadcaster ABC, the director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hasset, reported that more than 50 countries had already contacted the US government in order to pay negotiations on trade relationships.
A few days ago, Trump had presented a huge customs package that should significantly change the structure of the global economy. In a first step, new flat -rate tariffs of ten percent took effect on imports from almost all countries. On April 9th, a complex mechanism will follow in a next step, which provides even higher tariffs for countries with which the US government believes that the US government has a particularly large trade deficit. With his customs policy, Trump wants to strengthen the production site USA, among other things, but also lead other countries to reduce its own trade barriers for imports from the USA.
dpa
Source: Stern
