National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the Trump administration was negotiating trade policy with 130 countries.
Host Jake Tapper said, “What do you say to small business owners or even big business owners who say they’re having difficulty making long-term business decisions because the country seems right now to be run by capricious whim?”
Hassett said, “Oh, I don’t think at all that it’s run by a capricious whim. The way that I would think about it is that in the previous administration, you could sort of say, if you’re thinking about it in the football analogy, is that they were running out the clock and that what’s going on now in the Trump administration is across a wide array of policy areas. We’re in a two-minute offense, and the two-minute offense is pushing, as you’ve seen, the reconciliation bill through so that we get tax relief for American people, deregulation and trade policy.”
He added, “Now, on the trade policy, the whole point of the trade policy is to address the national emergency that we’re too dependent on foreign products in the U.S., especially if we were at a time of conflict and we’re doing something about that. The reciprocal act was basically, guys, if you come to the table and negotiate us with us and treat us the same way we treat you, then we’ll you’ll get your rate really low. And so right now 130 countries, 130 countries have responded, and we’re negotiating with them. And they’ve got their rate down to 10%. So, really, it’s almost a two-world system. There’s a process about China that’s very, very nascent, if at all, and then the process for everybody else. So the process for everybody else is orderly. It’s clear, people are coming to town with great, great offers.”
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