With President Donald Trump’s latest deadline looming, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick declared the next couple of weeks are going to be “for the record books.”
Lutnick provided a bullish outlook for the second part of July during a Sunday interview on CBS ahead of August 1 — the date Trump picked for targeted countries to face steeper tariffs if they fail to reach new trade agreements.
“The next two weeks are going to be weeks for the record books,” Lutnick told “Face The Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan. “President Trump is going to deliver for the American people.”
Over the past couple of months, following “Liberation Day” in April, the Trump administration has struck framework agreements with China, the United Kingdom, and Indonesia.
Even though CBS News released the results of a poll finding 61% of Americans feel the Trump administration is focusing “too much” on tariffs, Lutnick argued they will “love the deals” that he and Trump are working to put together.
“The president figured out the right answer, and sent letters to these countries, said this is going to fix the trade deficit,” Lutnick asserted. “This will go a long way to fixing the trade deficit, and that’s gotten these countries to the table and they’re going to open their markets or they’re going to pay the tariff.”
Lutnick said the Trump administration will impose “a baseline tariff of 10%” on “smaller countries” in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. “And then the bigger economies will either open themselves up, or they’ll pay a fair tariff to America for not opening themselves up and treating America unfairly.”
When it comes to the European Union, the commerce secretary said there is “plenty of room” for the United States to finalize a new trade agreement. “I am confident we’ll get a deal done,” Lutnick contended, though he conceded August 1 is a “hard deadline” for the bloc.
However, “nothing stops countries from talking” after that date, he said, even as “they’re going to start paying tariffs.”
Lutnick also stressed that Trump is “absolutely going to renegotiate” the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) when it reaches a review period next summer.
“He wants to protect American jobs,” Lutnick said of the president. “He doesn’t want cars built in Canada or Mexico when they could be built in Michigan and Ohio. It’s just better for American workers. The president’s got the American workers’ back.”
The secretary went on, “That’s why they elected him. That’s why the stock market is at all-time highs. They understand the president actually understands business and is doing it the right way.”
