As US President Donald Trump announced a pause of steep reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries except China, US’s treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the issue was about “bad actors” in global trade. Singling out China, on which Trump has imposed a staggering 125% tariff, Bessent emphasised that such countries were contributing to imbalances in the global economy.
The treasury secretary revealed that trade negotiations were mainly taking place with “China’s neighbours” like Japan, South Korea and India.
“It’s not a trade war. It’s about bad actors. And what we see is some of the very early countries are China’s neighbours that we’re going to see. I saw Vietnam today. Japan is in front, South Korea and India,” Bessent said.
Bessent underscored that the sweeping tariffs announced by Trump on April 2, most of which have been halted for 90 days, were a “negotiating strategy”. The sudden announcement saw the markets around the world rebound, ending days of volatility.
“We saw the successful negotiating strategy that President Trump implemented a week ago today. It has brought more than 75 countries forward to negotiate,” Bessent said.
