Officers vow to remain course as international locations scramble

US President Donald Trump’s advisers have defended sweeping tariffs on imports and vowed to remain the course, regardless of market turmoil and calls to keep away from a commerce battle.

In a collection of tv interviews, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent performed down latest inventory market falls and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, insisted reciprocal tariffs can be carried out as deliberate.

Bessent mentioned there was “no purpose” to count on a recession because of the turmoil. “That is an adjustment course of,” he mentioned.

In the meantime, one other prime adviser, Kevin Hassett, mentioned greater than 50 international locations have contacted Trump to attempt to negotiate a deal.

All three main inventory indexes within the US plunged greater than 5% on Friday, whereas the S&P 500 dropped nearly 6% in the worst week for the US inventory market since 2020.

In an indication market fragility may proceed this week, Saudi Arabia’s inventory trade – which trades on Sundays – ended practically 7% decrease, its largest every day loss because the pandemic, state-owned media mentioned.

US banking large JP Morgan has predicted a 60% probability of a US and international recession following Trump’s tariffs announcement.

Challenged concerning the turmoil, Lutnick instructed CBS Information on Sunday that the ten% “baseline” tariff on all imports, which got here into impact a day earlier, will certainly “keep in place for days and weeks”.

Lutnick went on say the steeper reciprocal tariffs had been nonetheless on observe.

Increased customized tariffs on roughly 60 international locations, dubbed the “worst offenders”, are on account of come into impact on Wednesday 9 April.

When requested about these tariffs, Lutnick mentioned they had been coming. “[Trump] introduced it and he wasn’t kidding,” he mentioned.

Lutnick additionally defended tariffs imposed on two tiny Antarctic islands populated solely by penguins, saying it was to shut “loopholes” for international locations resembling China to “ship by way of”.

Bessent used an interview with Meet the Press on NBC to argue Trump had “created most leverage for himself, and greater than 50 international locations have approached the administration about decreasing their non-tariff commerce boundaries, decreasing their tariffs, stopping foreign money manipulation”.

Kevin Hassett, one other prime financial adviser to Trump, additionally repeated the declare that greater than 50 international locations had expressed a want to start negotiations. Neither Hassett nor Bessent gave additional particulars of which international locations had been in contact.

Elsewhere, Indonesia and Taiwan have mentioned over the weekend that they won’t impose retaliatory tariffs after the US introduced a 32% levy on imports from each international locations.

Vietnam’s chief, To Lam, has requested Trump to delay a 46% obligation on Vietnamese exports to the US by “at the least 45 days”, based on a letter seen by information company AFP and the New York Instances.

Nevertheless, China introduced on Friday that it would impose a 34% tariff on all US imports, starting on Thursday 10 April.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned on Saturday that “the world as we knew it has gone”.

Starmer mentioned the UK authorities will preserve pushing for an financial take care of the US that avoids a few of the tariffs.

A Downing Avenue spokesman added Starmer and new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed in a telephone name that “an all-out commerce battle is in no-one’s curiosity”.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is anticipated to satisfy Trump for commerce talks in Washington DC.

Netanyahu, talking to reporters as he boarded a plane-bound for the US, mentioned he’s “the primary worldwide chief that’s assembly with Trump” because the new tariffs had been launched.

He says this reveals their “private connection and the connection between our international locations that’s so important on this time”.

Anti-Trump protests had been held in cities throughout the US over the weekend, within the largest nationwide present of opposition because the president took workplace in January.

A whole lot of hundreds of individuals turned out in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC, amongst different cities, with protesters citing grievances with Trump’s agenda starting from social to financial points.

Trump has urged the US to “hold robust” after the market turmoil nevertheless it stays to be seen how the Asian markets will react once they open on Monday.