President Donald Trump indicated he’s not open to a tariff pause, while simultaneously saying countries have been open to negotiating their trade relationship following his rollout of widespread tariffs.
Asked by reporters at the White House if the tariffs are a hard boundary or a basis for negotiations, Trump said they could be both.
“There can be permanent tariffs and there could also be negotiations, because there are things that we need beyond tariffs,” Trump answered.
Global stock markets have tumbled since Trump announced severe tariffs on global imports last week. Wall Street seems favorable to a pause: A headline Monday morning suggesting Trump was considering a 90-day tariff pause on all countries except China saw markets move up. But the comments, attributed to director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett, were ultimately linked to a probable misinterpretation of an interview on Fox. The market proceeded to drop again.
“We’re not looking at that,” Trump said in response to a question on a pause in tariffs. “We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us, and they will do fair deals, and in certain cases, they’re going to be paying substantial tariffs. There’ll be fair deals.”
As an example, Trump indicated he’d spoken to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, describing it as a “very good conversation.” Trump told reporters he was concerned about the deficit in automobile trade with Japan, and what he views as unsubstantial agriculture exports from the U.S. to Japan.
“We have a great relationship with Japan. We’re going to keep it that way, but they’re coming in to meet,” Trump said. He’s previously posted on Truth Social about conversations with Vietnam as well, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who sat by his side on Monday — said Israel will “eliminate the trade deficit with the United States.”
Trump added that his administration will talk to China and other countries about the new tariffs, in search for “a really fair deal and a good deal for the United States.”
Later in the conference, he said he was concerned other countries could “manipulate their currency,” and those that “come up with rules and regulations that are just designed for one reason, that you can’t send your product in those countries, and we’re not going to let that happen.”
He also waved away concerns that tariffs might drive U.S. trading partners towards China: Those partners, he said, “want to be in the hands of the U.S. They don’t want to be in the hands of the Chinese. The Chinese have turned out to be really not very good at that. People that are with us, they’re with us, but we cannot be taken advantage of any longer.”
In his remarks to the press, Trump seemed particularly fixated on China and the European Union, which has recently suggested a zero-for-zero industrial tariffs policy. “The E.U. has been very tough over the years. It was, I always say, it was formed to really do damage to the United States in trade,” Trump said.
Like with Japan, Trump said he was particularly concerned with the automobiles deficit, and had a suggestion for Europe on how to close their trade deficit with the U.S.: “We have a deficit with the European Union of $350 billion and it’s going to disappear fast. And one of the reasons, and one of the ways that that can disappear easily and quickly, is they’re gonna have to buy our energy from us, because they need it.”
But nonetheless, when asked if any countries were farther along in getting their tariffs reduced, he said, “I think there are many that want to get rid of tariffs right now. [The] European Union, I mean, as badly as they’ve treated us, they’ve, you know, they’ve brought their car tariffs essentially off.”
And he stood firm on his consistent characterization of the tariffs as a basis for restructuring the global trade market more favorably towards the U.S.
“It’s the only chance our country will have to reset the table, because no other president would be willing to do what I’m doing or to even go through it,” he said. “Now, I don’t mind going through it because I see a beautiful picture at the end, but we are making tremendous progress with a lot of countries, and countries that really took advantage of us are now saying, ‘Please negotiate.’”
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Nuha Dolby is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.