WASHINGTON: More than 50 countries have reached out to the United States to start trade talks after the announcement of sweeping new tariffs by President Donald Trump, senior White House officials said on Sunday, as global markets reel from the potential fallout of a wider trade war.
Kevin Hassett, Director of the US National Economic Council, told ABC News that dozens of countries had approached the White House in hopes of negotiating relief from the tariffs, which were announced last Wednesday.
“More than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation,” Hassett said, citing information from the US Trade Representative. “They understand that they bear a lot of the tariffs.”
Hassett downplayed concerns that the tariffs would have a significant impact on American consumers, saying that exporters, not buyers, would absorb the cost increases.
“I don’t think that you’re going to see a big effect on the consumer in the US,” he added.
In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the number of countries seeking talks and defending the administration’s controversial move.
However, he said it would be up to President Trump to determine how and whether to proceed with negotiations.
“At this moment he’s created maximum leverage for himself… I think we’re going to have to see what the countries offer, and whether it’s believable,” Bessent said.
He also accused some countries of being “bad actors for a long time,” implying that swift resolutions were unlikely.
President Trump’s decision to impose broad import levies sent shockwaves through global markets, prompting retaliatory measures from key trade partners such as China and sparking fears of an impending global recession.
Since the announcement, US stock markets have plummeted by around 10 per cent—marking the worst performance since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis five years ago.
In a bid to defend the policy, Trump administration officials took to Sunday morning television shows, casting the tariffs as part of a strategic repositioning of the US within the global trade system.
They insisted that the resulting market volatility was a temporary effect and not a sign of a looming economic downturn.
Responding to speculation that the tariffs were intended to trigger a stock market slump in order to force the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, Hassett dismissed such claims. “There’s going to be no political coercion of the central bank,” he said.
Trump himself appeared to lend credence to that theory by sharing a video on Truth Social suggesting that the tariffs were designed to pressure the Fed into lowering rates.
Nevertheless, Bessent maintained that the overall economic outlook remained strong.
“We could see from the jobs number on Friday, that was well above expectations, that we are moving forward,” he said. “So I see no reason that we have to price in a recession.”
Among those responding to the tariffs, Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te on Sunday offered zero tariffs as a basis for talks with the US.
He pledged to remove trade barriers rather than implement retaliatory tariffs, and said Taiwanese firms would increase their investments in the United States.
Despite reassurances from the White House, economic analysts continue to warn of inflationary pressures and potential harm to global trade flows if the tariffs remain in place.
