Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered a three-word reply on Wednesday to countries looking to respond to the United States’ broad tariffs: “Do not retaliate.”
President Donald Trump announced on his self-proclaimed “Liberation Day” a 10% baseline tariff across the board and retaliatory tariffs on some of the country’s closest allies, who he says are taking advantage of the U.S.
Among some of the notable tariffs are 34% on China, 20% on the European Union, 24% on Japan and 32% on Taiwan.
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The tariffs on China increased to 54% due to an existing 20% tariff.
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“My advice to every country right now is do not retaliate. Sit back, take it in, let’s see how it goes. Because if you retaliate, there will be escalation,” Bessent said Wednesday in an interview on “Special Report” shortly after the announcement. “If you don’t retaliate, this is the high-water mark.”
Notably absent on the list of countries subject to tariffs were Mexico, Canada, Russia and Belarus.
Bessent said the United States doesn’t trade with Russia or Belarus because they are sanctioned.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, however, found in 2024 that the United States’ total goods trade with Russia was an estimated $3.5 billion.
U.S. goods exports to Russia in 2024 were $526.1 million, down 12.3 percent from 2023 and U.S. goods imports from Russia totaled $3.0 billion in 2024, down 34.2 percent from 2023, according to the government agency.
The White House announced that the 10% baseline tariff will go into effect on Saturday and the individual, reciprocal tariffs will go into effect on April 9.
“These tariffs will remain in effect until such a time as President Trump determines that the threat posed by the trade deficit and underlying nonreciprocal treatment is satisfied, resolved, or mitigated,” read a release from the Trump administration in part.
Bessent told Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier that the goal of the tariffs is to set the stage for long-term economic growth.
“We are putting ourselves back onto a sound trajectory,” he said, hitting the Biden administration for “gigantic” government spending.
The Treasury secretary added that Congress is working to pass a tax bill as the administration seeks to make the Trump 2017 tax cuts permanent.
“The sooner we can get certainty on tax, the sooner we can set the stage for the growth to resume,” said Bessent.
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