Good Interview with Bessent on Meet the Press

[pittbb80]

Treasury Sec. Bessent says ‘there doesn’t have to be a recession’: Full interview

Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent exclusively joins Meet the Press days after President Donald Trump unveiled expansive tariffs on the United States’ largest trading partners.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Pitt2009]

I’m generally curious to your opinion on this? Are you pro tariff across the board (on countries with both a trade surplus and deficit)? If so, as a negotiating tactic or as a long term solution?

 

[pittbb80]

I’m generally curious to your opinion on this? Are you pro tariff across the board (on countries with both a trade surplus and deficit)? If so, as a negotiating tactic or as a long term solution?

I’ve stated my portion in other threads but I’ll quickly summarize. I’m for fair trade. Right now for the most part we don’t have fair trade and havnt had it for decades especially with respect to
China and to a lesser extent with Europe The issue that has caused is it has resulted in the US losing its manufacturing base. We no longer export materials but sevices. That impacts the working middle class the most. It’s also a national security issue as we saw during Covid. So while it’s not practical to make Everthing in the US it’s certainly not sustainable to be where we are now. So regarding tarrifs they are both being used to bring trading partners to the table and create better trade deals for the US (ie US citizens) but also to “protect” our critical industries like other countries currently do. Already many of the countries are reaching out because the US market is too valuable to lose. We have a lot of leverage in this process

Here’s another great interview by Rubio that address the trade issue as well as Greenland and the Russia Ukraine war and NATO

 

[pittbb80]

 

[303vND]

Sure they have.