Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday on ABC’s “Meet the Press” that the Trump administration’s trade negotiations with several Asian countries are “moving along very well.”
Host Martha Raddatz said, “Let’s talk about the Time interview with President Trump. He said that he has made 200 deals on tariffs. 200 deals? Who has he made deals with? Is there actually any deal at this point?”
Bessent replied, “I believe that he is referring to sub-deals within the negotiations we’re doing.”
Raddatz said, “But those aren’t actual deals.”
Bessent said, “Martha, if there are 180 countries and 18 important trading partners, let’s put China to the side because that is a special negotiation. There are 17 important trading partners, and we have a process in place over the next 90 days to negotiate with them. Some of those are moving along very well, especially with the Asian countries.”
He added, We’ve had several of these Asian countries have come in and said, ‘Oh, well, we’ll stop doing this, this, and this.’ And I look at these lists, and I think, how did we get here? Because this trading system has been so unfair. As President Trump says, I don’t blame the countries. I blame the previous administrations that let them get away with it.”
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