‘We won’t build tariff wall’: US Treasury Secretary Bessent announces plans for customized levies

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Tuesday that Washington will disclose a customized set of reciprocal tariffs for its trading partners on April 2, along with an assessment of their trade barriers.

“What’s going to happen on April 2─each country will receive a number that we believe represents their tariffs,” Bessent told Fox Business.

“We are going to go to them and say, look, here’s where we think the tariff levels are: non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation, unfair funding, labor suppression,” he added on “Mornings With Maria.”

President Donald Trump has promised reciprocal duties─on both U.S. allies and competitors alike─ from Apr. 2, though his administration has yet to release the exact details of the plan.

With just over two weeks until Apr. 2, he did not say whether those calculations would be complete for all nations by the deadline, but left open the door to some avoiding reciprocal tariffs on that date. If countries stop their practices, Bessent said, “we will not put up the tariff wall.”

Some duties “may not have to go on because a deal is pre-negotiated,” he said, or because countries swiftly approach Washington for talks once they receive their number.

Trump said Monday on social media that April 2 would be “Liberation Day for America,” promising to “start taking back some of the vast wealth that has been taken from us.”

‘No reason for recession’

The president’s tariff plans and the uncertainty surrounding them have shaken markets in recent weeks, fanning fears that an economic ebb could be on the cards. But Bessent told Fox Business that he saw “no reason we need to have a recession,” saying “the underlying economy is healthy.”

He dismissed the premise of guaranteeing there will not be a downturn in the world’s biggest economy.

The former hedge fund manager raised the idea of a “pause” as the economy transitions away from “unsustainable” levels of government spending, pledging that the Trump administration would rein in expenditures and bring manufacturing home.

The president has referred to tariffs as a way to raise revenue, remedy trade imbalances, and pressure countries to act on U.S. concerns.

On Tuesday, Bessent stressed that Trump has identified “critical industries”─like steel and aluminum among manufacturing sectors─for which he hopes to bring production back to the United States.

He added that “we’re going to take in substantial revenues,” pointing to these as a means to offset the government deficit.

Economists note that while tariffs raise revenue for the government, they also shift demand toward domestic industries that make the protected goods. They caution that this does not always mean a net expansion of demand.

Bessent also said Tuesday that the Treasury is working with Congress on further outbound investment rules: “We will make sure that our outbound investment doesn’t turn around and get used against us.”