Kevin Hassett Says 'There Are Maybe 15 Countries Now That Have Made Explicit Offers' On Tariffs

2 days ago

Kevin Hassett, Director of the National Economic Council, speaks to reporters outside the White House.

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Transcript

00:00How are you?

00:02I think I'm the only New Englander with all those heavy coats you guys are wearing.

00:06I wanted to ask you, you know, the Treasury Secretary was saying that this isn't a trade war with China,

00:11but what else would you call it?

00:13I think it's the beginning of, hopefully, a very fruitful negotiation.

00:16And can you clarify if Amazon is canceling orders for products made in China?

00:21I haven't been read in on Amazon-specific moves right now.

00:26I did go around online websites last night.

00:29You might have noticed in some of my conversations before,

00:32I love to shop and look at prices.

00:33It's one of the things as an economist I like to do.

00:35I've been going to grocery stores and looking at online places

00:38and haven't seen price changes as of last night for the things I usually get.

00:42Did President Trump secure any concessions from any country,

00:46or is the pause solely based on good-faith conversation?

00:50The pause was based on good-faith conversation.

00:53I was on a call with the president of Switzerland yesterday morning

00:58that was incredibly congenial.

01:00And USTR has informed us that there are maybe 15 countries now that have made explicit offers

01:07that we're studying and considering and, you know,

01:10deciding whether they're good enough to present to the president.

01:13And we're setting up with the chief of staff's office a very orderly process to prioritize countries

01:18and to make sure that the countries that are most important for getting this to the finish line

01:23are the countries that we bring in first.

01:25We could do negotiations a number of ways.

01:28We would expect that there will be quite a bit of movement of world leaders into the White House

01:33in the next three to four weeks.

01:35But, yeah, this is a really, really fast process now that's not beginning today or yesterday.

01:43It began long before.

01:45One of the options that the president was considering before he decided to go the way he did yesterday

01:50was to announce some deals that are already so far along that we could pretty much finish them up

01:55and make them public.

01:56But in the end, he decided that a more general announcement, the one that he made yesterday,

02:01was the best way to let everybody understand that he's 100% serious about putting American workers first

02:06and making the trade deals happen as fast as possible.

02:09Can you talk more about the process of the meeting that's happening today?

02:13No.

02:14It's a White House internal deliberation.

02:16But how are you setting up?

02:19The chief of staff's office has asked all the principals that have, you know, skin in the game to come

02:25and discuss what their views are about how this should go.

02:28And that's what the purpose of the meeting is.

02:31Treasury Secretary Besson said yesterday that one idea for trying to deal with China on this

02:37is to get together and strike deals with allies in the region like South Korea, Japan,

02:43and then approach China as a group.

02:46Is that something that's being seriously considered?

02:49These are the kind of things that will be discussed in meetings today and thereafter.

02:54Kevin, what's your response to Democrats who are accusing the president of market manipulation with that post that now is the time to buy?

03:03I think the president's policy has gotten us to a very successful place where we've got countries all around the world

03:09lining up to come up with policy changes that are going to make America great again.

03:13And I don't think that he ever had any other intent other than to get people to the table with, you know,

03:19serious policies on our part that were going to go into place and be permanent if people didn't change their negative ways.

03:25So who was that message for then? Now is the time to buy? Was it not for Americans who might be considering stocks?

03:32Well, I don't think that I ever give stock advice about now.

03:36But I think every day is a good day to buy if you believe in the future of America.

03:40And every day is a good day to hold as well.

03:43You can confidently say he wasn't trying to control what happened in the market.

03:47He believes in the long run, the future of America.

03:50And I think everybody who sees the clarity, with clarity, how strong these policies are should agree as well.

03:56But what about the impact on Americans in the meantime over this last week?

03:59I know some Democrats were also saying many Americans were impacted over that week.

04:04What about that while the President was waiting to change his mind on it?

04:08I think that Americans are looking at where they are right now

04:11and seeing that all the world's countries are lining up to come to America

04:15to make deals that are better for ordinary Americans.

04:18And meanwhile, markets are celebrating, should be pretty happy about the outcome of the week.

04:23So with that, I thank you guys. I got to run.

04:25Thank you. Thank you.

04:29Good question.

Kevin Hassett Says 'There Are Maybe 15 Countries Now That Have Made Explicit Offers' On Tariffs

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