CNN
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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that “tariffs are not going away” after a federal appeals court last week paused a block on many of the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs.
President Donald Trump “has so many other authorities that even in the weird and unusual circumstance where this was taken away, we just bring on another or another or another,” Lutnick said on “Fox News Sunday.”
The Court of International Trade on Wednesday blocked the bulk of Trump’s global tariffs, ruling that the president did not have “unbounded authority” to impose tariffs, only for the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to pause the block and restore the levies the next day. Trump’s ever-changing trade strategy, which has included pausing some tariffs to create more time to negotiate, may face bargaining challenges with countries after the trade court ruled the president exceeded his authority by imposing across-the-board duties under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
When asked about a European Union official who told Reuters the court decision gave the EU “extra leverage” in trade talks, Lutnick said, “It cost us maybe a week.”
Trump recently threatened, and then delayed until July 9, a 50% tariff on the EU. Lutnick said that since the court ruling, “everybody came right back to the table. Everybody’s talking to us. You’re going to see, over the next couple of weeks, first-class deals for the American worker.”
The 90-day pause for Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, which imposed sweeping tariffs on more than 100 countries, is soon set to expire as the administration continues to push negotiations. There won’t be an extension to that pause, Lutnick said Sunday.
“That’s the deadline and the president’s just going to determine what rates people have. If they can’t get a deal done, President Trump is going to determine what deal there’s going to be,” he said.
Global markets have been shaken by Trump’s economic policies, particularly the back-and-forth on tariffs on major trading partners and the tit-for-tat escalation with China. The trade war between China and the United States was seemingly dialed back on May 12, after the two sides agreed in Geneva, Switzerland, that Beijing’s tariffs on US imports would be cut from 125% to 10% for 90 days. The United States temporarily reduced tariffs on China from 145% to 30%.
Under the agreement, China would also suspend or cancel its non-tariff countermeasures imposed on the United States since April 2. Part of its retaliatory measures included export restrictions on some rare earth minerals, which are essential parts used in products such as iPhones, electric vehicles and fighter jets.
But on Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social that China “totally violated” its trade agreement with the United States. The comments came after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that talks with China were “stalled.”
Bessent said Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will meet “very soon,” but declined to set a specific date and would not say what consequences Beijing would face for violating the trade agreement.
“But the fact that they are withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement — maybe it’s a glitch in the Chinese system, maybe it’s intentional, we’ll see after the president speaks with the party chairman,” Bessent said, clarifying that he was referring to critical rare earth minerals.
“People in China had to give us licenses for things. The licenses, we believe, have been slow-rolled,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Hassett said the administration’s trade team has been “focused like a laser beam” on trade with China “to make sure that there are no supply disruptions.”
“Once that thing’s resolved, then we’re going to take deals into the Oval that (US Trade Representative) Jamieson Greer and Howard Lutnick have negotiated,” he added.
Lutnick said the administration is “slow-rolling the deal” with China and is “confident” an agreement will be reached.
Trump administration officials told CNN last week that they were frustrated by China’s failure to follow through on trade commitments. The frustration prompted the Trump administration to revoke Chinese student visas and halt sales of some critical technology to Chinese companies.
Bessent was asked about the impact of the administration’s tariffs on the cost of everyday goods, including plans for back-to-school shopping. He pointed out that some companies, namely Amazon and Home Depot, have yet to increase consumer prices.
“There’s a wide aperture here of different companies are doing different things. They are making decisions based on their customers, what they think they’re able to pass along to their customers what they want to do to keep their customers,” he said.
But since Trump imposed his tariffs, some companies have warned they may increase prices to offset the costs.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said on May 15 that its products would become more expensive as a result of Trump’s tariffs being “too high,” particularly when it came to Chinese goods. Trump responded that Walmart needed to stop “trying to blame tariffs,” adding that the retail giant and China should “eat” the tariffs.
China was America’s second-largest source of imports last year, shipping $439 billion worth of goods, while America exported $144 billion worth of goods to China.
Household product maker Procter & Gamble, toymaker Mattel and carmakers Ford and Subaru are among the other companies that have said they will raise prices.
Trump told a crowd of US Steel employees in Pennsylvania on Friday that he would double the levies on steel from 25% to 50% to “secure the steel industry in the United States” and protect American steelworkers.
On Sunday, Hassett defended the increase on steel tariffs, framing them as a critical step to ensure the United States is prepared in the event of war.
He pointed to China’s overwhelming influence on global steel markets while highlighting the national security rationale behind the tariffs.
“Chinese steel production is something like double the global capacity, that steel industries all across the world are in trouble because of China dumping of steel,” Hassett said.
“They’re doing that because it prepares them to win a war, because they’re the only ones who can make steel,” he added.
“President Trump is going to make sure that that never happens to the US, that we don’t have the steel we need in case of war,” Hassett said.
He added a stark warning, saying, “If we have cannons, but not cannonballs, then we can’t fight a war.”
Experts have warned Trump’s increasing tariffs could lead to rising prices for the American construction and manufacturing industries.
Bessent, meanwhile, said Sunday that those tariffs are “going to impact the construction industry, maybe, but it’s going to impact the steel industry in a great way.”
