“You should be very optimistic and positive, and I am too,” Lutnick said during a Fox News appearance Sunday, weighing in on tariff negotiations. “Because the president truthed it.”
“They are there right now. They’re in the room right now, so I’m just going to leave it to them to take care of that themselves. But they felt terrific yesterday, and that was really uplifting,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said. | Alex Brandon/AP
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saluted the White House’s progress on trade negotiations with China on Sunday while waving aside suggestions that there would be price increases triggered by President Donald Trump’s extensive tariffs.
Pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” about the negotiations between the U.S. and China unfolding in Switzerland over the weekend, Lutnick said “things feel really good” but declined to provide any details on the discussions.
“I’m leaving it to the trade team,” Lutnick said. “They are there right now. They’re in the room right now, so I’m just going to leave it to them to take care of that themselves. But they felt fine yesterday, and that was really uplifting.”
Lutnick also dismissed concerns about inflation, asserting that businesses and foreign countries — not American households — will be bearing the cost.
“What happens is the businesses and the countries primarily eat the tariff,” Lutnick said. “Look, we have 25 percent tariffs that were set on under President Trump’s first term. … No consumers in America sit here complaining about those tariffs.”
However, many economists and Democrats beg to differ, warning that the tariffs will inevitably impact consumers and workers as prices rise and supply chains constrict. Lutnick urged Americans to not believe their assertions.
“Don’t buy the silly arguments that the U.S. consumer pays,” he said. “Businesses — their job is to try to sell to the American consumer, and domestically produced products are not going to have that tariff.
Trump declared there was a “total reset” of the trade relationship between the U.S. and China in a Saturday social media post, without offering details why. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer traveled to Switzerland on Saturday to meet with Chinese representatives to negotiate a trade agreement.
The U.S. has imposed a staggering 145 percent tariff on Chinese products in total ongoing retaliatory escalation primarily triggered by Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff introduction in April.
Despite speaking favorably about trade negotiations, Lutnick said that the baseline 10 percent tariff on all countries isn’t going anywhere. A framework for a U.K.-U.S. trade deal, announced last week, contains the 10 percent levy.
“We will not go below 10 percent,” he said. “That is just not a place we’re going to go.”
During another Sunday appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Lutnick asked consumers to have faith in Trump’s trade strategy, despite the administration being reticent to share many details about the negotiations.
“You should be very optimistic and positive, and I am too,” Lutnick said. “Because the President truthed it.”
