Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick: ‘There will be no postponing’ tariffs

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said Sunday that President Trump will not postpone his latest round of tariffs in response to the financial fallout and uncertainty across global markets.

“There is no postponing, they are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks,” Mr. Lutnick said on CBS “Face the Nation.” “That is sort of obvious.”

“The president needs to reset global trade,” Mr. Lutnick said.

Mr. Trump sent the economic markets reeling on Wednesday after he rolled out a tariff package that included a 10% baseline tariff on all imports and higher rates for specific countries, including China, which faces a 34% tariff.

Economists have warned that the tariffs will cause inflation and slow growth, increasing the risk of a global recession.

The markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Some have called on President Trump to pause the tariffs to provide more time to carve out new trade deals with countries across the globe and ease the boiling economic uncertainty.

Trump administration officials fanned out across television talk shows on Sunday to dispel the idea that President Trump would back down.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said global economic markets are “organic animals” and that “we get these short-term market reactions from time to time.”

“There doesn’t have to be a recession,” Mr. Bessent said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Who knows how the market is going to react in a day, in a week.

“This is an adjustment process,” he said.

Mr. Bessent also said the idea that the tariffs are upending the retirement plans of everyday Americans is a “false narrative.”

“Americans who want to retire right now, Americans who have put away for years in their savings accounts, I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations of what’s happening,” he said.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins took issue with people who are “freaking out” over the tariffs, saying numerous countries have contacted the Trump administration to seek to negotiate new trade deals that will benefit the United States.

“So I think we’ll see in short order a really positive outcome from this,” Ms. Rollins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We already have 50, five- zero, 50 countries that have come to the table over the last few days, over the last weeks, that are willing and desperate to talk to us.

“We are the economic engine of the world, and it’s finally time that someone, President Trump, stood up for America,” she said.

“Right now, we’re two business days into this new American order, so I think we have a lot to be determined, but the president is resolute in his focus and his boldness, in his fearlessness and in his relentlessness to ensure that we’re putting America first by using these tariffs — along with deregulation, cutting taxes, energy dominance, it’s an entire package, but right now, obviously the tariffs are front and center,” she said.

Mr. Lutnick said the countries are now looking to strike new deals because “they know they have been ripping us off and the day has come for that to end.”