By Ismail Shakil and David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has reached one trade deal already and is waiting for approvals from that country before announcing it, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday.
“I have a deal done … but I need to wait for their prime minister and their parliament to give its approval,” Lutnick said.
Trump wants to strike 90 trade deals during a 90-day pause on some tariffs announced earlier in April, and his administration has repeatedly said it was negotiating bilateral trade deals with dozens of countries.
Trump’s trade policies have a ripple effect on the global economy, and the 90-day pause was announced after financial markets went into a tailspin over fears of recession and inflation, among other factors.
Speaking of markets’ reaction to Trump’s tariffs, Lutnick said: “They’re getting (it) wrong because they’re not looking at the big picture.”
“If you do a trade deal with a country and they say, ‘alright, I’m gonna open my market for $15 billion,’ which is not big at all, it’s small. And you do it 20 times, that’s $300 billion, that’s 1% of GDP,” Lutnick said.
Still, Lutnick said Trump was not focused on the markets.
“He’s just not focused on the markets … He’s trying to reset global trade. It’s hard to do. It takes strength. But he is going to protect the American economy,” Lutnick told CNBC.
(Reporting by David Lawder in Washington and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Chizu Nomiyama)
Comments