Foreign countries should not lose their cool: US Treasury Secy

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has advised foreign officials to keep their cool. Talking to Fox News, he asked “the foreign officials keep your cool.”

He made it clear that Washington would negotiate from a position of strength. He said other nations should not escalate tariffs. Instead, he wanted them to “come to us with your offers on how you’re going to drop tariffs, how you’re going to drop non-tariff barriers, how you’re going to stop your currency manipulation, how you’re going to stop the subsidized financing, and at a point, President Trump will be ready to negotiate.”

Trump earlier said that he had talked with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Bessent and US Trade Representative Jameson Greer have since been tapped to head up tariff negotiations with the country. Bessent said Trump was "going to be directly involved in those negotiations" too.

The Treasury secretary said he hadn’t seen any specific offer from Japan but said that "50, 60, maybe almost 70 countries" have gotten in contact with the Trump administration looking to negotiate.

"So it’s going to be a busy April, May, maybe into June," Bessent said.

He said that he expected Japan would get "priority" with negotiations "just because they came forward very quickly." He also noted the important military and economic ties between America and Japan.

During his appearance, Bessent defended the Trump administration using trade deficits in its calculus for determining reciprocal tariffs on imports from some foreign countries. He also noted that "academic studies have shown that it's the non-tariff trade barriers that are the real problem in the US having free and fair access to these markets."