President Donald Trump’s “Art of the Deal” appears to be playing out right before our eyes, as multiple countries now want to charge the U.S. zero tariffs in exchange for the same in America’s market.
And the president has indicated he’s open to that.
On Wednesday, Trump rolled out a new tariff policy, charging dozens of countries essentially half what his administration calculates, on average, they are imposing on the United States.
Further, he said, there will be a 10 percent baseline tariff across the board.
Trump called it a “kind reciprocal tariff” policy, saying he would be embarrassed to charge the full amount some other countries are imposing on U.S. goods.
The U.S. stock market has taken a major hit over the last two days, but Trump is sticking to his guns, saying on Thursday, “The rest of the world wants to see is there any way to make a deal.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom. The country is going to boom — and the rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal.” pic.twitter.com/gwC3WSyzIM
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 3, 2025
He added later in the day, “Tariffs give us great power to negotiate.”
Do you think Trump’s tariff plan will work?
“What we have is we have a set of tariffs based on what they have been charging us. That’s reciprocal. And those tariffs have come in, and every country has called us. That’s the beauty of what we do. We put ourselves in the driver’s seat,” Trump said.
JUST IN: President Trump says the tariffs are to put the United States back in the driver’s seat, says he is open to negotiations.
Trump says TikTok is close to a deal and says tariffs may force China to approve it.
“What we have is we have a set of tariffs based on what they… pic.twitter.com/MZY0jVxQxI
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 3, 2025
And sure enough, the president posted on Truth Social Friday, “Just had a very productive call with To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who told me that Vietnam wants to cut their Tariffs down to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the U.S. I thanked him on behalf of our Country, and said I look forward to a meeting in the near future.”
Just had a very productive call with To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who told me that Vietnam wants to cut their Tariffs down to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the U.S. I thanked him on behalf of our Country, and said I look forward…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) April 4, 2025
Vietnam is one of the countries that Trump had singled out Wednesday during his tariff rollout, saying it charges American goods a 90 percent tariff. In response, he said, the U.S. will be charging them 46 percent.
Argentina, under the leadership of President Javier Milei, is reportedly in negotiations to be the first country to have zero reciprocal tariffs with the U.S. According to the Trump administration, it currently charges 10 percent on imported U.S. goods and is slated to be charged 10 percent in return.
Further, ahead of Trump’s tariff announcement, Israel said it will be removing all remaining tariffs on U.S. goods, Fox Business reported.
Israel charges 33 percent on some U.S. imports, according to the Trump administration, and the president plans to charge 17 percent in return.
No doubt, many other deals will be following in the days and weeks ahead.
Former George W. Bush Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said he believes this is exactly Trump’s strategy.
After Trump’s Wednesday announcement, Gutierrez told CNBC, “It’s the opening step. I would expect, and I would assume that this will not be in place in a month, two months. Definitely not in the back half of the year. So I’m in the camp that this is … the beginning of a big negotiation.”
He added, “It’s not only about bringing production back, but it’s also about market access.”
JUST IN: Former Commerce Secretary predicts Trump’s tariffs won’t be in place by the back half of 2025 because other countries will rush to the negotiating table.
Former George W. Bush Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez just made the prediction on CNBC.
Gutierrez went as far… pic.twitter.com/8yyGiuwx0j
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 2, 2025
Gutierrez argued that Trump will likely want to keep in place the 10 percent across-the-board tariff as a revenue generator (at least in most cases), while the higher reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries will go away as they lower their import duties on U.S. goods.
Americans are getting to see the “Art of the Deal” in action, and if all goes as Trump believes, he will succeed at making the nation wealthy again.
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