{"id":14419,"date":"2025-01-27T23:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T23:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=14419"},"modified":"2025-01-27T23:00:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T23:00:48","slug":"scott-bessent-pushes-gradual-2-5-universal-us-tariffs-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=14419","title":{"rendered":"Scott Bessent pushes gradual 2.5% universal US tariffs plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\">Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=7fb420b9-1bd1-4c68-8575-94e99315051c&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Donald Trump\u2019s Treasury secretary pick Scott Bessent is pushing for new universal tariffs on US imports to start at 2.5 per cent and rise gradually, according to four people familiar with the proposal.<\/p>\n<p>The 2.5 per cent levy would move higher by the same amount each month, the people familiar with it said, giving businesses time to adjust and countries the chance to negotiate with the US president\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n<p>The levies could be pushed up to as high as 20 per cent \u2014 in line with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/donald-trump\" data-trackable=\"link\">Trump\u2019s<\/a> maximalist position on the campaign trail last year. But a gradual introduction would be more moderate than the immediate action some countries feared.<\/p>\n<p>Two people familiar with the discussions said it was unclear if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/ecf54e1e-751a-4c5f-85ce-fdc32f0e9970\" data-trackable=\"link\">Bessent<\/a> had convinced other central stakeholders, including Howard Lutnick, Trump\u2019s pick for commerce secretary, to adopt his proposal. <\/p>\n<p>Tariff policy is already at the centre of fierce <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/global-trade\" data-trackable=\"link\">trade<\/a> debates between hawks such as Peter Navarro and Jamieson Greer, and moderates such as Bessent.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has threatened to force tariffs of up to 25 per cent on imports from Canada and Mexico as soon as this weekend, and in recent days <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/2a9dc578-6d93-429e-a4f8-ad725812e9c0\" data-trackable=\"link\">threatened Colombia<\/a> with 25 per cent tariffs in a dispute over deportees. <\/p>\n<p>Another person familiar with Trump\u2019s thinking said he was weighing different options. \u201cThere is not a single plan the president is ready to decide on yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A person familiar with Bessent\u2019s thinking declined to comment on the record about the proposal, but said: \u201cHe is not drawing up any plans but if confirmed looks forward to being a part of the conversation.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>While Bessent and other proponents of the low initial tariff believe it would give countries and companies time to adjust and negotiate, critics counter that a higher initial rate would send a clearer message.<\/p>\n<p>Trump made high tariffs a core of his \u201cAmerica First\u201d campaign rhetoric last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/ac708b43-64ae-45b8-b60d-997e7904086a\" data-trackable=\"link\">vowing in September<\/a> to \u201ctax\u201d foreign nations \u201cat levels that they\u2019re not used to\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>But since his inauguration on January 20, the president\u2019s main move has been to publish a memorandum outlining probes into US trade policy, the cause of the country\u2019s trade deficits and whether competitors are manipulating currencies and unfairly taxing US businesses.<\/p>\n<p>When asked by reporters last week whether he planned to introduce universal tariffs, Trump replied: \u201cWe may. But we\u2019re not ready for that yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trade analysts and lawyers have said Trump could levy universal tariffs swiftly by using executive powers such as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which allows the president to respond to emergencies through economic means.<\/p>\n<p>However, trade experts have also warned that the use of IEEPA to issue broad tariffs would likely face legal challenges by business groups.<\/p>\n<p>Trump, who has long railed against the US\u2019s trade deficit, has suggested that tariffs would be a way to raise revenue for the country. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,\u201d he said in his inaugural address.<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"f33f3d35-3f49-4a48-97dd-fcddd3b02e32\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/f33f3d35-3f49-4a48-97dd-fcddd3b02e32\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2290\/1288\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>In his US Senate confirmation hearings last week, Bessent said that the Trump administration would use tariffs to tackle unfair trade practices, raise US government revenues, and strike deals with foreign countries.<\/p>\n<p>Bessent was approved as Trump\u2019s choice to lead the Treasury by the Senate finance committee last week, and is widely expected to be confirmed by the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>The White House did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/7fb420b9-1bd1-4c68-8575-94e99315051c\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}