AsianFin -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday touted forthcoming trade deals with India, South Korea and Japan, as the Trump administration is making substantial progress on negotiations over tariffs.
Credit：China Daily
Bessent told reporters at the White House that U.S. is making progress on trade deals with India, South Korea and Japan. “I think that we are very close on India,” said Bessent. He continued: “I could see the contours of a deal with the Republic of Korea coming together, and then we've had substantial talks with the Japanese.”
“Seventeen are in motion,” Bessent said, referring to at least 17 U.S. trading partners that he will speak to over the next few weeks. Bessent believes negotiations with Asian partners are the closest to leading to a deal as those allies “have been the most forthcoming” with negotiations.
Asked whether the trade deal with India could be finalized this week, Bessent didn’t provide any timetable. “I think that we are very close on India, and India — just a little inside baseball — India, in a funny way, is easier to negotiate with than many countries because they have very high tariffs and lots of tariffs,” Bessent said.
Bessent said he could see some announcements on India as U.S. Vice President JD Vance last week visited India and had made “some very good progress” with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi there. He added the deal with Japan and South Korea are also close.
Bessent said he would not comment on whether U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had any direct talks. He also declined to say whether U.S. and China are in direct talks over tariffs.
Bessent insisted the 145% overall tariffs would hurt China more than the United States. He said the current Chinese tariffs are unsustainable for China’s economy and predicted the superpower could lose 10 million jobs quickly due to tariffs.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said he had reached a trade with an unnamed foreign country, and the deal was not fully finalized for it was pending for local approval.
When asked about Lutnick’s comments on Fox Business later that day, Bessent declined to share if a deal with any country had been done. “I’m not going to get ahead of the president. Nothing’s done until President Trump announces it. ... So we should wait to hear from President Trump over the next couple of days,” Bessent said.
