US Treasury's Bessent: 100% tariffs doesn't have to happen

In an interview with Fox Business on Monday, United States (US) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted that they have aggressively pushed back against China's export controls and called in a "provocative move," per Reuters.

Key takeaways

"In touch with allies, meeting with them this week."

"Expect support from India, others."

"Believe China is open to discussion on this. If not, we have substantial levers we can pull."

"We could move more aggressively than China has, everything's on the table."

"Confident this can be de-escalated."

"We don't want to decouple but China sending decoupling message."

"US is pushing for world peace, China is financing war."

"We'll see if china wants to be a reliable supplier of rate earths."

"100% tariffs doesn't have to happen, US-China relationship is good."

Market reaction

The US Dollar (USD) preserves its strength following these comments. At the time of press, the USD Index was up 0.37% on the day at 99.22.