Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said only President Trump will decide whether to extend trade talks

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said President Donald Trump will decide whether to extend trade talks beyond the July 9 deadline, when higher tariff rates are set to resume.

Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” Thursday, Bessent said, “We’re going to do what the president wants, and he’ll be the one to determine whether they’re negotiating in good faith.”

He added, “I’m not going to give people a 10% extension on national TV when they should try to get it across the finish line.”

The 10% surtax took effect on April 9 and covers the European Union, Japan, and several other partners for a 90-day negotiating window. This levy followed the pause of much higher duties that Trump had announced before.

On Thursday morning, Bessent met with his EU trade official to discuss progress. Regarding that, he said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would be “working diligently over the weekend” with Europe’s officials. “So we’ll see what we can do with the European Union,” he said.

Bessent also commented on talks with Japan, where no deal has yet been finalized despite multiple negotiation rounds. He noted that Japan’s upper house election on July 20 has created domestic limits. “They have an upper house election on July 20th, which I think gives them a lot of domestic constraints in terms of doing a deal,” he said.

Moreover, Bessent said the Vietnam deal was “finalized in principle.” He clarified that the 20% tariff announced by President Trump would not stack on top of the existing 10% universal levy.

Bessent says the White House will pick Powell’s replacement this Fall

Bessent also said that the administration will turn its attention this fall to selecting a successor to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

He said there are “a lot of good candidates” under consideration.

Bessent said the Fed would make its own decisions about the interest rates, but if they did not fall soon, any cut in September could be larger.

Bessent’s name has been suggested for Fed’s job as well. Whether one person could lead both the Treasury and the Fed, he noted it had not happened since the 1930s, but he didn’t say it was impossible.

Earlier, President Trump told Fox News in an interview broadcast on Sunday, he does not plan to extend the 90-day tariff pause beyond July 9. He said the administration will update the countries that the tariffs will be imposed unless agreements are reached.

Trump said letters would be sent “pretty soon” to inform nations of their new rates.  “We’ll look at how a country treats us, are they good, are they not so good—some countries we don’t care, we’ll just send a high number out,” he said.

He described the letters will congratulate the countries for allowing them “to shop in the United States of America” and “pay a 25% tariff, or a 35% or a 50% or 10%.”

On the other hand, speaking at a White House briefing on Friday, Trump said the deadline was too tight to strike separate deals with every country. His team had aimed for 90 trade agreements in 90 days.

He added, “There’s 200 countries, you can’t talk to all of them.”

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