Bessent on Trump reciprocal tariffs threat: 'This is not theater'

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended President Trump’s recent decision to study the proposed reciprocal tariffs instead of immediately enacting them.

“As we've learned that with President Trump, you should take him at his word. This is not theater. The April 1 deadline is for a study that the Commerce Department is doing on global tariffs that apply to U.S. products, country-by-country,” Bessent said during a Friday interview on Fox Business's "Mornings with Maria."

“And also, we're not just looking at tariffs, but we're looking at nontariff barriers, the local content, things like that. And we're also looking at currency manipulation,” he added.

Trump signed a memorandum Thursday outlining a process to match foreign tariff rates applied to the U.S. 

Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick and U.S. trade representative nominee Jamieson Greer will work with Bessent, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will suggest any proposed changes after the review of trade contracts. 

“As I repeatedly said, the U.S. has a strong dollar policy, but because we have a strong dollar policy, it doesn't mean that other countries get to have a weak currency policy,” Bessent said.

“So we're going to come up with what is the equivalent of an index, what I would call reciprocal index, country-by-country, the outstanding tariffs, nontariff, the trade barriers and currency manipulation.”

After receiving their proposals, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought would then submit a report within 180 days to evaluate the potential impact on trade relations. 

Officials say tariffs could be enacted as early as April 2.

“I am expecting that we will get this report, and we will see how our trading partners choose to respond, but I can tell you that if he needs to, he will implement them,” Bessent said of the effort. 

“And as he said in the interview yesterday, this can be a big revenue source for the U.S. government.”