Leaders commit to continuing their strategy amidst global chaos

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US President Donald Trump’s advisers defended sweeping tariffs on imports and vowed to stay the course, despite market turmoil and calls to avoid a trade war.

In a series of television interviews, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent played down recent stock market falls and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, insisted “tariffs are coming”.

Bessent said there was “no reason” to expect a recession as a result of the turmoil. “This is an adjustment process,” he said.

Meanwhile, another top adviser, Kevin Hassett, said more than 50 countries have contacted Trump to try to negotiate a deal.

All three major stock indexes in the US plunged more than 5% on Friday, while the S&P 500 dropped almost 6% in the worst week for the US stock market since 2020.

In a sign of continued market fragility this week, Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange – which trades on Sundays – ended nearly 7% lower, its biggest daily loss since the pandemic, state-owned media said.

Bessent (left) pictured with Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (right) in the Oval Office in February

Reuters Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (left) pictured with Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (right) in the Oval Office in February — Bessent (left) pictured with Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (right) in the Oval Office in February

Challenged about the turmoil, Lutnick told CBS News on Sunday that the 10% “baseline” tariff on all imports, which came into effect a day earlier, will definitely “stay in place for days and weeks”.

Lutnick went on say the steeper reciprocal tariffs were still on track.

Higher custom tariffs on roughly 60 countries, dubbed the “worst offenders”, are due to come into effect on Wednesday 9 April.

When asked about these tariffs, Lutnick said they were coming. “[Trump] announced it and he wasn’t kidding,” he said.

‘Maximum leverage’

Bessent used an interview with Meet the Press on NBC to argue Trump had “created maximum leverage for himself, and more than 50 countries have approached the administration about lowering their non-tariff trade barriers, lowering their tariffs, stopping currency manipulation”.

Kevin Hassett, another top economic adviser to Trump, also repeated the claim that more than 50 countries had expressed a desire to begin negotiations. Neither Hassett nor Bessent gave further details of which countries had been in touch.

Elsewhere, Indonesia and Taiwan have said over the weekend that they will not impose retaliatory tariffs after the US announced a 32% levy on imports from both countries.

Vietnam’s leader, To Lam, has asked Trump to delay a 46% duty on Vietnamese exports to the US by “at least 45 days”, according to a letter seen by news agency AFP and the New York Times.

However, China announced on Friday that it will impose a 34% tariff on all US imports, beginning on Thursday 10 April.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned on Saturday that “the world as we knew it has gone”.

Starmer said the UK government will keep pushing for an economic deal with the US that avoids some of the tariffs.

A Downing Street spokesman added Starmer and new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed in a phone call that “an all-out trade war is in no-one’s interest”.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet Trump for trade talks in Washington DC.

Netanyahu, speaking to reporters as he boarded a plane-bound for the US, said he is “the first international leader that is meeting with Trump” since the new tariffs were introduced.

He says this shows their “personal connection and the connection between our countries that is so essential in this time”.

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Leaders commit to continuing their strategy amidst global chaos

‘Maximum leverage’

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