Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said President Donald Trump could set tariff rates himself if the United States is unable to reach ideal trade agreements with other countries.
The statement comes after those on Wall Street and on the internet started using the term “TACO,” or “Trump Always Chickens Out.” The U.S. set wide-ranging reciprocal tariffs on numerous trade partners in early April before announcing a 90-day pause on them a week later following turmoil in the stock market.
“I think we’re going to get a lot of deals done,” Lutnick told Fox News. “We could sign lots of deals now, but I think we’re trying to make them better and better and better. And as the president said, or he’ll just set rates, and it’ll set the terms of the deal.”
Lutnick said he doesn’t “see” that an extension on the 90-day pause is coming. “I think that’s the deadline, and the president’s just going to determine what rates people have if they can’t get a deal done. President Trump is going to determine what deal is going to be.”
The U.S. hasn’t signed many trade deals outside of a major agreement with the United Kingdom. Several countries are still negotiating with the U.S., with Vietnam and India viewed as the closest to a deal.
The lack of deals has investors antsy, given the forecasted impact the tariffs will have on consumer prices and the U.S. economy. If deals can’t be worked out, tariffs will be enforced, and consumers will face the financial ramifications.
Trump has expressed anger over the “TACO” term, coined to mock his hard-charging tariff approach that appears heavily influenced by the markets.
“Oh, I chicken out? Isn’t that nice? I’ve never heard that,” Trump said in reaction to it.
Trump countered that his 90-day tariff pause with China, set to expire in August, and the pause on other countries exemplified his trade bravery.
“You call that chickening out?” he said. “I think we really helped China tremendously because, you know, they were having great difficulty because we were basically going cold turkey with China,” the president continued. “We were doing no business because of the tariff, because it was so high. But I knew that.”
“Don’t ever say what you said,” Trump told the reporter. “That’s a nasty question.”
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Lutnick also said if a deal isn’t made with China, its “economy is in really, really tough shape.”
“I love having all of this power in the president’s hands,” Lutnick concluded. “He knows how to wield it correctly for the benefit of the American worker.”
