Trump Treasury Sec says don’t panic over tariff rate surge Aug. 1

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday urged corporate America, investors and U.S. trade partners “not to panic” if tariff rates surge on Aug. 1 because deals have not been reached yet, saying that countries “can still do a deal” after President Donald Trump’s deadline expires.

“You’re just going to go back to your April 2 reciprocal tariff level,” Bessent said at a policy event with hardline conservative site Breitbart News, adding that a higher tariff rate may apply to any given country “for three days, it may be on for three weeks, it may be on for three months.”

“You can continue negotiating,” Bessent said, addressing America’s trade partners and suggesting that Trump’s Aug. 1 tariff deadline was yet another negotiating tool for a White House seeking to pressure countries to accept higher tariff rates while granting U.S. products more access to their domestic markets.

Bessent said that if a country’s tariff rate lands on the level that was initially announced on Trump’s “Liberation Day” in April, it is “going to get a lot of attention.”

Many of the April 2 rates are significantly higher than the 10% blanket baseline tariff rate currently in place.

“I would expect that it’s going to be a busy August,” Bessent said, foreshadowing what could be an onslaught of trade negotiations after the Friday deadline expires.

The Trump administration maintains that the Aug. 1 trade deadline is firm, even as scores of countries, including some top trading partners, have not yet inked any kind of trade deal.

“THE AUGUST FIRST DEADLINE IS THE AUGUST FIRST DEADLINE – IT STANDS STRONG, AND WILL NOT BE EXTENDED,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Wednesday.

Bessent’s remarks echo comments he made Tuesday, when he said that it was “not the end of the world if these snapback tariffs are on for anywhere from a few days to a few week,” again underscoring that the reciprocal tariff rates could be temporary for countries negotiating in “good faith.”

Yet Bessent’s remarks are unlikely to reassure investors and businesses bracing for Trump’s tariffs to take effect, especially as companies are already struggling to keep pace with the evolving trade environment.