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Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Sunday that over 50 countries have reached out to the Trump administration for negotiations since President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on Wednesday.
Rollins shared the update during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” addressing the recent economic changes.
“We’ve got 50 countries that are burning the phone lines into the White House up,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“And probably the president’s cell phone as well, and probably [Commerce Secretary] Howard Lutnick as well. And I’ve heard from some as well,” she added.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” that he was informed Saturday night by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative that over 50 countries have contacted the president to initiate trade negotiations.
“So, the fact is, the countries are angry and retaliating and, by the way, coming to the table. I got a report from the [U.S. Trade Representative] last night that more than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation. But they’re doing that because they understand that they bear a lot of the tariff,” Hassett said.
“And so, I don’t think that you’re going to see a big effect on the consumer in the U.S. because I do think that the reason why we have a persistent, long-run trade deficit these people have very inelastic supply. They’ve been dumping goods into the country in order to create jobs, say, in China,” he continued.
The universal 10 percent tariffs began on Saturday, with tariffs on individual countries scheduled to start on Wednesday.
“Taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” Trump said during his remarks announcing the tariffs on Wednesday. “But it is not going to happen anymore.”
The president referred to the tariffs as friendly reciprocal tariffs, showing how America’s charges will be lower than many tariffs charged against the U.S. For example, China charges the U.S. 67 percent tariffs but will face 34 percent tariffs on imported goods. The European Union charges 39 percent, but it will be charged 20 percent.
“In other words, they charge us, we charge them. We charge them less. So how can anybody be upset?” Trump said.