Many people believe that 90 days to negotiate taxes with a series of partners is too short and Minister Bessent has to do this with great pressure from the financial market.
US Finance Secretary Scott Bessent over the past few weeks has emerged as the leading face in the adviser to President Donald Trump about the tariff strategy. Now, he was assigned to negotiate about 90 trade agreements with partners within 90 days under Trump’s reciprocal tax postponement order.
President Trump will follow his actions in this process. Wall’s allies and Republicans are skeptical about the tax attack will rely on him to bring stability to the financial market.
US Finance Minister Scott Bessent in Washington in March. Image: Reuters
Mr. Trump said on April 10 that he could “make all agreements in a day”, but the completion of deep and comprehensive trade talks was not easy. Many previous trade agreements of the United States took many years to complete.
“If he followed the traditional path, 90 days would be too short,” said William Reinsch, former US trade official, senior adviser from the Center for Strategic and International Research (CSIS), based in Washington, commented.
Minister Bessent did not give many suggestions on how the government would have access to this important task other than saying that he was “establishing a process” to work with the Ministry of Trade and the US Trade Representative Office (USTR).
He said partners have quickly contacted the government, such as Japan, will be prioritized during the negotiation process. And he also stated earlier this week that the United States “could reach an agreement with its allies” to form a negotiating group with China.
Other White House officials, such as the Director of the Kevin Hassett National Economic Council, said the government had “on the table” proposed from more than 15 economies.
The Trump administration officials are generally generally the ultimate goal of eliminating US trade deficit barriers. Bessent said the government will reach an “request” agreement with each country. However, persuading foreign governments to reverse their important policies has been shown to be a process that takes time, according to observers.
“What is it depends on their will when it comes to ‘negotiations’,”, Ed Gresser, Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute, the trade official under President Barack Obama and the first Trump administration. “Everything depends on the idea of the word ‘agreement’ they want to talk about. Do they want to take down the tariffs? What about trade barriers? What are the digital barriers?
Dan Mullaney, Deputy Deputy Trade Representative under many governments, said negotiations with a series of countries for 3 months will be a difficult task, but he thinks the Trump administration can quickly reach agreements in principle or framework.
“It is an ambitious timeline” but “it is completely possible” with the priority and reasonable arrangement, Mullaney, currently an expert at the Atlantic Council. “The commercial people in the government have done this for a long time and they know how to organize their work.”
But Bessent Minister is also under pressure from the financial market that is longing for a stable signal. Even with the 90 -day reciprocal taxppon, the US tariffs are currently on an average of about 27%, the highest since 1903. Besides, President Trump has launched a trade war with China, applying a tax rate of 145% to all goods imported from the country.
It is expected that Mr. Bessent can now quickly show what a successful agreement is.
“In order to bring confidence to the market, Bessent Ministers need to show us a sample agreement and he needs to do it quickly,” Neil Dutta, head of the economic research department at the Renaissance Macro Research market analysis organization. “People have no example of many aspects of the problem. We really don’t have a guide book for this. It is challenging!”
“You may agree or not, but no one will win in a trade war. There will be many pain,” Dutta said, but in addition, Bessent Minister is the financial professional to perform the most effective agreements to minimize the negative impact on the American public.
Bessent is a strong supporter of President Trump’s population agenda from the election campaign, but the Ministry of Finance is not the main agency responsible for the tariff imposition in the first months of the Trump administration. Previous trade policies under the authority of the Ministry of Trade and USTR.
The Ministry of Finance has a small part tasked with negotiating the financial aspects of the agreements, but traditionally, USTR always plays the leading role in trade negotiations.
This agency and its current head, Jamieson Greer, now seems to play a supporting role for the Minister of Finance. This is a noticeable change compared to Mr. Trump’s first term, when representatives of Robert Lighthizer, USTR’s leader, managing all aspects of the government’s trade policy.
The fact that Bessent’s minister has emerged as a key voice in trade talks is a unexpected development in recent days when President Trump’s tariff plan has wobbled into the financial market.
However, Wall Street has begun to see Bessent as a “crisis manager” and welcomed his increasingly influence on the recent tariff approach of the government.
Bessent Minister “is doing the best what he can do with the current situation,” said Jim Bianco, Director of Bianco Research Financial Analysis Company. “I think everyone is relying on him to bring all of us to overcome this difficulty.”