Home > World > World

Trump won't 'back off' on tariffs: Commerce secretary

Published: 04 Apr. 2025, 10:26 Updated: 04 Apr. 2025, 20:17

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick looks on as US President Donald Trump delivers remarks on auto tariffs and other topics in the Oval Office at the White House, in Washington, DC, USA, on March 26. [EPA/POOL/YONHAP]

U.S. President Donald Trump will not "back off" on recently announced tariffs, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday, renewing calls for trading partners to fix their tariff- and non-tariff barriers.

In an interview with CNN, Lutnick made the remarks, a day after Trump announced a minimum 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports to the United States and higher reciprocal tariffs, including 25 percent duties for Korea, in an expansion of his trade war on a global scale.

"I don't think there is any chance they are going to ... that President Trump is going to back off his tariffs," he said. "This is the reordering of global trade, right? ... But the world should stop exploiting the United States of America."

Asked if there is any room for negotiations over tariffs, Lutnick repeated that Trump will not back off.

"But countries can fix their tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers, which are much rougher," he said.

In a separate interview with CNBC earlier, the secretary said that countries' importation of American products and their "fair" treatment in trade with the United States will be the "key" in negotiations over new U.S. tariffs.

"We are talking with all of the major countries of the world, and we've been talking to them for more than a month ... We've said it's been coming," Lutnick said in the CNBC interview.

"The key is will they take our agricultural products? Will they treat us fairly? Can they treat us fairly? And the answer is, over time, that is going to be yes. American products are going to be better sold elsewhere in the world," he added.

He was responding to a question about possible "wish lists" regarding what it would take to get tariffs reduced or removed.

The secretary claimed that "the fact remains" that the United States is treated unfairly, and that trading partners have "built structurally into their markets this unfairness."

"The subsidies to their steel companies, the subsidies to their car companies. That's why we don't do well together," he said. "Think about why we don't sell cars in Europe, why we don't sell cars in Japan or Korea, why we could never sell cars ... very difficult to sell cars in China."

He also took note of Korea's produce import regulations, stressing that the "rules of the world are stacked against" America.

"We made a deal in 2012 to take Korean cars. In exchange, they were going to take our produce and agriculture," he said. "And when McDonalds tried to bring in French fries, they actually said ... the American company can't bring in French fries because we couldn't prove the origin of the potato."

Yonhap