The Japan Times - World scrambles to temper Trump tariffs as market fears mount

The Republican has remained defiant since unleashing the blitz of tariffs on stunned countries around the world Wednesday, insisting that his policies "will never change" even as markets went into a tailspin.

He took to the golf course Sunday, according to his own post on Truth Social.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel -- which has been hit with 17 percent tariffs, despite being one of Washington's closest allies -- will fly in for crunch talks with Trump Monday on the levies.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned in a newspaper op-ed that "the world as we knew it has gone," saying the status quo would increasingly hinge on "deals and alliances."

Trump's staggered deadlines have left space for some countries to negotiate, even as he insisted he would stand firm and his administration warned against any retaliation.

"More than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation," Kevin Hassett, head of the White House National Economic Council, told ABC's This Week on Sunday, citing the US Trade Representative.

Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse that counted the US as its biggest export market in the first quarter, has already reached out and requested a delay of at least 45 days to thumping 46 percent tariffs imposed by Trump.

Hassett said countries seeking compromise were doing so "because they understand that they bear a lot of the tariffs," as the administration continues to insist that the duties would not lead to major price rises in the United States.

"I don't think that you're going to see a big effect on the consumer in the US," he said.

- 'Markets bloodbath' -

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also told NBC's Meet the Press that 50 countries had reached out.

But as for whether Trump will negotiate with them, "I think that's a decision for President Trump," Bessent said.

"At this moment he's created maximum leverage for himself... I think we're going to have to see what the countries offer, and whether it's believable," Bessent said.

Other countries have been "bad actors for a long time, and it's not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks," he claimed.

Despite hopes for negotiations to avert the worst economic carnage, there was widespread fear that the markets bloodbath could continue into the new trading week.

In Saudi Arabia, where the markets were open Sunday, the bourse was down 6.78 percent -- the worst daily loss since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to state media.

Larry Summers, formerly Director of the National Economic Council under president Barack Obama, said "there is a very good chance there's going to be more turbulence in markets the way we saw on Thursday and Friday."

A drop like that following the announcement of tariffs "signals that there's likely to be trouble ahead, and people ought to be very cautious," he wrote on X.

Peter Navarro, Trump's tariff guru, has pushed back against the mounting nervousness and insisted to investors that "you can't lose money unless you sell."

"Right now, the smart strategy is not to panic, just stay in, because we are going to have the biggest boom in the stock market we've ever seen under the Trump policies," Navarro, who has become the public face of tariffs, told Fox News.

Russia has not been targeted by the latest raft of tariffs, and Hassett cited talks with Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine as the reason for their omission from the hit list.

"There's obviously an ongoing negotiation with Russia and Ukraine, and I think the President made the decision not to conflate the two issues. It doesn't mean that Russia, in the fullest of time, is going to be treated wildly different than every other country," Hassett said.

Trump has long insisted that countries around the world that sell products to the United States are in fact ripping Americans off, and he sees tariffs as a means to right that wrong.

But many economists have warned that tariffs are passed on to consumers and that they could see price rises at home.

T.Shimizu--JT