Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wouldn’t say Wednesday which nations the U.S. could strike trade deals with as soon as this week when pressed during testimony.
Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) pressed Bessent as he testified before the House Financial Services Committee about his recent remarks indicating the U.S. could announce trade deals with some partners as soon as this week.
“So tell us, tell the American people, tell small businesses and consumers, tell retirees specifically, which countries are you close to striking deals with?” Velázquez asked Bessent during the hearing.
Bessent insisted that doing so “would not benefit the United States,” and “that it would be detrimental to the interest of the United States for me to answer that question.”
Bessent said answering the question could compromise ongoing negotiations, noting that talks “may still be in process.”
“I’m happy to say there are negotiations going on. I’m not going to reveal the details,” he said.
Velázquez then asked Bessent how long he thinks the negotiations will take before they are concluded.
Bessent reiterated comments he made previously about there being “18 important trading partners” and that the administration is “moving forward at all deliberate speed with those.” He also said he considered some of the negotiations to be “quite advanced.”
“I believe that they will be the agreements in principle, and then we will paper them over in the coming months, but once we reach an agreement that I am sure that the other countries will live up to,” he said.
Bessent also said he and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is set to meet with Chinese officials in Switzerland later this week to begin negotiations amid an ongoing trade war between both nations.
“I will be going to Switzerland, and the negotiations will begin on Saturday,” he said.
