Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says U.S. tariff strategy is twofold: strike fair deals with trading partners while using revenue to potentially lower income taxes. Echoing Donald Trump’s “external revenue service” concept, Bessent said tariff income could help eliminate federal income taxes for Americans.
“Chinese tariffs are unsustainable,” Bessent warned, predicting up to 10 million Chinese job losses if the current trade imbalance holds. He pointed to China’s reliance on U.S. markets, noting Beijing exports nearly five times more to America than vice versa.
I’ve seen some very large numbers over the past few days that show, if these numbers stay on, Chinese could lose 10 million jobs very quickly, and even if there is a drop in the tariffs that they lose 5 million jobs.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
He refused to confirm whether Trump recently spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the nitty gritty of correspondences.
