Looking more at the tariffs. Is an end goal closer and a plan being hatched?

Could a plan be emerging?

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wasn’t directly involved in setting the American tariff rates but he’s now in charge of negotiations to avoid them getting implemented.

This is good news. Whether it was the plan all along is unlikely given all the backtracking and reshuffling that’s been going on, but at this point, as long as there is a plan, there could be a way out of this mess.

The former hedge fund manager has vaulted to the front of the line in President Donald Trump’s list of advisers in recent days, in a context where a historic selloff on Wall Street put pressure on the administration to ease off of its maximalist position on import duties.

Jamie Dimon, arguably the biggest luminary in US finance, specifically called Wednesday for Bessent to take the lead. “Let Scott take the time” with trading partners to craft deals, Dimon said in a Fox Business appearance that Trump said he watched.

Shortly after, Bessent cancelled a midday appearance with Republicans on Capitol Hill to discuss the GOP’s tax-cut bill. Later in the day, he emerged at the White House to speak to reporters as the administration’s initial face, detailing Trump’s decision on a 90-day pause for most of the “reciprocal” levies to allow for talks.

Before he was picked as Treasury chief, Bessent had described Trump’s approach as “escalate to de-escalate,” a mantra that he dropped after officially joining the team. But that is now arguably what’s unfolding. Trump tapped Bessent, along with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, to take the lead on talks with Japan, which is being prioritised as a key ally and a nation that came forward quickly.

At a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Trump cited Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as “people that are working on deals.” Bessent said at that session that the Treasury, Commerce and USTR office will be “putting a process in place.”

Stocks surged Wednesday on news of the pause, but the S&P 500 gave up more than a third of the surge Thursday as investors contemplated the prospect of difficult talks with dozens of trading partners.

Brexit wasn’t that long ago that we’ve all forgotten how slow trade deals can take, although something tells us that the US’s trading partners won’t be able to procrastinate like the EU/UK did. Maybe we’ll get a lesson in how to make fast trade deals.

“What happened yesterday was the market saw that they have a spokesperson” in Bessent, said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. “Today reality set in,” he said of the Thursday drop in stocks. For Bessent, Wednesday was “one of the most important days of his early tenure so far, but there’s a lot of tests yet to come.”

It’s a sudden shift for the Treasury chief, who in recent weeks had instead been co-leading negotiations on the tax package with Republican lawmakers.

Last November, it was Lutnick who appeared to be the undisputed trade czar, as Trump not only picked him as Commerce chief but also said he “will lead our tariff and trade agenda,” and have “direct responsibility” for Greer’s USTR office as well. Bessent will most likely have a less aggressive more agreeable tone with foreign trading partners and could well steer the ship down a more productive path.

“I wasn’t involved in the calculations of the numbers”, announced April 2, Bessent said earlier this week as stocks tumbled and Treasury yields soared, stoking concerns about not just a recession but even a financial crisis. I’m not sure we’d have a lot of faith in anyone who was so the fact that he is forthcoming in saying this is good news.

But now he’ll be directly negotiating with US trading partners on whatever new sets of numbers result from the trade talks. He’s indicated that, along with Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and India are among the priorities, and highlighted how those nations geographically surround China, which has been walloped by a 145% tariff hike, with no off-ramp yet apparent.

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports aim to drive down the trade deficit and punish for Beijing for retaliating US tariff measures. However, the issue with this is apparent within the very reason for the tariffs. The US gets most of its imports from China, if that stops, the US consumer will pay a very high price both literally and metaphorically. A deal must be done or the US will suffer a great deal as they cannot suddenly substitute their entire supply chain and move it internally.

And just to reiterate: It is the US companies who pay the tariffs on the imports NOT CHINA. Prices on US goods will go up.

“I’m going take a lead negotiating role in a lot of the tariffs, starting with the Japanese,” Bessent said Wednesday, noting that he would be staying in town for Easter for the talks with other countries. Next week, he heads to Argentina.

What’s unclear is whether the current approach, and Bessent’s key role, was all part of some grand master plan or simply just a quick reaction to a Wall Street selloff that saw the S&P 500 sink into a bear market and a tumble in US Treasuries that raised fears of a funding squeeze.

At this point, we don’t care if it was the plan or not, as long as it is the plan now. Trump can save face, and deals can be negotiated. China remains the problem because contrary to what the President believes, he does not hold all the cards. Without China, US manufacturing will not suddenly move internally but will now rely on countries like Vietnam and Taiwan instead.

Bessent’s more prominent role is “an encouraging sign for investors,” said Brian Gardner, the chief Washington policy strategist for Stifel.

In the wake of the April 2 announcement, Bessent repeatedly touted in news interviews that dozens of nations had approached Washington seeking talks, and counselled trading partners against retaliation. Omitted from the signalling: any suggestion that the new, steep tariff wall would stick for the long term and serve as a force for reshoring manufacturing from abroad.

Bessent, a South Carolina native, also stayed close to Trump after last week’s announcement, flying to Mar-a-Lago over the weekend to consult with the president in the wake of last week’s slump in equities possibly having a strong hand in the idea to pause the tariffs.

Can Bessent save the world from Trump’s mess? We certainly hope so.

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