Aggressive tariffs that President Donald Trump announced Wednesday will begin a “re-ordering” of global trade that will force other nations to open their doors to more American goods, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday.
Under an executive order the president signed, the U.S. will retaliate against duties imposed on American goods elsewhere.
Lutnick, in a CNBC interview, said the moves will push countries to re-examine their policies and provide greater market access for U.S. products.
“This is the reordering of fair trade,” he said on “Squawk Box.” “It’s about those non-tariff trade barriers. That’s what we are addressing.”
“I expect most countries to start to really examine their trade policy towards the United States of America, and stop picking on us,” he added. “Stop saying that we can’t sell our corn to India, stop saying that we can’t sell our beef anywhere. Just stop treating us so poorly.”
As Lutnick spoke, traders recoiled against the tariff announcements, sending futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by more than 1,100 points as Treasury yields also fell sharply.
Asked what it would take for products to be given exemptions from the new tariffs, Lutnick said the issue runs deeper.
“I don’t think the word exemption is going to be a factor. I don’t think that’s such a thing,” he said. “I think what there’s going to be is a world of fairness. Let’s go try to figure out ways for the world to treat us more fairly and more properly.”
In the Wednesday announcement, Trump said the U.S. would apply 10% blanket duties on all products coming into the U.S., while also unveiling a menu of other reciprocal rates against individual trading partners.
The move represented another leg up in the president’s strategy to open more markets for U.S. products. However, economists fear the tariffs will ignite a damaging global trade war and spike inflation amid signs of a slowing economy.
“We’re talking with all of the major countries of the world, and we’ve been talking to them for more than a month,” Lutnick said. “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.”
The U.S. ran a $122.7 billion trade deficit in goods and services in February, down $8 billion from January but still near a record, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. The imbalance for the first two months of the year has soared 86% from the same period in 2024.
