The next is the transcript of an interview with Trade Secretary Howard Lutnick that aired on “Face the Country with Margaret Brennan” on April 6, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Secretary, welcome to “Face the Country.”
COMMERCE SECRETARY HOWARD LUTNICK: Nice to be right here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We see about 60% of American citizens have cash within the inventory marketplace, which imply that retirees might be simply as involved as hedge fund managers this morning. Did you are expecting this stage of concern within the monetary markets?
SEC. LUTNICK: Neatly, you have to notice it is a nationwide safety situation. I imply, we are not making drugs on this nation anymore. We are not making ships. We do not have sufficient metal and aluminum to battle a fight, proper? All our semiconductors are made in another country. So each button we press after we attempt to get started our automobile and even use our microwave, those are all semiconductors. They are all made in different places. We now have were given to begin to offer protection to ourselves, and we’ve got were given to prevent having all of the nations of the sector ripping us off. We’ve a $1.2 trillion business deficit, and the remainder of the sector has a surplus with us. They are incomes our cash. They are taking our cash, and Donald Trump has observed this, and he will forestall it. So it’ll be a large alternate. In fact, it is going to be a large alternate, yet the remainder of the sector has been ripping us off for these kind of a few years. Donald Trump has observed it. He is spoken about it–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –I remember the fact that and–
SEC. LUTNICK: –and he is simply no longer going to take it anymore. And that is the reason his fashion.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And that was once abundantly transparent all through the presidential marketing campaign, how a lot the president in reality believes in price lists and placing them on the heart of his financial coverage, yet you noticed absolute panic within the world markets. Did you are expecting that or have been you stunned?
SEC. LUTNICK: No, I feel the purpose is, you want to reset the ability of the USA of The us and reset it in opposition to all our allies and our enemies alike. The- the concept that all of the nations of the sector can run business surpluses with The us and purchase our issues with us– take note, $1.2 trillion. in 1980 we have been a internet investor- which means we owned extra of the remainder of the sector than they owned of us–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, it is a other global now, it is a other marketplace.
SEC. LUTNICK: And now- and now they personal 18- they personal $18 trillion folks, internet. In order that manner the remainder of the- once a year after we run a $1.2 trillion deficit, the remainder of the sector buys $1.2 trillion of The us, and it is going up and up and up. And sooner or later we aren’t going to possess The us, and we’re going to be owned through the remainder of the sector.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you speaking about–
SEC. LUTNICK: Consider if we had a conflict and we will’t construct a boat, we will’t fly a airplane. We will’t construct our personal planes–
MARGARET BRENNAN: K–
SEC. LUTNICK: –we do not have our personal semiconductors. That is what the President is right here to repair for The us. It is- he- in his fingers, and he needs to repair The us. That is his chance–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. So–
SEC. LUTNICK: –to repair The us, and we want him to repair it for our kids and our grandchildren.
MARGARET BRENNAN: K, yet for- for companies to do what you are doing, as a result of what I pay attention you laying available in the market is a plan to re-industrialize the USA and to deliver firms again to The us. For a CEO to select to invest–
SEC. LUTNICK: Neatly mentioned. Neatly mentioned.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –but for a CEO to make the ones decisions- you realize this- they want sure bet. They wish to know if it prices them extra to stick in another country, or if it prices them extra to transport right here. So are you able to give them readability, in order that they do not simply minimize jobs as a result of they are coping with the price of those tariff- price lists. Are you able to inform them how lengthy they are staying in position?
SEC. LUTNICK: Completely. The US of The us goes to offer protection to the individuals who spend money on The us. Trillions and trillions of dollars- you heard the President talk about it- are coming to spend money on The us. That is the economic system of the sector. We’re the shopper of the sector, and corporations wish to construct it right here, and we can offer protection to them for construction it right here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: K, so–
SEC. LUTNICK: We will be able to assist the American employees, sure. American employees are costlier, yet they are higher.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I were given it–
SEC. LUTNICK: We are going to offer protection to all of the factories that come to The us, and that is the reason what is coming right here. So, the President is on it–
(CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: K, is the ten% tariff everlasting?
SEC. LUTNICK: He is going to offer protection to them- neatly, take note, it is a nationwide safety issue–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –I were given it. Is the ten% tariff everlasting?
SEC. LUTNICK: –and he wishes to handle our finances deficit- that- the, you realize, the regulations of The us are the regulations of The us, he would love it to be that we want to offer protection to the corporations that make investments right here, and we’re going to offer protection to the corporations that make investments right here. That’s the coverage of the USA of The us. That is why trillions of bucks are coming right here. The rip off of the- of the USA of The us is over. A lot of these firms are going to come back and make investments right here. That is what they are doing. That is why they have got dedicated trillions of bucks. They know here’s the economy–
MARGARET BRENNAN: – K, Mr. Secretary, though–
SEC. LUTNICK: –this is where to move.
(END CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Secretary, the marketing campaign’s over. You gained. So I am asking what the plan is. So the treasury secretary mentioned on any other community, “we are going to cling the route.” “It isn’t the type of factor you’ll negotiate away in days or perhaps weeks.” That makes it sound just like the price lists are staying in position a minimum of for days or perhaps weeks. Is that proper? Or is the President bearing in mind suspending implementation to barter?
SEC. LUTNICK: There is not any suspending. They’re no doubt going to stick in position for days and weeks. This is kind of obtrusive. The president must reset world business. Everyone has a business surplus and now we have a business deficit. We’re paying away our long term and our lives. Come- the nations of the sector are ripping us off, and it has got to finish. The President has made it crystal, crystal transparent. That is the coverage we are going to offer protection to. The factories that come construct in The us, we are going to offer protection to them. They are going to achieve success. That is why they are going to construct in The us, the best economic system within the earth. All of those firms are going to come back and construct right here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So when 3 of the President’s different financial advisers, who’re on different networks lately, say that fifty other nations had been calling the White Area to take a look at to discuss the price lists, what does that imply? As a result of that makes it sound like there’s a negotiation, which isn’t like pronouncing the price lists are everlasting.
SEC. LUTNICK: Neatly, what it presentations is that these kind of nations know that they have been ripping us off, and the day has come for that to finish. Now the issue is, it isn’t simply tariffs- like, I’m going to come up with an instance, like Vietnam mentioned they might love to be zero-zero. Be mindful, Vietnam sends us $120 billion price of products each year–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Sure, affordable production
SEC. LUTNICK: And we ship them about $12 billion- wait, we ship them $12 billion. So it isn’t the price lists. It has not anything to do with price lists. In the event that they went to zero-zero, they might cross to 200 billion with us. We wish to forestall the rip off, and zero-zero is- is the way–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –I do know yet we do not have zero-zero, sir.
SEC. LUTNICK: –to make it extra of a rip off. We’d like–
MARGARET BRENNAN: We do not have zero-zero if truth be told, as a result of after we noticed the president stand within the Rose Lawn retaining up that chart that you just helped make, that- that wasn’t if truth be told price lists. That was once if truth be told complicated to buyers, as it was once some more or less different method, and the nations themselves appeared more or less random. Like, why are the Heard and McDonald Islands, which do not export to the USA and are slightly actually inhabited through penguins, why do they face a ten% tariff? Did you employ AI to generate this?
SEC. LUTNICK: No. No, the idea- glance, the assumption is that there aren’t any nations left off.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Why are they at the listing?
SEC. LUTNICK: Since the idea- what occurs is, should you go away the rest off the listing, the nations that attempt to principally arbitrage The us undergo the ones nations to us. Any country- like we had price lists, the President put price lists on China, proper, in 2018, after which what China began doing is that they began going via different nations to The us. They only constructed via different nations, via The us. And so, the President is aware of that, he is bored with it, and he will repair that. So principally he mentioned, glance, I will’t let any a part of the sector be a spot the place China or different nations can send via them–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Throughout the Heard Islands.
SEC. LUTNICK: –so the tip of the ones loopholes- those ridiculous loopholes. And now what he is looking to say is, I’ll repair the business deficit of the USA of The us. It is a nationwide safety situation. We wish to make drugs. We wish to make semiconductors. We wish to make ships. We wish to have metal and aluminum. Come on, we want the greatness of The us to if truth be told be inbuilt The us. And he is bored with getting ripped off through the remainder of the sector.
MARGARET BRENNAN: K, yet simply to be transparent, April 9, the so-called retaliatory tariffs- the reciprocal price lists, I must say. Are the ones coming or are they open to negotiation?
SEC. LUTNICK: The price lists are coming. He introduced it, and he wasn’t kidding. The price lists are coming. In fact they’re.
MARGARET BRENNAN: K. Is the management bearing in mind any more or less offset, any more or less subsidy? You discussed the primary management, there was once some bailout to farmers to assist them handle the ache from Chinese language retaliation. Are you having a look at that now?
SEC. LUTNICK: I am- no longer that I have- I’ve no longer participated in any conferences with appreciate to that. The rustic is concentrated on- you recognize, trillions of bucks of factories are going to be inbuilt The us. That is massive GDP. The factories being inbuilt The us are massive GDP–
(BEGIN CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: That takes years–
SEC. LUTNICK: And that’s going to subject to us.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And also you mentioned that robots are going to fill the ones jobs. So the ones are not union employee jobs.
SEC. LUTNICK: No, it is in point of fact computerized jobs. It is computerized factories- computerized factories. However the secret’s, who is going to construct the factories? Who is going to perform the factories? Who is going to cause them to paintings? Nice American employees. You understand, we’re going to replace–
MARGARET BRENNAN: You mentioned robots on different networks. You mentioned that to FOX.
SEC. LUTNICK: –the armies of hundreds of thousands of people- neatly, take note, the military of hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of human beings screwing in little- little screws to make iPhones, that more or less factor goes to come back to The us. It is going to be computerized and nice American citizens- the tradecraft of The us, goes to repair them, goes to paintings on them. They are going to be mechanics. There may be going to be HVAC experts. There may be going to be electricians, the tradecraft of The us. Our highschool skilled American citizens- the core to our body of workers, goes to have the best resurgence of jobs within the historical past of The us to paintings on those high-tech factories, that are all coming to The us. That is what will construct our subsequent era of The us.
(END CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you involved, within the time it is going to take for a corporation to transport to The us, that it is going to receive advantages China in the- within the speedy time period, that different markets will glance to different providers as an alternative of coping with the USA?
SEC. LUTNICK: This is ridiculous. The issue is, everybody on the planet sells to us. Our economic system is the patron of the sector. We’re the one one with a business deficit. The remainder of the sector has a business surplus. Why does Europe have a business surplus? Is there one thing about Europe that is particular? Severely, are they a unique global than we’re? Why are they promoting 200 billion a year–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Oh, Mr. Secretary.
SEC. LUTNICK: –more to us. This is because it isn’t honest. The foundations are made no longer honest, and President Trump goes to repair them, and he is doing it for The us, and he is doing it to your kids and mine and our grandchildren. That is the instant that the USA of The us takes cling of itself, and Donald Trump’s been speaking about this his complete existence. That is Donald Trump’s schedule, and we are all right here to assist him execute it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we can take him at his phrase, slightly actually. Thanks, Mr. Secretary, to your time this morning. “Face the Country” will probably be again in a minute. Stick with us.
