Washington- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed on Sunday that the United States will maintain a minimum 10% tariff on imports for the foreseeable future, signaling the Trump administration\u2019s commitment to its recently toughened trade stance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking on CNN\u2019s State of the Union<\/em>, Lutnick stated, \u201cWe will not go below 10%. We\u2019ll handle things on a country-by-country basis. We\u2019re going to be flexible and extremely smart with each nation.\u201d His comments follow former President Donald Trump\u2019s move last month to impose baseline tariffs on nearly all foreign trade partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Trump previously hinted at possible exceptions, he emphasized during a White House briefing on Friday that a 10% floor would remain in place. \u201cThere\u2019s always going to be a baseline,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThere could be an exception\u2014maybe someone does something exceptional for us. It\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first major trade agreement under this new policy framework was announced last week between the U.S. and the United Kingdom. According to the White House, the U.S. will continue to enforce the 10% minimum but will allow up to 100,000 UK-manufactured vehicles to bypass the 25% auto tariff annually. In exchange, the UK agreed to reduce its 19% ethanol tariff on U.S. imports to zero and lift duties on British-made aerospace parts, including Rolls-Royce engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, the two countries have agreed to match the U.S.\u2019s 25% tariff on steel and aluminum. However, the UK\u2019s government issued a separate statement claiming Prime Minister Keir Starmer had successfully negotiated the steel and aluminum tariffs down to zero, raising questions about the application of the 10% baseline in those sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the Trump team is pursuing what the former president has called a \u201ctotal reset\u201d in trade relations with China. Over the weekend, top officials from both countries met in Switzerland, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s extremely important for both countries,\u201d said Lutnick, adding that discussions are ongoing and progress is being made. Trump echoed that optimism in a social media post on Saturday, writing, \u201cGREAT PROGRESS MADE.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lutnick did not elaborate on the details of the China negotiations but firmly denied that the tariffs are driving up consumer prices in the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Washington- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed on Sunday that the United States will maintain a minimum 10% tariff on imports for the foreseeable future, signaling the Trump administration\u2019s commitment to its recently toughened trade stance. Speaking on CNN\u2019s State of the Union, Lutnick stated, \u201cWe will not go below 10%. We\u2019ll handle things on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":467808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15925,40230],"class_list":["post-467807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-donald-trump","tag-united-states"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-1XHh","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/05\/trump.jpg","dum_api":{"author_name":"Redacci\u00f3n De \u00daltimo Minuto","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cropped-logo-de-ultimo-minuto-96x96.png","categories_name":["Economy"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/05\/trump.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}