Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent is discussing the US economy, tariffs and inflation at the New York Economic Club. (ecny)
Treasury Secretary Scott Becent on Thursday said it would push back concerns raised over tariffs that would cause inflationary pressures to raise consumer prices, leading to a one-time “price adjustment.”
Bescent spoke at the Economics Club in New York and participated in the Q&A period at Fox Business Network's Larry Kudlow.
“Look, can tariffs be a one-time price adjustment? Yes… I hope that if the temporary ones of the failed teams go back together and it's not as temporary as the tariffs,” Bessent said historic inflation several years ago was “temporary.”
“And for those who say, 'Oh, tariffs are taxes, and they're inflation,' you say taxes are inflation, so I like to challenge many of my Democrat friends,” he added.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent said he is not worried about inflation across the US economy. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Bescent also said that the Trump administration's economic policy considers the government as a whole and that mortgage rates have fallen along with oil prices since the president's election victory and subsequent inauguration, so he is not worried about inflation overall.
“The economic program is a government-wide, it's a whole program, and I think we can get price adjustments at once,” Bescent said.
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President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to raise tariffs on his trading partner partners, including Canada, Mexico and China, and has concluded a mutual tariff policy that will come into effect next month. (Jabin Botsford/Getty Images/Washington Post via Getty Images)
Bescent discussed how Trump's tariffs are intended to spin the international economic system “to promote the interests of the American people.” It prevents the United States from “subsidizing the control of the world's defense,” and “as consumers of other countries and last resorts… absorbing excess supply in the face of insufficient demand for domestic models in other countries.”
“Access to cheap products is not the essence of American dreams,” Bescent said. “American dreams are rooted in the notion that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility and economic security.”
He went on to say that tariffs create an opportunity to reconsider aspects of international economic relations “that doesn't work for the American people.”
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“This is something that tariffs are designed to address. The international trade system has now levelled the arena to reward ingenuity, security, rule of law and stability rather than wage control, currency manipulation, intellectual property theft, non-tariff barriers and Draconia regulations,” Bescent said.
