Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended President Trump’s recent decision to study the proposed reciprocal tariffs instead of immediately enacting them. “As we’ve learned that with

President Donald Trump on Thursday moved to tear up decades-old low U.S. tariff rates, raising them to match those of other countries and counteract other barriers to American goods to try to shrink a U.

Trump has used the tariffs as a negotiating tool and a way to protect US industry, and has repeatedly railed against the country’s trade deficit. The order to draw up a reciprocal tariff plan comes alongside other measures, which often do not take a reciprocal approach.