Tariffs, Lutnick: "I'm confident in the agreement with the EU. The August 1 deadline is binding."

MILAN – " I'm confident we'll reach an agreement," U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation." "I was on the phone" with European officials "this morning," Lutnick added, also emphasizing that August 1st is "a binding deadline" for the tariffs.

The US Commerce Secretary clarified: "Nothing prevents countries from talking with us after August 1st, but they will start paying tariffs on August 1st." "Small countries," he said, will face a 10% base tariff in the new trade negotiations, while "larger economies will either open up or pay a fair price to America for not opening up and for treating us unfairly." Americans, he emphasized, "will appreciate the deals President Trump and I make," and "they will love them."

Lutnick also said he expects Trump to renegotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), signed during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021. Barring substantial changes, USMCA-compliant products from Mexico and Canada are duty-free. "I think the president will definitely renegotiate the USMCA, but that will be a year from now," Lutnick said.