A cargo ship full of shipping containers is seen at the port of Oakland as trade tensions escalate over US tariffs, in Oakland, California, US, on March 6, 2025. Photo: IC
Despite widespread opposition and concern from the international community and within the US, the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview with CBS on Sunday local time that the White House will not postpone the start date of reciprocal tariffs, which are set to take effect on Wednesday.
The US stock market has experienced a sharp drop in response to the new tariff policy of the Trump administration. On Sunday evening, Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures fell 1,272 points, or 3.3 percent, pointing to another brutal session ahead on Monday. Meanwhile, Nasdaq-100 futures lost 4.8 percent. CNBC reported that this is the result of the new US administration's "rollout of shockingly high tariff rates on most key US trading partners."
In an interview with Lutnick that aired on CBS's "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday, the US commerce secretary said "the tariffs are coming. He announced it, and he wasn't kidding."
He added that the White House is not considering an extension of the start date.
"There is no postponing. They are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks," said Lutnick.
Ironically, the US plan to impose additional tariffs on places like the Heard and McDonald Islands near Antarctica, which don't export to the US and are literally inhabited by penguins, have immediately drawn media attention. In response to questions about this, the US commerce secretary claimed that "the idea is that there are no countries left off," the CBS reported.
The US tariff policy has faced strong opposition worldwide, including from its major trading partners.
In a latest response to the US tariff policy, the Chinese embassy in Canada said on its WeChat account on Sunday that there are no winners in trade wars, and protectionism leads nowhere. China urges the US to immediately cancel its unilateral tariff measures and properly resolve differences with its trading partners through equal dialogue. China is willing to work together with countries, including Canada, to firmly safeguard multilateralism and the multilateral trading system, continuously promote inclusive economic globalization, and maintain the stability of the global trading system, the Chinese embassy in Canada said.
The practice of the US imposing additional tariffs disregards the results of the balance of interests achieved in multilateral trade negotiations over the years, and also ignores the fact that the US has long reaped substantial benefits from international trade, said the embassy.
China will impose additional 34 percent tariffs on all imported US products starting April 10, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council announced Friday. The Chinese government's position on opposing US abuse of tariffs was released on Saturday. "We don't make trouble, but we have no fear of trouble," the statement said, Xinhua reported.
Meanwhile, the EU countries will seek to present a united front in the coming days against the US tariffs, likely approving a first set of targeted countermeasures on up to $28 billion of US imports from dental floss to diamonds, Reuters reported.
Domestically, the Trump is facing mounting opposition from Republican senators over his sweeping plan to impose steep tariffs on nearly 200 countries, Newsweek reported.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said via his YouTube account that "Donald Trump's tariffs do not represent all Americans, particularly those that I represent here in the fifth largest economy in the world, the state of California. We value international trade."
Despite the oppositions, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett defended Trump's tariffs on Sunday.
"I got a report from the [U.S. Trade Representative] last night that more than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation," he said, ABC News reported.
On the overseas forum "Reddit," many users also struggled to understand Hassett's attempt to defend Trump.
Several users voiced skepticism, accusing Hassett of "lying" and saying they didn't "believe" his claims.
"Did the penguins reach out too?" a netizen named jafromnj asked.
The US' latest tariffs move has caused great uncertainties among US public, and what they can feel directly is the fall brought about by stocks and the rise in the cost of living, said Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, on Sunday.
Global Times
