Bessent floats extending tariff pause for countries in 'good faith' trade talks

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled the Trump administration’s openness on Wednesday to extending President Donald Trump’s current 90-day tariff pause beyond July 9 for the United States’ top trading partners, as long as they show “good faith” in ongoing trade negotiations.

The U.S. has 18 “important trading partners,” Bessent said at a hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee in Washington. The Trump administration, he said, is “working toward deals” with those countries.

“It is highly likely,” said Bessent, that for those countries and trading blocs, like the European Union, “who are negotiating in good faith,” the United States would “roll the date forward to continue good faith negotiations.”

“If someone is not negotiating, then we will not,” he told the House’s tax writing committee.

Until now, Trump administration officials have not suggested that they are open to moving back the 90-day tariff pause without at least “terms of an agreement” before the pause expires.

Bessent’s remarks indicate that the Trump administration might be more inclined to shift the self-imposed deadline as it gets closer.

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President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs, announced on April 9, is set to end in less than a month.

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Trump officials have repeatedly said that they are close to inking trade deals with half a dozen countries. But so far, the White House has only announced a formal trade agreement with the United Kingdom and a framework agreement with China.

The U.S.- China deal was announced earlier on Wednesday, but the full details of the agreement were unclear.