Bessent tells countries not to retaliate after 'Liberation Day' tariffs - Breon Wells explains

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm John Mounts filling in for JT. Sure enough, we've
got another talkback Mike in responding to Jacob's call. This
is Jason. Hey, buddy, don't listen to all that garbage.
Your voice is your voice. Hater's love to hate you
be you brother, Thank you, Thank you very much, Jason.
That that is too kind, And yes to quote Taylor Swift.

(00:22):
Haters want to hate, hate hate. I just want to
how's the rest of it go? I just want to sing,
I just wanna. I'm not a very good Taylor Swift fan.
My daughter is yelling at the radio right now. Anyway.
Joining me now from from a nonpartisan policy advisor, Uh
Brion Wells, Brion, Welcome to Alabama's More News.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Good morning, John, And quoting Taylor Swift at this time
in the morning is hilarious.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
You just have to say, I'm doing the best I can.
So the Treasury Secretary yesterday he's telling countries not to
retaliate after the tariffs, and I guess, well, we just
heard on the news China didn't listen to because they're
retaliating with a thirty four percent tariff.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
That's true. And you know, just for all of the listeners.
I guess I would beg the question, though, what would
you do if somebody took any sort of action in
your house or that impacted your house that you don't
condone with, you would most likely react. I think the
bigger question of the deeper space that we need to
delve into, though, is that there has been a myriad

(01:25):
of reactions. You've had China, of course, if you just
noted John that has slapped a thirty four percent retaliatory tariff,
you had Canada that has threatened a twenty five percent
retaliatory of tariff. You've had then countries like Mexico that
has not said that they would do a retaliatory tariff,
but neither have they taken it off the table. And

(01:45):
then you have a country called the Sofo on the
African continent that is, as we speak, putting together a
delegation to come here because they rely majorly on the
exports that they bring out to the United to States
this economy, and so these tariffs very much could upend

(02:07):
some of the things that they rely on. So they
want to know how and why did their name get
on this list. And that's the deeper problem here is
not even just as much that tariffs are being used,
but the how we are in a posture where we
are taking on the entire globe. We've been seen on

(02:27):
a trade tariff of war. At the same time.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Well, Brion, do you think that this will be a
situation where the government will make certain carve outs for
countries who are willing to deal. One thing Donald Trump
likes is he likes a deal. So you get somebody
in from one of the countries and saying, you know what,
we have been unfairly terriffing your products coming to our countries,
will drop ours, you drop yours, and one by one
will make deals independent deals with these countries rather than
being across the board. I think this is the initial

(02:54):
salva where says everybody gets this. But then at some
point you'll see the rollback country by country as they say, okay,
we'll come to the table and we will reconfigure the
way we're handling things. And I think that's kind of
why you're seeing a little bit different. And of course
countries like China will probably some of the last holdouts.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
So I take your point. Here is the issue, though
at least make sure that the administration writ large is
working from the same memo, and that whether it be
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik or whether it be the President himself,
that everybody's on message. We know historically with the Trump

(03:33):
administration and with President Trump, it's notorious for having his
administration folks say one thing, only for him to come
after that and say something that may seem to or
even outright contradict and controvert what they are saying. And so,
you know, we understand negotiations, but negotiations are often at

(03:54):
their best when all of the folks on the same
side have been read into this and there's a communication
strategy to help make sure that they do that. And
if there's one place that you want to be careful
of that, it's when it deals with the economy, the
stock market, and spaces where you know people and the
market can be very temperamental based.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
On actions, and Brion, I think you're right about that. Donald,
the Trump administration is probably one of the most proactive
administrations we've seen in my lifetime in terms of getting
things done and getting them done quickly. One of the
problems with moving quickly is sometimes not everyone is as
moving as quickly, and so we get mixed messaging and
that sort of thing. So you're right. Communication is very,
very important, and I think the Trump administration is doing

(04:33):
a better job than perhaps past administrations, but as fast
as they're moving, they could always do it a little
bit better. Brion Wells, thank you so much for joining
us on Alabama's more news