Trump Tariffs: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Says There Will Be 'Clarity' On Levies Over Next 90 Days

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to reassure CEOs of big companies, saying there will be “clarity” on the administration’s tariff policies and deregulation plans over the next 90 days.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Bessent said the Trump administration remains focused on Main Street, rather than just Wall Street.

“They'll [CEOs] also have clarity on tax and on deregulation,” Bessent said in the interview. He recalled the chatter in 2017 when the then-Trump administration was working on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

“I heard a lot of the same things because the tax deal wasn't done until right before Christmas in 2017. And it was the same thing. We can't plan. We can't do this. We need clarity,” he said.

Bessent’s remarks come as Wall Street chief executives, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, expressed concerns on the ongoing tariff wars.

Dimon said that analysts would start trimming earnings estimates of U.S. companies due to Trump’s tariffs. Days later, Morgan Stanley and Citi cut their projections for S&P 500 companies.

President Trump announced that the ‘Liberation Day’ reciprocal tariffs kicked in on April 2, but later extended a temporary pause of 90 days.

Amid this, ASML Holding NV (ASML) CEO Christophe Fouquet expressed that it is “impossible” to quantify the impact of Trump’s tariffs on the global gross domestic product (GDP) and demand.

He also underscored that the maker of semiconductor chip machines would not move manufacturing to the U.S. to escape Trump’s tariffs, adding that the talent and supply chain to make these machines are in its home country, the Netherlands.

While tariffs could increase costs, Fouquet said it would be appropriate to pass them on to ASML’s customers, which include companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Intel Corp. (INTC), among others.

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