The volatile stock market should smooth out with countries seeking to negotiate their tariff rates with the Trump administration, former Sen. Rick Santorum told Newsmax on Sunday.
"The stock market is reacting to the tariffs and the fear that countries will react more like China did, which was to retaliate to our tariffs and drive the cost up even more," the Pennsylvania Republican and Newsmax political analyst told "Sunday Report."
A handful of countries, such as Cambodia and Vietnam have pulled back on their tariffs, he added, but China hurt the U.S. economy by enacting retaliatory tariffs.
"That really rattled the market on Friday and created some real concerns," Santorum said, noting that the moves from the other countries would have been better if they had happened sooner.
"Instead, the narrative was that all retaliatory tariffs are going to stay," said Santorum. "That created jitters. So hopefully on Monday and Tuesday, the markets will see that countries are coming to the table as [President Donald] Trump predicted and that there will be lowering tariffs and that will smooth things out, at least in the short term." National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Sunday that already, more than 50 countries have reached out to the White House to begin negotiations on the tariffs.
Santorum, meanwhile, acknowledged that the tariffs won't immediately help U.S. farmers in the short term, mainly because countries such as China are increasing their agricultural tariffs or already have high tariffs on farmed goods.
"Trump is right saying the only way we're going to get these tariffs down is by threatening them with tariffs," said Santorum.
He noted that several countries have large tariffs because their smaller farms can't compete against the large farming businesses in the United States, but still, the measures limit markets for U.S. agriculture.
"This is still for agriculture a wait-and-see moment," said Santorum. "A lot of these countries, particularly in Europe, are hellbent on protecting their farmers, and it's going to be tough to get some of these tariffs down."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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