U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent speaks to reporters before walking into the White House in Washington, U.S., March 13. Reuters-Yonhap

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that some new U.S. tariffs may not have to be imposed on April 2 under a pre-negotiated deal or negotiation after that date, when President Donald Trump said his administration would levy country-by-country "reciprocal" tariffs on U.S. imports.

Bessent made the remarks in a Fox Business interview as the Trump administration plans to roll out reciprocal tariffs on the date to match what other countries impose on U.S. goods in pursuit of "fair and reciprocal" trade. The new tariffs are to be pegged to U.S. trading partners' duties, non-tariff barriers and other elements.

"I am optimistic that (on) April 2, some of the tariffs may not have to go on because a deal is pre-negotiated or once countries receive their reciprocal tariff number, right after that, they will come to us and want to negotiate it down," Bessent said.

The secretary said that on April 2, each country will receive a specific reciprocal tariff number that the U.S. believes represents its tariffs, The tariff calculation is being determined by the U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department, he said.

"On April 2, we are going to produce a list of other countries' tariffs, and we are going to go to them and say: Look, here's where we think the tariff levels are, non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation, unfair funding, labor suppression," he said.

"And if you will stop this, we will not put up the tariff wall. If you do, then we will put up the tariff wall to protect our economy, protect our workers and protect our industry."

He claimed that the reciprocal tariff policy is designed to create a "win-win" situation with U.S. trading partners.

"Either the trade friction that these other countries have come down, and we get fair trade, and if they don't follow President Trump's lead, then he will raise the tariff wall," he said.

The secretary also mentioned "Dirty-15" countries with high tariffs on U.S. goods, but he did not elaborate on those countries.

"There is what we would call kind of the Dirty 15, and they have substantial tariffs," he said.

"As important as the tariff ... some of these non-tariff barriers, where they have domestic content production, where they do testing on... whether it's our food, our products that bear no resemblance to safety or anything that we do to their products."

Korea has been cranking up diplomatic efforts to avoid new U.S. tariffs amid concerns that its trade surplus, which reached $55.7 billion last year, and Trump's seemingly negative view of Korea as a trading partner, could put Asia's fourth largest economy into his crosshairs.

During an address to Congress earlier this month, Trump claimed that Korea's average tariff rate is four times higher than that of the U.S. — a charge that Seoul countered by saying that it stands at less than 1 percent under a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with the U.S.

Korea's average tariff on its most-favored nations (MFNs) stands at around 13.4 percent — compared with the U.S.' 3.3 percent on its MFNs — but that rate is not applicable to countries with FTAs with Korea.

In a media interview on Monday, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett singled out Korea, China and European countries as those that the U.S. has "persistent" trade deficits with — a view that added to tariff concerns in Seoul. (Yonhap)