The Trump administration is prioritising the quality of trade agreements over meeting a looming deadline, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday (Jul 21), as countries scramble to avoid steep new tariffs set to take effect on Aug 1. “We’re not going to rush for the sake of doing deals,” Bessent told CNBC. Asked whether the deadline could be extended for countries engaged in talks, he said it would be up to President Donald Trump. “If we somehow boomerang back to the August 1 tariff, I would think that a higher tariff level will put more pressure on those countries to come with better agreements,” he said. ... (full story)