Former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who served under President George W. Bush, praised President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy and expressed confidence that most of the tariffs would no longer be necessary by year’s end.
Speaking with CNBC, Gutierrez responded to Thursday’s stock market plunge—followed by another sharp sell-off on Friday—with a sense of optimism about the long-term impact of Trump’s trade approach.
Gutierrez anticipated that the tariffs were just the opening step in a broader negotiation process. He expected them to be phased out in the next month or two, particularly in the back half of the year.
He broke down the tariffs into categories, starting with automobiles, and predicted that negotiations with countries like Mexico, Canada, and Germany would play a key role in resolving the auto-related tariffs.
