Secretary of Commerce on President Trump’s tariffs

(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - The U.S. has imposed a 10% baseline tariff on imports, breaking from post-WWII trade norms.

Higher "reciprocal" tariffs of 11% to 50% will affect 57 major trade partners, including the EU, China, Japan, and Vietnam, with China facing a total tariff of 54% on its exports to the U.S.

Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan spoke with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick about the fallout, questioning why some countries, including uninhabited islands, are subject to new tariffs.

"The idea is that there are no countries left off...Because the idea- what happens is, if you leave anything off the list, the countries that try to basically arbitrage America go through those countries to us. Any country- like we had tariffs, the President put tariffs on China, right, in 2018, and then what China started doing is they started going through other countries to America. They just built through other countries, through America. And so, the President knows that, he's tired of it, and he's going to fix that. So basically he said, 'Look, I can't let any part of the world be a place where China or other countries can ship through them...so the end of those loopholes...these ridiculous loopholes.' And now what he's trying to say is, 'I'm going to fix the trade deficit of the United States of America. It's a national security issue. We need to make medicine. We need to make semiconductors. We need to make ships. We need to have steel and aluminum. Come on, we need the greatness of America to actually be built in America.' And he's tired of getting ripped off by the rest of the world."

Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Lutnick, click here.