Ahead of the confirmation hearing, Vice President J.D. Vance introduced Lutnick as “both a product guy and a sales guy”.
“Howard is a force of nature … he never lets his foot off the gas, and he never forgets what the mission is,” Vance said. “This is a person who, on the world stage, will say more and do more and convince businesses that America is back, that America is growing and thriving.”
Lutnick says he as a “simple” view of tariffs and they should be applied broadly, country by country, rather than product by product.Credit: AP
Fast-talking and succinct, Lutnick’s language on tariffs often mirrors Trump’s. He interprets the global trading landscape as a continuation of the post-World War II Marshall Plan, whereby the US provided aid and favourable trade conditions to help devastated European economies rebuild.
At Trump’s pre-election rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden, Lutnick fired up the crowd with a rousing vision of returning to a time before income tax, with the US growing rich from tariffs alone. As he told CNBC, however, sometimes on the campaign trail, people simplify the message so they are more easily understood.
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At his confirmation hearing, Lutnick was more sober, but still firm in his view the US was being dudded.
“We are treated horribly by the global trading environment,” he said. “They all have higher tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers and subsidies. They treat us poorly, we need to be treated better, we need to be treated with respect, and we can use tariffs to create reciprocity, fairness and respect.”
Lutnick said his preferred approach to tariffs was “across the board … country by country – macro”, rather than choosing individual products to tax. He was emphatic in his view that tariffs – which are levied on US importers at the border – do not cause inflation, calling it “nonsense”.
Australia is now looking for an exemption to looming US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese due to plead his case directly to Trump. But when asked at his confirmation hearing about exemptions for US companies, Lutnick indicated he takes a dim view of patchwork arrangements.
“I’m a more simple view of tariffs kind of guy, and I think the president is of like minds,” Lutnick said. “The steel and aluminium had 560,000 applications for exclusions [last time]. It just seems that’s too many. I think we need to simplify it and make it more effective.”
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