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Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
Scott Bessent said the US should increase sanctions on Russian oil producers to force Moscow to negotiate with Ukraine as he criticized the Biden administration for not being tough on Vladimir Putin's regime.
Donald Trump's nominee for Treasury secretary pushed forward on Thursday oil pricesas traders thought about the prospect of finding the world's raw food. The new administration is expected to target Iranian and Venezuelan oil with tougher sanctions as Trump seeks to increase economic pressure on US adversaries.
“As part of (Trump's) strategy to end the war in Ukraine, I will be 100 percent on board with taking sanctions, especially on Russian oil majors, to levels that will bring the Russian Federation to the table,” I agree he told council members.
He said US sanctions on Russian energy were “not effective enough” because “the previous administration was worried about raising prices during the election”.
The international oil benchmark Brent rose more than $ 1 after Bessent's statements above $ 81 a barrel.
His comments during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill came four days earlier Trump is returning to the White House with a plan to implement sweeping tax cuts, higher taxes and less stringent regulation, in a major shift from the outgoing Biden administration.
US equities have rallied since Trump won the election on November 5, while Wall Street has embraced his agenda, with executives from the world's biggest banks – which announced huge profits this week – saying optimism about the new administration's economic plans has weakened. released the “animal spirits”.
However, the executives of major banks, speaking this week, also warned that Trump's threats to impose shock tariffs could increase prices.
The billionaire hedge fund manager used his grilling by the Senate Finance Committee – which must approve his nomination before it goes to a full vote in the chamber – to defend those plans.
Although he did not provide new details, Bessent said that Trump will use tariffs to deal with unfair trade practices, increase revenue for the US government and strike deals with other countries.
Bessent also said he would push China to buy more US agricultural products, such as corn and soybeans, under the terms of a deal Trump negotiated with Beijing to ease trade tensions during the Republican leader's first administration. Trump will continue to apply stricter export controls on US goods to China, he said.
“We need to have a strict inspection process for anything that can be used in AI, in quantum computing and surveillance, in chips,” he said.
Bessent also emphasized his support for extending Trump's tax cuts beyond the end of the year, saying it is “the most important thing in the economy today”.
Failure to extend the cuts to people and businesses, initiated by Trump in 2017, will cause an “economic crisis” in the US, “and as always with financial instability, falling between and working people”. A fierce political battle over tax policy is expected to dominate Congress this year.
In the economic context, Bessent said he believes that inflation will continue to approach 2 of the Federal Reserve's target and emphasized that the Trump administration will respect the independence of the central bank in monetary policy.
But he warned that the US Treasury would struggle to use its “borrowing power” in times of crisis due to the deterioration of the US financial situation.
“I am concerned because many times the United States Treasury has been called upon to save the country, whether it was the Civil War, the Great Depression, the second world war, or the recent Covid pandemic,” Bessent said.
He added that “with what we have now, it will be difficult for us to do the same”.