US trade advisor says Trump tariff rates unlikely to change

New US tariff rates are "pretty much set" with little immediate room for negotiation, Donald Trump's trade advisor said in remarks aired Sunday, also defending the president's politically driven levies against Brazil, Report informs via AFP.

Trump, who has wielded tariffs as a tool of American economic might, has set tariff rates for dozens of economies including the European Union at between 10 and 41 percent come August 7, his new hard deadline for the duties.

Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, downplayed the risks of a similar crash this time around because “the markets have seen what we’re doing.”

“I would rule it out because these are the final deals,” Hassett told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday when asked about Trump changing the tariff rates due to market reactions.

During the negotiating sprint that followed “Liberation Day,” Trump’s team helped cut deals with the European Union, United Kingdom, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Cambodia, Thailand and more.

“We have eight deals that cover about 55% of world GDP with our biggest trading partners, the EU and Japan and Korea and so on, and I expect that those [rates] are more or less locked in,” Hassett said.

“For the deals that aren’t ready yet, they’re going to get the reciprocal rates soon, and then we would expect that there might continue to be negotiations with those countries.”