"No postponing" of tariffs: Lutnick

And just hours before the shock to the South Korean stock market on Monday, the U.S. confirmed the recent reciprocal tariffs imposed by Washington will not be delayed and will begin on April 9th.

Lee Seung-jae has the details.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that U.S. President Donald Trump will go ahead with reciprocal tariffs announced last week, stressing that there would be no postponement.

Speaking to CBS News the commerce secretary stressed the Trump administration's move to close all potential loopholes in the tariff policy.

Reaffirming that the sweeping reciprocal tariffs will go into effect on April 9th, as scheduled, Lutnick shot down any idea that Trump would pause for negotiations, saying tariffs would remain in place for "days and weeks."

Meanwhile,.. as Wall Street took a dive after the announcement of the reciprocal tariffs last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed the idea that the levies would cause a recession in the U.S.

Speaking to NBC on Sunday, Bessent said he wasn't worried about last week's stock market sell-off, adding that the market has consistently underestimated President Trump.

He stressed that there's no reason that the U.S. would have to "price in a recession."

Bessent also said that more than 50 countries have begun negotiating with the U.S. since the announcement of the reciprocal tariffs.

The comments go in line with Trump's remarks last week that "every" country has called the U.S. for talks.

"What we have is we have a set of tariffs based on what they've been charging us. That's reciprocal. And those tariffs have come in and every country's called us. That's the beauty of what we do. We put ourselves in the driver's seat. If we would have asked some of these countries, almost most of these countries, to do us a favor, they would have said no. Now they'll do anything for us."

Neither Bessent nor any other U.S official named the countries that have begun holding talks with Washington over the reciprocal tariffs.

Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.