Businesses, lawyers and trade analysts are still wondering what to make of Trump’s Thursday night tariffs. “We’ve only seen the President’s Truth Social posts,” said Dan McCarthy, principal in McCarthy Consulting and a former official with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in the Biden administration. “We need to see the details.’’

The impact of the latest pharmaceutical tariffs could be limited. Dan McCarthy, former senior staff member at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office who now advises small- to midsize businesses as a principal at McCarthy Consulting, sees tariffs as leverage to pressure companies to build in the U.S. to get a lower tariff rate or exemption.

McCarthy Consulting principal Dan McCarthy sits down with Market Catalysts host Jared Blikre to speak more about these trade talks. McCarthy also served as an assistant US Trade Representative for Congressional Affairs.

“They just can’t really negotiate in the same way that the (European Union) or Korea or Japan (or) Canada can negotiate with the United States,’’ said Dan McCarthy, principal in McCarthy Consulting and a former official with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in the Biden administration. “A lot of (smaller) countries just want to get out of this and are willing to cut their losses.’’

"Others expect the administration to strike at least a couple of other loose agreements, like the one with the U.K., by the deadline. The most likely ones are with allied countries without a lot of trade irritants or with whom negotiations have already occurred in prior administrations—Taiwan, Switzerland, or Israel, says Dan McCarthy, a former U.S. Trade Representative official who now runs his own consultancy. There also could be announcements citing progress with bigger trade blocs like Japan and Korea and an extension of the pause for those countries, he says."