Strategic uncertainty looms over Trump trade talks as ex-commerce chief warns not to over-negotiate

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s negotiations for tailored trade deals are shrouded in “strategic uncertainty” despite persistent public insistence that agreements are close — prompting former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to say Tuesday he hopes Trump’s team won’t “over-negotiate” and lose momentum.The White House took optimistic projections to new heights with current Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick declaring Tuesday mid-afternoon that a deal with an unnamed country was “done, done, done” — 27 days after Trump announced his “reciprocal” levies and more than two months before the July deadline for them to take effect.Earlier Tuesday, a source close to the administration described the status of negotiations like this: “It’s like when someone tells you they’re five minutes away, everyone knows that really means 15.”Still another insider insisted that deals were “close” with Asian countries — a point underscored by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at a Tuesday morning White House briefing.However, promising developments including visits by Japanese and South Korean delegations, a presidential call with Vietnam and a vice presidential “roadmap” announcement in India have not yet manifested in a completed trade agreement.“President Trump creates what I would call strategic uncertainty in the negotiations, so he is more concerned about getting the best possible trade deals,” Bessent told reporters Tuesday.“What we are doing is we’ve created a process.I think the aperture of uncertainty will be narrowing, and as we start moving forward announcing deals, then there will be certainty.

But certainty is not necessarily a good thing in negotiating.”Ross, who had Lutnick’s job for all four years of Trump’s first term, told The Post he worries that the administration will seek too tough of a bargain.“My one fear is, because we do have a strong negotiating position, there may be the danger that we will ove...