Ricketts on-board with President Trump's tariff plan

Sen. Pete Ricketts said in a press call Wednesday he supports President Donald Trump’s tariff plan, but does not support the bills in the U.S. House and Senate looking to limit the president’s ability to levy those tariffs.

The senate bill, introduced by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa would require the president to notify Congress of impending tariffs within 48 hours, then giving Congress 60 days to approve.

The house bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, would make any unilateral tariff proposed by the president require congressional approval.

“I am not considering getting on Sen. Grassley’s bill,” Ricketts said. “I believe we need to give the president time to carry out his strategy to be able to level [the] playing field by getting these tariffs back in line again.”

President Trump announced a 90-day pause on many of the tariffs placed on the United States’ trade partners, while increasing tariffs on China from 104% to 125% in light of its retaliatory tariffs. A 10% universal tariff on all imports into the U.S. remains in effect.

“Today's announcement is a step in [the tariff] process,” Ricketts told reporters. “He announced the tariffs last week… [the Truth Social post] says about 75 countries have come to the United States looking to be able to cut deals. That obviously takes time to do, so I think it's part of the process. The president has put a pause on the tariffs he announced to be able to give those countries a chance to be able to negotiate.”

Ricketts said he does not know how long the short-term tariff pain will last, saying the negotiations will take as long as they need to, but he believes the U.S. is not headed toward a recession.

Previously worried investors were relieved after the president’s announcement, with Wall Street's main indexes rocketing up, with the S&P 500 up more than 8% as of Wednesday afternoon.