President Donald Trump‘s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street where he was asked for an update on the reported U.S. trade agreements with countries including Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, and the UK.
Squawk on the Street anchor Carl Quintanilla asked Lutnick: “You mentioned you’re working on the documents, when do you think the market can get its hands on written documentation on the deals with Japan, UK, Vietnam and Korea? How far away is that?”
Lutnick replied: “Well, these are kind of weeks away for the Japan and Korea model. But the other models are set. I mean you already have Vietnam has agreed to open its market. These countries have agreed to open their market. They bring down their tariffs. You’re not gonna find a big long 250 page trading agreement.”
QUINTANILLA: When do you think markets can get its hand on written documentation on the deals with Japan, UK, Vietnam, Korea?
LUTNICK: You’re not gonna find a big long 250 page trading agreement pic.twitter.com/dQWn9te1ZB
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 19, 2025
Lutnick emphasized the U.S. demand: “It’s very simple: bring down your tariffs to zero, open the market to American exporters so that we can finally sell our agriculture overseas.”
[Note: According to The Washington Post, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung‘s chief of staff for policy, Kim Yong-beom, said at the end of July that Korea had “fended off U.S. demand to open its market to further imports of rice and beef, which are politically sensitive in South Korea due to the prominence of its agricultural industry.”]
Critics of the Trump administration are responding to the Lutnick interview and his lack of written trade agreements with comments including “We didn’t ask for 250 pages, just actual proof and not the word of liars,” and “Translation: There are no trade agreements.” Another wrote, “How about one page?”
Note: The entire USMCA trade agreement (which was proposed by President Trump during his first administration in 2018) between the U.S., Canada and Mexico is more than 1,800 pages long.
Trump signed the agreement with then-Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, and then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
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