March 16, 2026
WHEN: Today, Monday, March 16, 2026
WHERE: CNBC’s “Squawk Box”
Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” (M-F, 6AM-9AM ET) today, Monday, March 16. Following are links to video on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/03/16/sec-bessent-treasury-not-intervening-in-oil-commodities-markets-and-has-no-authority-to-do-so.html, https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/03/16/treasury-sec-besent-trump-xi-summit-could-be-delayed-if-trump-wants-to-stay-in-dc-for-iran-war.html, https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/03/16/treasury-secretary-bessent-us-is-allowing-iranian-tankers-through-strait-of-hormuz.html, and https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/03/16/watch-cnbcs-full-interview-with-treasury-secretary-scott-bessent.html.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
BECKY QUICK: Paris is where we find our Brian Sullivan. He is there and joined by the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Brian, good morning to you.
BRIAN SULLIVAN: Good morning, Becky. Thank you very much. That is right. We are here in Paris at the OECD headquarters with the Treasury Secretary of the United States, Scott Bessent. Mr. Treasury Secretary, thank you very much for spending some time with CNBC.
SCOTT BESSENT: Brian, good to see you.
SULLIVAN: Well, you just wrapped, literally, just moments ago, wrapped up meetings with the Chinese trade delegation. Tell us how the meetings went and whether or not we believe that President Trump will meet with China in China in April.
BESSENT: Well, the meetings were very good. We've got a stable relationship. This is our sixth meeting in our economic consultations. The vice premier, He Lifeng, and I have developed great respect for each other. But, really, the meetings are generated by the great respect that the two leaders, President Trump, Party Chair Xi, have for each other. You know, we will see whether the visit takes place as scheduled. But what I do want to parse, and there's a false narrative out there that if the meetings are delayed, it wouldn't be delayed because the president's demanded that China police the Straits of Hormuz. It would be the—
SULLIVAN: Because there was a report out to that effect this morning.
BESSENT: That's completely false. So, if the meeting for some reason is rescheduled, it would be rescheduled because of logistics. The president wants to remain in D.C. to coordinate the war effort and that, you know, traveling abroad at a time like this may not be optimal.
SULLIVAN: Because that narrative is out there. So, you're not saying that the meeting will be rescheduled, but you're saying that, and correct me if I'm wrong, please, sir, if it is rescheduled, it's because of time and travel, not because of a dispute over the Strait of Hormuz?
BESSENT: Exactly. It would be a decision the president made as commander-in-chief to stay in the White House or to stay in the United States while this war is being prosecuted.
SULLIVAN: Because there -- you're a markets expert, obviously, longtime market participant. The markets are, may react to any word of a delay, pause in the meeting, and you're saying if this meeting is paused or delayed, the market should not react, assuming it's some conflict between the two nations.
BESSENT: Absolutely not, absolutely not. We had a very good two days here. We will be issuing a statement in the next few days. And we will be reaffirming the stability in the relationship between the first and second largest economies in the world.
SULLIVAN: I want to get to the war. I want to get to oil. I want to get to commodities. I finished -- I want to start though by just finishing up on this meeting with China. It sounds positive. Were there discussions about things like export controls on advanced American semiconductors? Will the Chinese agree to buy more Boeing jets or other U.S. goods? Can you go a little more into detail about the products and services that were discussed here?
BESSENT: Sure. So, we really don't discuss our export restrictions in these meetings. It's more of an economic dialogue. What we do discuss exactly, as you said, are our purchase commitments from the Chinese, and we also explain to them our new tariff regime and how that would work is the 122 tariffs that were implemented, Section 122 that were implemented right after the Supreme Court ruled against the president's use of IEEPA. And we explained the Section 301 studies that Ambassador Greer and USTR will be doing, which should be completed by July.
SULLIVAN: Is there an opportunity for assuming the market -- the stock market has -- I know that's not your only concern. I understand that. Stock market is down about 5 percent off its highs, so it hasn't collapsed, but it is down off the highs. The markets are nervous. You look at the VIX, the volatility index, it's elevated. Would you ever consider using, or would the president consider using the tariffs, the 15 percent, as a bargaining chip with China vis-a-vis the markets?
BESSENT: Well what are we bargaining for? Because, you know, the president's made it very clear, and over the past year, President Trump, through USTR, through myself, and commerce, we've negotiated trade deals with most of our major trading partners and we've reordered global trade. Our goods trade deficit with the world is down. Our goods trades deficit with China is down. We had substantial tariff income last year. The court said we'll have to refund that. But I could tell you just because of the change from IEEPA to the 122s and, you know, we'll see what the studies on the 301s bring, but it's very likely, we at treasury, assuming a successful completion of the 301s, and we don't know exactly how those will end, that there very -- being very little change in tariff revenue. And, again, the ultimate purpose of tariffs is to re-shore production. The revenues are a very nice incidental along the way, in a way it's kind of payback for the off-shoring for the unfair trade practices. But at the end of the day, we want to re-shore manufacturing in the U.S., especially strategic manufacturing. And to go back to our negotiations or our consultations with the Chinese, we reiterate to them we do not want to decouple, but we do need to take strategic industries back. So we are doing the strategic change, but not a generalized decoupling in terms of trade.
SULLIVAN: I want to talk about obviously what's going on with the war. Oil touching $100 a barrel, U.S. traded oil, touching $100 a barrel. It's third time only it's happened in the last ten or so years. We saw it shortly after the Russia invasion of Ukraine as well. Are there any tools that you, treasury, the president can or will use outside of the SPR and the global coordinated release to mitigate higher prices and impacts from the war?
BESSENT: Well, again, you know, it'll depend on the duration of the conflict. And President Trump has made it clear that his goal is to degrade and destroy the capabilities, the military capabilities of the regime, to destroy the Navy, which is done, the Air Force, which is done, and now the bombing campaigns are going after the factories so that they cannot recreate these things. And we want to destroy the Iranian ability to project power outside of their borders. And, you know, Brian, Iran was the head of the snake, the head of the snake for global terrorism everywhere. You know, whether it was through their proxies or, you know, there were Iranian Guard members in Venezuela, there's Hezbollah in Colombia. They're interacting with Cuba. You know, everywhere that there is chaos and terrorist mayhem, it is Iran. So, this is a generational opportunity to end this.
SULLIVAN: I think the risk and the fear the people have, people I've spoken to on and off the record, the risk is that while the head of the snake in Tehran may have been cut off. There are IRCG bosses that have gotten personally very wealthy. They run little fiefdoms. They're rich off of control. And there's nothing to stop them from having a rocket-powered missile shooting it at a super tanker. Do we know as a nation who right now we are technically fighting because -- between the Houthis in the Red Sea, and I know the Department of War is its own thing, Mr. Secretary, but do we have an idea as to who we are fighting against right now?
BESSENT: Sure. Well, we know exactly who we are fighting against. And if you want to use kind of a historical analogy, think they're in Hitler's bunker, but Hitler's dead. And now they have dispersed out. And one of the things I'm going to do is bust this myth that is in the mainstream media that there is this coherent Iranian plan that they are a smoothly functioning government. First of all, the previous ayatollah did not want his son to become the ayatollah. He left written instructions and they overrode him. We believe that the current ayatollah is injured, we don't know to what extent, and maybe incapacitated. And they're just small bases. They're in the bunker. They are panicked. And, you know, like the circular firing that they are doing on their Gulf neighbors was a big mistake.
SULLIVAN: But it's enough to distort the probably, the most important shipping point in the world. And I don't want to say that the strait is, quote, closed. I don't like that term. But the reality is shipping traffic has fallen off a cliff. It's critical for oil, for gas, for fertilizers, helium, for semiconductors. Is there a plan to get that fully -- I don't want to say reopen, there was a tanker that ran through today -- fully operational and safe for all global shipping?
BESSENT: Well, let's pull that apart. So, we are seeing more and more -- the fuel ships start to go through. The Iranian ships have been getting out already and we've let that happen to supply the rest of the world. We've seen Indian ships go out now, so the Indians who rely very heavily on Gulf oil. We believe some Chinese ships have gone out. So, you know, that -- and that should start ramping up before there are any flotillas or protective armadas in the Gulf. So, you know, we think that there will be a natural opening that the Iranians are letting out. And for now we're fine with that. We want the world to be well supplied. You know, the other thing that we did, we gave a 30-day waiver for Russian oil that was already on the water. It was about 130 million barrels. And that's a lot of oil. Good thing about it—
SULLIVAN: About one and a half days of global supply, Mr. Secretary.
BESSENT: No. No, but that's bad framing. Okay. Good framing is that there was about 20 million a day coming out of the Gulf, that 1.5 of that is the Iranian oil. So, the 18.5, the Saudis and UAE have diverted the production into the Red Sea. So, that's about another five. There's a strategic petroleum release. So, we are in deficit somewhere between 10 and 14.
SULLIVAN: Okay. I was going to ask you, because this is the old hedge fund manager treasury secretary coming out, counting those barrels in your math, because everybody has different numbers. How many barrels of oil do you really believe your office, you personally, the president believes that we are short in the world right now?
BESSENT: Well, it looks like the deficit is about 10 or 14, and that's before any of the ships are coming out of the straits. So, if you think about the Russian oil, that is somewhere between 9 to 11 days, 12 days of supply without the market moving. There's Iranian oil that's out in the water right now, about 140 million barrels. The Saudis, they have supplies stored around the world that they can release. And then the global SPR release, largest ever, that was 400 million barrels.
SULLIVAN: Is there any scenario which the White House or treasury would extend that waiver on Russian oil from 30 days to something longer? And you understand also the optics of that. We hear removing basically sanctions on Putin. People react to that.
BESSENT: Well, Brian, which is more? If oil spiked to $150, but Putin was getting 70 percent of that, or oil stays at $95 to $100? Where's he getting more money if it spikes to $150. So, you know, roughly his coffers are unchanged and that whether a couple billion more, a lot of money in the real world, but in terms of the Russian Federation costs him about $2 billion a day to run the government. So, you know, the idea is soon as the conflict is over and the markets are well supplied to go back and, again, it is a short-term window for oil on the water. We believe that, that will be consumed very quickly. And, Brian, the other important thing to know is that oil was going to China. They were going to consume it anyway. It was just backed up.
SULLIVAN: Yes.
BESSENT: And so by unsanctioning it, it can go to Malaysia, Singapore, India. The Indians have bought quite a bit. So, it can go to alleviate the shortage because most of the oil from the Gulf does in fact go to Asia.
SULLIVAN: It does. We want to wrap it up, just I have to ask this question. So, just kind of going back to my earlier question, is there something besides a global oil release that you or your office, the White House could do? Could you intervene in the financial side of the commodities or oil markets to bring down the price of oil?
BESSENT: Yes, that rumor's in the market.
SULLIVAN: I know.
BESSENT: When there's -- you know, when there's big dynamic price action, that always happens, we haven't done that.
SULLIVAN: You have -- would you do it?
BESSENT: So, I'm not sure under what authority or what auspices we—
SULLIVAN: But you have not? I want to be clear, because you know that that's out there.
BESSENT: Yes.
SULLIVAN: Don't worry, the treasuries in the plunge protection team is in focus?
BESSENT: Yes. You know, people used to say like the treasury was buying S&Ps. I think that's usually an excuse for people who got too short and got squeezed.
SULLIVAN: And then final, to wrap it up. I got to ask this to wrap it up. Expectation of timeline on this, because with every passing day, with every passing week, and now we're in the third week, markets going up, fertilizers, gas, everything and the world is really worried about shortages and also the inflationary effect here and abroad.
BESSENT: Yes. Brian, can we just be clear here?
SULLIVAN: Okay.
BESSENT: It's two weeks. It's two weeks. And, you know, I know the media likes to move things along. We see these headlines, and that's part of the Iranian strategy. And it's very unfortunate that because of a dislike for President Trump, not you, but a lot of mainstream media are trying to speed this up, trying to make it into some crisis that it's not. And on the other side of this, if you look at longer dated crude, you look at future inflation expectations, they're both very well anchored and, you know, this will end. And I don't know how many weeks it will be, but on the other side of this, the world will be safer and we will be better supplied.
SULLIVAN: So, the backwardation of the market, you think, is correct, $80 oil in a couple months?
BESSENT: I think probably much lower.
SULLIVAN: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and longtime former hedge fund manager, we're plucking some of that knowledge as well, sir, but we appreciate you letting us sit down with you here at the OECD in Paris, France, after the meetings with China. Mr. Secretary, thank you very much.
BESSENT: Good to see you.
For more information contact:
Stephanie Hirlemann
CNBC
