<h1>Trade policy shift: commerce secretary to advance reciprocal tariffs and enforce an aggressive import-tax strategy.</h1> Senate confirmation of Howard Lutnick places him as commerce secretary charged with supervising departmental functions and executing an import-tax-centric trade agenda. He endorses reciprocal tariffs and country-by-country across-the-board duties to pressure trading partners, rejects tariffs-as-inflation claims, and has pledged to divest complex, extensive private holdings disclosed in his financial statement.