May 18 (UPI) — The United States may impose regional tariffs rather than issue blanket ones as a deadline approaches for racing a global plan, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday.

The Trump administration originally said it would impose 90 deals in 90 days, but has backed down recently, acknowledging the complexities of negotiating trade pacts with dozens of countries on a compressed timeline, despite stepped-up efforts, President Donald Trump said during his recent trip to the Middle East.

“But it’s not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us,” Trump explained.

Trump said while in the Middle East that he and Commerce Secretary Scott Lutnick would begin advising some countries on U.S. plans for tariffs in the next two to three weeks.

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Bessent said the United States will focus on a short list of countries in its initial round of tariffs.

“My other sense is that we will do a lot of regional deals,” Bessent said. “This is the rate for Central America, this is the rate for this part of Africa, but what we are focused on right now is the 18 important trading relationships.”

Following a move by Moody’s Ratings last week to downgrade the United States’ credit rating, Bessent called the service a “lagging indicator” during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“I think that’s what everyone thinks of credit agencies,” he said, and asserted that the credit downgrade was in response to Biden fiscal policies.

In response to concerns about tariff costs being passed on to consumers, Trump has said large merchants like WalMart, which imports a significant amount of its merchandise from China, should instead absorb the price increases.

Bessent said Sunday that WalMart CEO Doug McMillion told him that the retail giant would “eat some of the tariffs” as it had done in previous years.

Bessent did not offer a specific date for the tariff imposition.