President Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave a three-word warning on Wednesday to nations looking to respond to the new tariffs put in place by the administration which was, “Do not retaliate.”

“My advice to every country right now is do not retaliate. Sit back, take it in, let’s see how it goes. Because if you retaliate, there will be escalation,” the treasury secretary said Wednesday in an interview on the Fox News show “Special Report.” “If you don’t retaliate, this is the high-water mark.”

He said that the goal of the tariffs was the long-term financial security of the United States.

“We are putting ourselves back onto a sound trajectory,” the Treasury secretary said.

“The sooner we can get certainty on tax, the sooner we can set the stage for the growth to resume,” he said.

Some of the higher tariffs on the list were against China at 34 percent, 24 percent against Japan, 32 percent on Taiwan and 20 percent on the European Union.

“President Trump refuses to let the United States be taken advantage of and believes that tariffs are necessary to ensure fair trade, protect American workers, and reduce the trade deficit—this is an emergency,” the White House said in a press release.

It said that the president “is working to level the playing field for American businesses and workers by confronting the unfair tariff disparities and non-tariff barriers imposed by other countries.”

The White House said that the actions taken by the president “simply asks other countries to treat us like we treat them. It’s the Golden Rule for Our Golden Age.”

“These tariffs will remain in effect until such a time as President Trump determines that the threat posed by the trade deficit and underlying nonreciprocal treatment is satisfied, resolved, or mitigated,” it said.