After nearly three weeks of making radical changes to tariff regime on exported goods to the United States with potentially high negative implications for global merchandise trade, President Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause for many countries adversely affected by his administration’s latest fiscal measures, which have triggered a trade war between the U.S and China.
Trump announced on Wednesday just hours after the administration of the levies against most America’s trading partners, saying that he is authorising a universal “lowered reciprocal tariff of 10%” as negotiations continued over the tariffs.
Announcing the latest modification of his fiscal regime plan on Truth Social, Trump stated he was authorising a 90-day pause on tariffs for the countries he considered had not retaliated against his tariffs on imports to the country.
Conversely, in what could be termed an escalation of the trade war with China, the U.S. President jacked up tariffs on goods from China to 125%, accusing Beijing of a lack of respect after the country retaliated by threatening to impose 84% tariffs on US imports.
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On his hard stance on China, Trump said: “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realise that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” he wrote.
Based on his latest announcement, Trump has set a baseline tariff of 10% on all imports, which remains in place, but also higher rates on partners the White House described as the “worst offenders” for what he considers to be unfair trade practices.
According to the list, the tariffs included the 27-member countries of the European Union, Vietnam, South Africa and others, all of which were due to be paying U.S tariffs ranging from 11% to more than 100% on their exports to the country.
Speaking outside the White House, Trump later said the amendments to his tariffs policy had to be made because people were getting jittery.
He quipped: “I did a 90-day pause for the people that didn’t retaliate because I told them ‘if you retaliate, we’re going to double it’ – and that’s what I did with China”, adding that he thought it’s all going to work out amazingly
