Trump pauses tariffs on most nations for 90 days, raises taxes on Chinese imports

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday paused his tariffs on most nations for 90 days but raised the tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%. 

The S&P 500 stock index jumped nearly 7% after the announcement, but the precise details of Trump’s plans to ease tariffs on non-China trade partners were not immediately clear. 

Trump posted on Truth Social that because “more than 75 Countries” had reached out to the U.S. government for trade talks and have not retaliated in meaningful way “I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately.” 

The 10% tariff was the baseline rate for most nations that went into effect on Saturday. It’s meaningfully lower than the 20% tariff that Trump had set for goods from the European Union, 24% on imports from Japan and 25% on products from South Korea. Still, 10% would represent an increase in the tariffs previously charged by the U.S. government. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the walk back was part of some grand negotiating strategy by Trump. 

“President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” she said, adding that the news media “clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact, we’ve seen the opposite effect the entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets.” 

Trump told reporters Wednesday that he pulled back on many global tariffs — but not on China — because people were “yippy” and “afraid” due to the stock market declines. He added that while he expected to reach deals, “nothing’s over yet.”

The president said he had been monitoring the bond market and that people were “getting a little queasy” as bond prices had fallen and interest rates had increased in a vote of no confidence by investors in Trump’s previous tariff plans.

“The bond market is very tricky,” Trump said. “I was watching it. But if you look at it now, it’s beautiful.”

The president later said he’d been thinking about his tariff pause over the past few days, but he said it “came together early this morning, fairly early this morning.”

Asked why White House aides had been insisting for weeks that the tariffs were not part of a negotiation, Trump said: “A lot of times, it’s not a negotiation until it is.”

The 10% tariff was the baseline rate for most nations that went into effect on Saturday. It’s meaningfully lower than the 20% tariff that Trump had set for goods from the European Union, 24% on imports from Japan and 25% on products from South Korea. Still, 10% represents an increase in the tariffs previously charged by the U.S. government. Canada and Mexico would continue to be tariffed by as much as 25% due to a separate directive by Trump to ostensibly stop fentanyl smuggling.