U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a chart while speaking during a “Make America Wealthy Again” trade announcement on April 2, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images News | Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Wednesday dropped new tariff rates on imports from most U.S. trade partners to 10% for 90 days to allow trade negotiations with those countries.
Trump announced the pause hours after goods from nearly 90 nations became subject to stiffer, so-called reciprocal tariffs imposed by the United States.
The president also said in a social media post that he was raising the tariffs imposed on imports from China to 125% “effective immediately” due to the “lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets.”
China, which is the U.S.’s third-largest trading partner, earlier Wednesday said it would increase its tariff rate for imports from the U.S. to 84%.
Trump said “more than 75 Countries” contacted U.S. officials to negotiate after he unveiled his new tariffs last week.
Stock market indices rocketed sharply higher Wednesday on Trump’s announcement, reversing four days of losses. The benchmark S&P 500 index leapt by 7%, which puts it on track for its largest single-day gain in five years.
When asked later about the reason for his decision, Trump told reporters, “Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line.”
“They were getting yippy, you know, they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid,” Trump said at the White House.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett claimed to reporters that Trump had always intended to put the brakes on the wide-ranging tariffs the president announced last week.
“This was his strategy all along,” Bessent said at the White House, where officials, including him, had denied for days that the tariffs would be suspended.
On April 2, Trump had said he would impose a baseline rate of 10% for tariffs on imports from more than 180 countries.
A subset of 90 countries’ imports would be subject to reciprocal tariffs that took effect Wednesday. Those enhanced levies ranged from a low of 11% to a high of 50%.
Financial markets have been in turmoil since Trump announced with plan, with U.S. stock markets suffering four straight days of declines as of Tuesday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, criticized Trump on Wednesday,, saying the president “is feeling the heat from Democrats and across America about how bad these tariffs are.”
“He is reeling, he is retreating, and that is a good thing,” said Schumer.
“This is government by chaos,” Schumer said, “He keeps changing things from day to day. His advisers are fighting among themselves, calling each other names, and you cannot run a country with such chaos, with such unpredictability, with such lack of understanding of what’s going on in the world and the facts.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in a tweet, said that he and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sat with Trump while he wrote out the announcement on Truth Social, “one of the most extraordinary Truth posts of his Presidency.”
“The world is ready to work with President Trump to fix global trade, and China has chosen the opposite direction,” Lutnick wrote.
Read Trump’s full Truth Social announcement:
Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately. At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.
Conversely, and based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States, I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
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