(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump authorized a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs Wednesday for more than 75 countries but raised the tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.
However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the president is maintaining his 10% tariff on nearly all global imports.
“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!” Trump said on Truth Social post.
This pause, according to Trump, is 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.”
Bessent said the reason China’s tariff was raised to 125% was because of their insistence on “escalation.”
“As I’ve repeatedly said, and President Trump has been saying it for years, China is the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world, and they are the biggest source of US trade problems, and indeed, they are a problem for the rest of the world,” Bessent said.
Speaking at an event with NASCAR racing champions, Trump said people were “getting a little bit afraid” about tariffs.
Still, he said, “someone had to do it.”
“Nothing’s over yet, but we have a tremendous amount of spirit from other countries,” Trump said.
This includes China, Trump claims, saying that the country wants to make a deal but they “don’t know how to go about it.”
On Wednesday afternoon, the White House tweeted: “DO NOT RETALIATE AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED.”
Asked later about how the pause came to be, Trump said he didn’t want to hurt countries that don’t need to be hurt.
The markets had been volatile since the Trump administration’s original 104% total tariffs on China took effect overnight. The tariffs — initially 34% on top of a standing 20% tariff on China — jumped by an additional 50% early Wednesday morning, per Trump’s previous promises.
In response, China on Wednesday raised its retaliatory tariffs on the United States from 34% to 84%, mirroring Trump’s 50% increase. The East Asian country’s levies will go into effect Thursday.
After Trump said there’d be a pause on most tariffs, stocks surged.
At a press conference originally scheduled to call attention to the stock market plunge, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump’s tariff strategy “chaos.”
“He keeps changing things from day to day. His advisers are fighting among themselves, calling each other names,” Schumer said.
The danger from Trump’s tariffs had not passed, Schumer added.
“Donald Trump is feeling the heat from Democrats and across America about how bad these tariffs are,” Schumer said. “He is reeling, he is retreating, and that is a good thing.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
