EditorsApr 15, 2025
Tariffs: What We Know Right Now Policies & IssuesApr 10, 2025
Trump Presses Pause on Higher Tariffs for 90 Days
An across-the-board tariff of 10 percent remains in place for all U.S. trading partners, except China.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on higher tariffs for all U.S. trading partners, except for China. The tax on goods entering the United States from China now stands at 125 percent.
Washington, D.C.—Hours after they went into effect Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced he was pausing higher reciprocal tariffs on almost all U.S. trading partners for 90 days.
At 1:18 p.m. on Wednesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform his media company launched in 2022, “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 … 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 percent, also effective immediately.”
The lone exception was China, which Trump wrote has shown a “lack of respect” to the world’s markets.
He has raised the tax on Chinese goods imported into the United States to 125 percent from the prior rate of 104 percent that went into effect at 12:01 Eastern on Wednesday.
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At 1:18 p.m. on Wednesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform his media company launched in 2022, “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 … 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 percent, also effective immediately.”
The lone exception was China, which Trump wrote has shown a “lack of respect” to the world’s markets.
He has raised the tax on Chinese goods imported into the United States to 125 percent from the prior rate of 104 percent that went into effect at 12:01 Eastern on Wednesday.
Trump’s initial announcement of reciprocal tariffs that included 27 percent on goods from India, 37 percent on goods from Thailand, 32 percent on goods from Switzerland, and 46 percent on goods from Vietnam set off a panic in the jewelry industry.
Many had questions about how the tariffs would work within the industry’s complex supply chain, while others worried about how to price goods and if higher prices across the board would dampen consumer spending.
While the lowering of tariffs does take some pressure off the industry, the 10 percent still is going to have an impact, particularly on smaller businesses.
As Jewelers of America noted in a Q&A, the 10 percent across-the-board tariffs come in addition to existing duties that companies pay.
Meanwhile, many companies that do business in China find themselves at a standstill.
In an interview on NBC Nightly News on Wednesday, Jay Foreman, CEO and founder of Basic Fun!, the company that makes Care Bears and Tonka trucks, said of the 125 percent tax on Chinese goods entering the U.S., “You might as well just make it a billion percent because we’re not shipping anything out of China, nobody’s going to be shipping anything out of China ‘til this gets solved.”
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