Donald Trump, the US President, had sensationally announced he would pause crippling tariffs on dozens of nations – and he gave detail late on Wednesday about this decision
Donald Trump has claimed he pulled back on many tariffs – authorising 90-day pauses for dozens of nations – because people were getting “yippy” and “a little bit afraid”.
The US President, 78, told reporters he had made the decision following fierce reaction to the tariffs in the past week. In an opaquely worded statement on Truth Social, Mr Trump praised 75 countries which he said had not retaliated and had sought to negotiate with Washington.
In his post, the world leader said he had “authorised a 90-day pause, and a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff during this period, of 10 per cent, also effective immediately.” Just one hour later, the President told journalists why he made this call, explaining how people had become “yippy” in recent days.
But he said he would keep up the pressure on China, imposing import taxes of 125 per cent “effective immediately” due to the apparent “lack of respect” shown by Beijing. The Truth Social post added: “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realise that the days of ripping off the USA., and other countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.”
Meanwhile, Downing Street said on Wednesday that the UK will “coolly and calmly” continue its negotiations after Donald Trump announced a 90-day tariff pause for most nations.
The US president said he would be delaying tariffs on most nations for 90 days while raising his tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%. The precise details were not immediately clear, but the US treasury secretary has said Mr Trump will keep his 10% baseline tariffs on most countries.
It is understood that this does not mean any immediate change for the UK. A No 10 spokeswoman said: “A trade war is in nobody’s interests. We don’t want any tariffs at all, so for jobs and livelihoods across the UK, we will coolly and calmly continue to negotiate in Britain’s interests.”
A Downing Street source said the development shows that “cool and calm can pay off” and that the way Sir Keir Starmer “does business” is the “right approach”.
After days of market turmoil, US stocks surged after the first signal the US president was backing down from a full-scale trade war. Britain has been spared from the higher tariff rates hitting others and resisted taking immediate retaliatory action, unlike the EU, which has voted to impose countermeasures on some US goods.
But there was turbulence in UK markets on Wednesday after the latest round of US tariffs came into force, with the FTSE 100 falling shortly after opening and wiping out most of the previous day’s gains. The index of top UK stocks closed at a fresh 13-month low.
