Trump announces 90-day pause on tariffs over global uncertanity

The moves triggered a powerful stock market rally on Wall Street but left businesses, investors and America’s trading partners bewildered about what the president is attempting to achieve

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump delivered another jarring reversal in American trade policy on Wednesday, suspending for 90 days import taxes he’d imposed barely 13 hours earlier on dozens of countries while escalating his trade war with China. The moves triggered a powerful stock market rally on Wall Street but left businesses, investors and America’s trading partners bewildered about what the president is attempting to achieve.

The U-turn came after the sweeping global tariffs Trump announced last week set off a four-day route in global financial markets, paralyzed businesses and raised fears the US and world economies would tumble into recession.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to characterise the sudden change in policy as part of a grand negotiating strategy. But to those outside the Trump administration, it looked like a cave-in to market pressure and to growing fears that the president’s impetuous use of import taxes — tariffs — would cause massive collateral economic damage.

“Other countries will welcome the 90-day stay of execution — if it lasts — but the whiplash from constant zig-zags creates more of the uncertainty that businesses and governments hate,” said Daniel Russel, vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

“The Administration’s blunt-force tactics have rattled allies, who see the sudden reversal as damage control following the market meltdown, rather than a pivot to respectful, balanced negotiations.’’Trump’s turnaround Wednesday capped a wild week in US trade policy.

On Wednesday April 2 — which Trump labeled “Liberation Day’’ — the president announced plans to impose tariffs on almost every country on earth, upending the world trading system. The first of his new tariffs -– a 10% “baseline’’ tax on imports from most countries – went into effect Saturday.

At midnight Wednesday, he upped the ante by slapping what he called “reciprocal’’ taxes on countries he accused of unfair trading practices and adding to US trade deficits. Those are the tariffs he suspended for 90 days, saying the pause would give countries time to negotiate with him and his trade team. There was one exception to the reprieve: He raised the tariff on Chinese imports to a staggering 125%, punishing Beijing for announcing retaliatory tariffs on the United States. Meanwhile, the 10% baseline tariffs – a substantial act of protectionism in their own right – remain in place.