President Donald Trump shifted from a global trade war to a high-stakes showdown with China by pausing tariffs on scores of countries and raising them on the world’s second-largest economy as he seeks a trade deal with Beijing.
Trump reversed course Wednesday hours after his wave of reciprocal tariffs went into effect, pausing the higher tariffs but keeping a 10% baseline tariff on all imports. Trump said Thursday during his Cabinet meeting that those higher reciprocal tariffs could be back in place after the blanket 90-day pause.
In the meantime, he plans to consider deals with trading partners across the globe. Trump said tariffs on China will hit 145% – 125% on top of the previous 20% – after retaliatory measures from Beijing.
China has said it plans to “fight to the end.” China’s Commerce Ministry called the U.S. approach “unilateral bullying.” Yet Trump remained optimistic Thursday about reaching a deal with Xi Jinping, president of the People’s Republic of China.
“We’ll see what happens with China. They’ve really taken advantage of our country for a long period of time. They’ve ripped us off,” Trump said. “We’re resetting the table. We’ll end up working out something that’s very good for both countries.”
China said Thursday that it plans to bring in fewer U.S. motion pictures, a threat that didn’t appear to move Trump at all.
“I think I’ve heard of worse things,” Trump said when asked about the movies.
Trump has yet to announce any deals with other nations, but said Thursday that his executive trade team will start working on plans that benefit Americans. Trump even suggested bringing in white-shoe law firms that owe him hundreds of millions of dollars in pro-bono legal services to structure the agreements.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said foreign nations are lining up to make deals. Trump and Bessent said more than 75 countries have reached out seeking deals. The White House hasn’t released a list of those countries.
“They are going to bring us their best offers,” Bessent said.
Trump said trade deals are near.
“Well I think it’s very close, but, you know, we have to have a deal that we like,” Trump said. “We want to make deals that are proper for the United States.”
Trump said after the 90-day pause, the higher reciprocal tariffs would come back into play.
“That’s what would happen. If we can’t make the deal that we want to make … then we’d go back to where we were,” he said.
On Thursday, Trump showed no signs of extending that pause further, but noted, as he has previously, that he’ll be flexible.
“We’ll have to see what happens,” the president said.
Trump also said he wasn’t considering exemptions for any countries or companies, but again tempered that with talk about flexibility.
“It’s possible I would,” he said.
Reporters also asked Trump if there would be room to negotiate for a lower baseline tariff. Trump said it depends.
Even before Wednesday’s pause, Trump made it clear that he wasn’t done reworking global trade and that he planned more tariffs.
“We’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals,” Trump said Tuesday during a speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee.
On the campaign trail and since inauguration, Trump has made unconventional promises about his tariffs. He has said tariffs will make the U.S. “rich as hell,” bring back manufacturing jobs lost to lower-wage countries in decades past and shift the tax burden away from U.S. families. He’s also promised to help working Americans with his tariffs.
A tariff is a tax on imported goods. The importer pays the tax and can either absorb the loss or pass the tax on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
