President Trump on Wednesday said on social media that he would pause tariffs on most countries for 90 days but would immediately hike tariffs on China to 125%.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House that tariffs would be brought down to a "universal 10%" level during the 90-day pause, aside from China.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters, "It took great courage — great courage — for him [Trump] to stay the course until this moment."
Bessent said China was the "biggest source" of trade issues for the United States and the rest of the world.
"I'm not calling it a trade war, but I'm saying that China has escalated, and President Trump responded very courageously to that, and we are going to work on a solution with the our trading partners," he said.
Bessent said the decision to pause tariffs was not made because of the sharp decline in the stock market, insisting the pause was needed to come to "bespoke" trade arrangements with other countries.
"It is going to take some time, and President Trump wants to be personally involved. So that's why we're getting the 90-day pause," he said.
Bessent said that a range of issues would be on the table during talks with other countries, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) deals, non-tariff trade barriers, currency policies and subsidies. He said he has a meeting with Vietnamese officials today.
"These are complicated negotiations. These are imbalances that have taken decades to create," he said.
Bessent told reporters that Trump had made his decision on Sunday. "This was driven by the president's strategy. He and I had a long talk on Sunday, and this was his strategy all along."
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