Trump tariff updates: US president unveils 90-day pause for most countries

Thanks for joining Al Jazeera for day 80 of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.

The big news of the day was Trump’s decision to pause the most severe of his reciprocal tariffs, but he escalated the brewing trade war with China. Read more about what’s at stake for China’s economy here.

And explore the economic impact of through charts here.

This live page will soon be closed. Here are today’s top events:

• Trump abruptly announced that country-specific “reciprocal” tariffs would be “paused” for 90 days, just hours after they went into effect.
• Nearly all US trading partners would continue to face 10 percent baseline tariffs, he added.
• Meanwhile, Trump surged tariffs on China to 125 percent, escalating a trade war that has already seen Beijing raise import taxes on US products to 84 percent.
• Trump officials have framed the abrupt policy change as part of a premeditated, hardline negotiating tactic, but the president seemed to indicate the pivot was, at least in part, due to the market fallout.
• He noted that members of the public were getting “yippy” as stocks plummeted in recent days.
• Wall Street, however, saw a significant rebound following Trump’s announcement of limited tariff relief.

Though the US’s 25-percent tariffs remain in effect against Canada, the country’s Prime Minister Mark Carney praised Trump’s decision to pause the so-called reciprocal tariffs that faced other trading partners.

“The pause on reciprocal tariffs announced by President Trump is a welcome reprieve for the global economy,” Carney wrote on social media.

He said he and Trump would plan to cement “a new economic and security relationship” after Canada’s federal election.

Carney is currently ahead in the polls in the lead-up to the April 28 vote — a fact that some experts credit, in part, to Trump’s aggressive stance towards Canada. Prior to Trump taking office in January, Carney’s Liberal Party had been trailing in voter surveys.

Formerly the governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, Carney predicted Trump’s tariff negotiations would have wide-ranging impacts.

“This will likely result in a fundamental restructuring of the global trading system,” he wrote.

“In that context, Canada must also continue to deepen its relationships with trading partners that share our values, including the free and open exchange of goods, services, and ideas.”

Among several new executive orders signed today, Trump has requested a review of rules governing the export of weapons and military equipment.

“We’re unable to provide weapons systems in a reliable, effective way to key allies of ours, and the key driver of that is inefficiencies and inconsistencies with the process by which we approve foreign military sales,” White House aide Will Scharf said at the signing ceremony in the Oval Office.

Trump had regularly chafed at the US Arms Export Control Act during his first term. The law gives Congress the right to review arms exports to other countries and to potentially pass legislation blocking the sales.

In 2019, Trump declared a national emergency in light of tensions with Iran. That had allowed him to sidestep the review of more than $8bn in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud has met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The pair discussed Gaza, Sudan and Yemen, as well as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, though the ministry did not offer further details.

Trump has said he may visit Saudi Arabia as soon as April, which would make it his first foreign trip of his second term.

A source close to the Saudi government told the AFP news agency that the foreign minister’s visit was to “prepare for Trump’s visit to Riyadh”.

A Downing Street spokesperson has given a staid response to Trump’s pivot today on tariffs.

Trump’s shift does not appear to offer any relief to the UK, which had been subject to 10 percent baseline tariffs. Trump announced today he was pausing country-specific tariffs for 90 days, but that a 10 percent universal baseline would continue.

UK officials have been muted in their criticism of Trump as the country continues to negotiate a post-Brexit bilateral trade agreement with the US.

“A trade war is in nobody’s interest,” the spokesperson said. “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 federal judge has given government lawyers until Wednesday night to provide evidence justifying why it is seeking to deport Khalil.

The Columbia University student was detained last month in connection with his pro-Palestine advocacy.

The State Department had previously cited a rarely used authority that allows a visa holder to be deported if their presence “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”.

The judge has set a Friday hearing where she could move to dismiss the case against Khalil and order his release – or deem him deportable.

A White House official has said that Canada and Mexico are not affected by Trump’s announcement today about tariff relief, in an attempt to clear up previous confusion.

That means both countries are still subject to 25-percent tariffs on goods not covered by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade. Energy and potash — a mineral used in fertilisers — from the two countries are also subject to a separate 10-percent tariff, the official said.

Those tariffs were designed to push Canada and Mexico to comply with Trump’s demands on border security, including demands that both crack down on cross-border migration and fentanyl trafficking.

Certain officials from Canada and Mexico had expressed relief last week that they were spared from Trump’s announcement of so-called reciprocal tariffs.

The official also clarified that Trump’s 25-percent tariffs on steel, aluminium and foreign automobile imports are unaffected by today’s announcement.

Irish Trade Minister Simon Harris has voiced optimism after meeting with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick today.

“I conveyed our commitment through the EU to comprehensive negotiations that would address a broad range of issues,” Harris said. “The meeting with Secretary Lutnick has confirmed my view that there is an openness on the part of the US to engage in such a process.”

The minister added that he believed a 90-day pause on tariffs would allow time for separate talks on the US’s planned tariffs on Irish-made pharmaceuticals.

The Republic of Ireland is a key export hub for pharmaceutical products.

As Trump signed executive orders in the Oval Office, the question of how his trade war with China arose, and how it would affect negotiations over the future of the video-sharing app TikTok.

The US president hinted that some investors were prepared to buy the US arm of the Chinese-based social media company, in a deal to alleviate national security concerns.

“It’s moving along,” Trump said, weighing in. “Obviously, I would say right now China is not exactly thrilled about signing it. We have a deal with some very good people, some very rich companies that would do a great job with it. But we’re going to have to wait to see what’s going to happen with China.”

Earlier in the day, Trump had imposed a whopping 125-percent tariff on China, further escalating tensions.

“It’s on the table, very much. I think China’s going to want to do it,” Trump said of a deal to bring down the tariffs in the future.

“For years, we’ve been ripped off and taken advantage of by China and others, in all fairness. But China, that’s the big one. It’s just one of those things.”

He also reaffirmed that his tariff plan was working to reduce trade barriers for US industry abroad.

“The geniuses of the world, they get it. Our country is very strong.”

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth hinted at an increased US troop presence in the Latin American country, adding that such a deployment would need to be by the “invitation” of Panama’s government.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries, Hegseth said there was “an opportunity to revive, whether it’s the military base, naval air station, locations where US troops can work with Panamanian troops to enhance capabilities and cooperate in a rotational way”.

The US had maintained several bases in Panama for decades, most of which surrounded the Panama Canal.

But after signing the 1979 Panama Canal Treaty, the US gradually started to return those bases to Panama, along with control of the canal itself.

That waterway is a vital trade route connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

Speaking alongside Hegseth, Panama’s Minister for Public Security Frank Abrego said Panama would not allow permanent US military bases in the country. In the past, Trump has threatened to retake control of the Panama Canal, alarming the Panamanian government.

“Somebody had to pull the trigger. I was willing to pull the trigger.”

That’s how Donald Trump explained his willingness to impose sweeping tariffs on trading partners across the globe, from allies to economic rivals alike.

He was defiant, though, in the face of criticism that his tariffs had sparked a trade war that was leading to market volatility. Instead, he said he was “honoured” to announce the tariffs.

Trump made the comments at an event for the NASCAR racing champions outside the White House. Check out the scene below:

William Lee, an economist with the Milken Institute think tank, explained that the Trump administration is using tariffs strategically as a negotiating tool.

That economic pressure, Lee said, lets “investors see and realise how important the US market is to them”.

“[Trump is] saying, ‘Look, if I shut you off from the market, many of your most important and largest companies are going to suffer by not having access to the US market,” Lee continued.

“Now you can argue that those reciprocal tariffs were really outsized and had no correspondence to the actual tariffs that US companies were facing. But Donald Trump was also making a very important point, which is that it’s the non-tariff barriers that have been substantial hindrance for American companies abroad.”

“These are non-tariff barriers like quotas, administrative rules, quality standards, health standards — things that countries put up as barriers to allow Americans to export there.”

The market certainly exploded at the news of a pause to these extreme reciprocal tariffs of 90 days, the market under extreme pressure exploding higher, and those games continued as he was speaking to reporters just now.

We’re seeing the Dow up 2,600 points, that’s 7 percent, and the S&P also up over 8 percent. Last week, we were talking about the sharpest decline in one week for the S&P, now we’re seeing the sharpest gains in a day for the S&P in five years.

So it gives you an idea of just how extreme these movements have been, the most extreme in five years when the coronavirus pandemic was getting under way.

NASDAQ up about 10 percent, some of the stocks that were most heavily pressured by tariffs are actually having the biggest comeback.

Apple, the iPhone maker, Nvidia, the chip maker, both up more than 10 percent, which is really interesting because the tariffs on China are still in place, up at 125 percent now. Apple, a company that’s very exposed to China, relies on China for manufacturing, and yet we’re seeing its stocks surge.

Walmart, a retailer that also was under pressure as a result of these tariffs back up over 9 percent. Tesla, Elon Musk’s company for electric vehicles, also up 19 percent at one point today.

So quite a turnaround. Still down from those all-time highs by 10 percent across the board at least.

So we still haven’t made up for all the losses that we’ve seen recently, and financial markets are continuing to debate, the analysts are continuing to debate what this all means for the long-term, not just for markets, but for the bigger economy.

We still have this baseline 10 percent tariff in place, and there was concern that even that would weigh on economic growth, and so those concerns remain, but we’re seeing a lot for the markets to process today.