President Trump put a 90-day pause for tariffs on at least 75 countries that have opened negotiations with the White House. China is not one of them. For China, he raised to tariff to 125%, effective immediately and China responded with an 84% tariff on the U.S.
Additionally, he lowed the reciprocal tariffs to 10% for everyone who is not China.
The stock market rallied on this news. It makes it all the more clear that the tariffs were an opening offer to force countries to make a better deal. This seems to have been his plan all along.
In fact, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett said exactly that on Wednesday at the White House: “This was his strategy all along.”
Investor and early Facebook founder Chamath Palihapitiya predicts that tariffs are also a tactic to transfer wealth back to the middle class. He calls it an economic NATO but just for the U.S., not for a block of countries.
