In a major development, US President Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs for all but China. In a social media post last night, Mr. Trump said the 90-day breather will apply to reciprocal and 10 per cent tariffs. The US President said he was authorizing a 90-day pause as part of his tariff plan but was also raising the tariff rate for China to 125 per cent, effective immediately. Mr. Trump said, based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, he was raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America. Mr. Trump gave respite to the 75 other nations that he had imposed discounted reciprocal tariffs on last week, saying that he has ordered an immediate pause on such levies after seeing a humble and proactive approach by these nations in trying to resolve the trade imbalance with the United States.

Earlier yesterday, China retaliated with an 84 percent tariff on all goods imported from the US, which came into effect from midnight last night. China said it is raising its retaliatory tariff on the US to 84 percent, up from 34 percent. Beijing accused Washington of bullying practices. It alleged that the White House has damaged the global trade order.

The European Union also voted in favor of imposing tariffs on some US-imported goods. EU member states had approved 25 percent tariffs on various American products in retaliation for the US imposing similar tariffs on EU steel and aluminum imports.