Markets were set alight mid-trade in Wall Street as United States President Donald Trump announced that non-retaliatory countries will get a 90-day reprieve from tariffs being enforced - barring China - which now has to pay a 125% import tax on American goods.
With a purported 75 countries lining up to negotiate trade relations with the U.S., you could say Trump’s best-selling book from 1987, The Art of the Deal, is being played out by the author on a global scale.
That’s certainly what Karoline Leavitt, the President’s press secretary, said to the media outside the White House.
Lambasting the media as if they had missed the latest episode of Married at First Sight, Leavitt said “many of you clearly missed the Art of the Deal. You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here."
“You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact we've seen the opposite effect.”
While the rest of the world will sit at the 10% tariff baseline for goods going into America, China on the other hand has received an additional levy.
The Middle Kingdom will now be subject to a total 125% tariff slapped on its goods going into the U.S. after it retaliated by announcing its own 84% import tax on American products.
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The new measures, first posted on Trump’s own social media outlet Truth Social, caused an immediate market rebound in the middle of trade.
“I have authorised a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately," he said about countries who haven't retaliated.
He then moved his focus to China:
“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the world’s markets, I am hereby raising the tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately,” Trump wrote.
“At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realise that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.”
Market rebound
S&P 500 - up 9.52% to close at 5456.90 points
Nasdaq - up 12.16% to close at 17,124.97 points
Dow Jones Industrial Average - up 7.87% to close at 40,608.45 points
The U.S. President came out publicly at the White House, explaining that he reversed the tariffs because “people got a little bit yippee” in reference to the recent market tank, and said the rise in stock investment on his announcement had “gotta be a record”.
Records there were. The S&P 500 had its largest single day rebound since the global financial crisis in 2008, while the DJIA soared to beat its 2020 daily jump record and the Nasdaq notched its second-best day on trade ever.
