US President Donald Trump has signed an order delaying higher tariffs on Chinese goods for 90 days. Photo / Jim Watson, AFP
US President Donald Trump has ordered a delay in the reimposition of higher tariffs on Chinese goods, hours before a trade truce between Washington and Beijing was due to expire.
The White House’s halt on steeper tariffs will be in place until November 10.
“I have just signed an Executive Order that will extend the Tariff Suspension on China for another 90 days,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
While the United States and China slapped escalating tariffs on each other’s products this year, bringing them to prohibitive triple-digit levels and snarling trade, both countries in May agreed to temporarily lower them.
Their 90-day halt of steeper levies had been due to expire Tuesday.
Around the same time that Trump confirmed the new extension, Chinese state media Xinhua news agency published a joint statement from US-China talks in Stockholm saying it would also extend its side of the truce.
China will continue suspending its earlier tariff hike for 90 days starting August 12 while retaining a 10% duty, the report said.
It would also “take or maintain necessary measures to suspend or remove non-tariff countermeasures against the United States, as agreed in the Geneva joint declaration”, Xinhua reported.
In the executive order posted on Tuesday (local time) to its website, the White House reiterated its position that there are “large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits” and they “constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States”.
The order acknowledged Washington’s ongoing discussions with Beijing “to address the lack of trade reciprocity in our economic relationship” and noted that China has continued to “take significant steps toward remedying” the US complaints.
The 90-day extension means the truce is now set to expire just after midnight on November 10.
“Beijing will be happy to keep the US-China negotiation going, but it is unlikely to make concessions,” warned William Yang, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
He believes China sees its leverage over rare earth exports as a strong one, and that Beijing will likely use it to pressure Washington.
US-China Business Council president Sean Stein said the current extension is “critical to give the two governments time to negotiate an agreement” providing much-needed certainty for companies to make plans.
A trade deal, in turn, would “pave the way for a Trump-Xi summit this fall”, said Asia Society Policy Institute senior vice-president Wendy Cutler.
But Cutler, herself a former US trade official, said: “This will be far from a walk in the park.”
Even as both countries reached a pact to cool tensions after high-level talks in Geneva in May, the de-escalation has been shaky.
Key economic officials convened in London in June as disagreements emerged and US officials accused their counterparts of violating the pact. Policymakers met again in Stockholm last month.
Trump said in a social media post on Sunday that he hoped China will “quickly quadruple its soybean orders”, adding this would be a way to balance trade with the United States.
As part of their May truce, fresh US tariffs targeting China were reduced to 30% and the corresponding level from China was cut to 10%.
Separately, since returning to the Presidency in January, Trump has slapped a 10% “reciprocal” tariff on almost all trading partners, aimed at addressing trade practices Washington deemed unfair.
This surged to varying steeper levels last Thursday for dozens of economies.
Major partners like the European Union, Japan and South Korea now see a 15% US duty on many products, while the level went as high as 41% for Syria.
The “reciprocal” tariffs exclude sectors that have been targeted individually, such as steel and aluminium, and those that are being investigated like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
They are also expected to exclude gold, although a clarification by US customs authorities made public last week caused concern that certain gold bars might still be targeted.
Trump said on Monday that gold imports will not face additional tariffs, without providing further details.
The President has taken separate aim at individual countries such as Brazil over the trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of planning a coup, and India over its purchase of Russian oil.
Canada and Mexico come under a different tariff regime.
– Agence France-Presse