Tariff Exemption by Country... Only Basic 10% Tariff Applied
Second Retaliation Against China... 125% Tariff on Chinese Imports Takes Immediate Effect
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on the 9th (local time) that he would grant a 90-day exemption on reciprocal tariffs for all trading partners by country. Tariffs on China, which retaliated with counter-tariffs against the U.S., were immediately raised to a total of 125%.
On the same day, President Trump stated on his social networking service (SNS) Truth Social that more than 75 countries had contacted the U.S. for trade negotiations regarding reciprocal tariffs, and that he would "approve a 90-day exemption and immediately implement measures to adjust the reciprocal tariff rate to a significantly reduced 10% during this period."
He said, "More than 75 countries have contacted U.S. representatives and officials, including the Department of Commerce, the Treasury Department, and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), to discuss topics related to trade, trade barriers, tariffs, currency manipulation, and non-monetary (non-tariff) tariffs," adding, "These countries, following my strong recommendation, have not taken any form of retaliatory measures against the U.S., and I appreciate this cooperation."
Previously, the U.S. had implemented reciprocal tariffs of '10% + α' on all trading countries worldwide. After initially imposing a basic 10% tariff on the 5th, starting just after midnight on the 9th, additional punitive tariffs ('+ α') were applied based on each country's trade barriers. However, President Trump announced that, just over 13 hours after the full implementation of reciprocal tariffs, he would immediately suspend the '+ α' tariffs for 90 days for countries that expressed willingness to negotiate instead of retaliating, while maintaining the basic 10% tariff.
On the other hand, he took a second retaliatory measure against China.
President Trump stated, "Due to China's lack of respect shown to the global market, the tariffs imposed by the U.S. on China will be immediately raised to 125%," adding, "Someday, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the era of exploiting the U.S. and other countries is no longer sustainable or acceptable."
This was a retaliatory measure following China's announcement to raise additional tariffs on all U.S. imports from 34% to 84%. Earlier, when President Trump imposed a 34% reciprocal tariff on China, China announced a retaliatory tariff of the same level, 34%, against the U.S. When President Trump increased the additional tariffs on China by 50 percentage points to 84% as a counter-retaliation, China again raised its tariffs on the U.S. to 84%. In response, President Trump imposed a second retaliatory tariff, raising tariffs on China again to 125% on this day.
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