Facing a global market recession, President Donald Trump suddenly supported his tariff on most nations for 90 days on Wednesday (April 9, 2025), even raising the tax rate on sugar imports by 125%.
This was an attempt to narrow an unprecedented trade war between the US and most of the world for a performance between the US and China. After the announcement, the S&P 500 stock index jumped 9.5%, but the play ended on Mr. Trump’s tariff as the administration is ready to engage in the country-by-country conversation. Meanwhile, countries under break will now be targeted at 10%.
Also read Trump’s global tariffs live
The President hit a break in front of the intense pressure created by unstable financial markets, pushing Mr. Trump to reconsider his tariff, even some administration officials insisted that there were always plans to reversed him.
As stocks and bonds were sold, voters were watching their retirement savings decreasing and businesses had warned worse than expected sales and rising prices, all a potential intestine punch for a country that sent Trump back to the White House last year, on the promise of competing inflation.
The global economy appeared in an open rebellion against Mr. Trump’s tariff, as he was effective in early Wednesday, an indication that the US President was not immune to market pressure. By noon, Mr. Trump posted on the truth that because more than 75 countries had reached the US government for trade talks and did not retaliate in meaningful ways, “I have authorized 90 days stagnation, and during this period much less mutual tariff, 10%, immediately effective.”
Mr. Trump later told reporters that he pulled back to many global tariffs – but not on China – because people were “Yippy” and “fear” due to the decline in the stock market. He said that when he was expected to reach deals, “nothing is yet.”
The President said that he was monitoring the Bond Market and people were “getting down a little” because the prices of the bonds fell and in the last tariff schemes of Mr. Trump increased the interest rates in the vote without any confidence by investors.
“Bond market is very difficult,” said Mr. Trump. “I was watching it. But if you see it now, it’s beautiful.”
The President later said that he had been thinking about his tariff stagnation for the last few days, but he said that it “came early this morning, very early this morning.”
Asked that the White House allies had been insisting for weeks that tariffs were not part of a conversation, Mr. Trump said: “Many times, it is not a conversation until it is.”
10% tariff was the basic rate for most countries which came into force on Saturday. It is meaningful less than 20% tariff which Mr. Trump scored 24% on imports from Japan and 25% on South Korea’s products. Nevertheless, 10% of the 10% represents an increase in tariffs earlier charged by the US government. Canada and Mexico will be targeted up to 25% due to a separate instruction by Trump, which is to prevent phentineel smuggling.
Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said that talks with individual countries would be “Bispok”, which means that the next 90 days would include negotiations on the hurry of potential deals. Hedge Fund Manager, Mr. Besant told reporters that the stagnation was demanding negotiations rather than cruel sales in financial markets due to other countries, later a statement by the President.
“The only certainty we can provide is that America is going to talk in good faith, and we believe that our colleagues will also be,” said Mr. Besant.
The Treasury Secretary said that he and Mr. Trump had “spoke a long talk on Sunday, and this was his strategy” and the President “turned China into a bad position.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik later denied the President’s account, saying that it was not a “certainly” market, due to which Mr. Trump stopped the tariff, saying that the requests for interaction by other nations inspired the decision.
Prior to the reversal, the business officers were warning of a possible recession caused by their policies, some top American business partners retaliated with their own import taxes and the stock market was craving after the decline.
White House press secretary Karolin Lewit said that Walk Back was part of Mr. Trump’s strategy of conversation.
He said that the news media “clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would take closer to China, when in fact, we have seen the opposite effect. The whole world is calling the United States, not China, because they need our markets.”
The head of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela, stated that the trade war between the US and China warned “the global economic outlook seriously damaged” and warned of “possible fragmentation of global trade with” geopolitical lines “.
With the move of Mr. Trump, the market turmoil was formed for a few weeks, the President several times suggested that import taxes would be said that they could be subject to dialogue.
Particularly worrying was that the US government debt had lost some of its brightness with investors, which usually consider Treasury notes as a safe shelter in case of economic disturbance. Government bond prices were falling, the 10 -year -old American Treasury note increased the interest rate to 4.45%. This rate decreased after Mr. Trump reversed.
Genadi Goldberg, head of US Rate Strategy at TD Securities, said that the market wanted to see a truss in the market trade disputes before the announcement.
“Markets more widely, not only the Treasury Market, looking for signs that are coming a business de-escape,” he said. “Any de-escase absent, it is difficult for markets to be stable.”
John Canavan, Chief Analyst of Consultancy Oxford Economics, said that while Mr. Trump said he changed the course due to possible conversation, he had earlier indicated that the tariff would remain in place.
Mr. Canavan said, “There are very mixed messages on what will happen.” “Given what is happening with the markets, he realized that the safest job is to talk and stop things.”
Wednesday’s whipso-like nature can be seen in Bill Acman’s social media post, a hedge fund billionaire and pro-Trump.
“Our stock market is below,” Mr. Ekman posted on X. “Bond yields are up and the dollar is decreasing. These are not markers of successful policy.”
Mr. Ekman reiterated his call for a 90 -day stay in the post. When Mr. Trump adopted that idea after several hours, an e -ailant Mr. Ekman posted that Mr. Trump had “executed” his plan and it was a reference to the “Textbook, Art of the Deal,” Mr. Trump’s Bestsailing 1987 book.
The presidents often receive inappropriate credit or faults for the state of the US economy as their time in the White House is subject to financial and geopolitical forces beyond his direct control.
But by implementing unilateral tariffs, Mr. Trump has had an extraordinary impact on the flow of commerce, has created political risk and draws the market in different directions based on his comment and social media posts. Still 25% tariffs appear on auto, steel and aluminum, including more imports, including pharmaceutical drugs, which are ready to be tarted in the coming weeks.
Recent weeks tariffs frenzy has taken its toll on businesses and individuals equally.
On CNBC, CEO Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, said the administration was less strategic during Mr. Trump’s first term. His company estimated in January that it would be its best financial year in history, only to reduce its expectations for 2025 due to economic uncertainty.
He said, “The attempt to do all this at the same time has created anarchy in terms of being able to plan,” he said, seeing that the demand for air travel has weakened.
Prior to Mr. Trump’s Ulpfire, economic forecasts stated that his second term has a series of negative and cascading effects that can put the country into recession.
The Chief Economist of Consultancy RSM, Joe Bruceuelus said, “Consumer spirit, corporate trust, business, financial markets as well as prices, new orders and shocks for labor markets, will turn the economy into recession in the current quarter.”
Mr. Besant has earlier said that it may take months to deal with countries at tariff rates. But on “Morning with Maria” on Wednesday morning, Besant said that the economy “would return to firing on all cylinders” at a point “not in a very distant future.”
He said that “there has been a” heavy “response by those countries who are coming to the countries that want to sit on the table instead of moving forward.” Bessent referred to Japan, South Korea and India. “I will pay attention that they are around China. We are coming to Vietnam today,” he said.
Published – 09 April, 2025 11:20 PM IST
