US President Donald Trump is considering a 90-day delay in imposing elevated reciprocal tariffs, as its major trading partners are in an uproar and are retaliating.

“I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve been dealing with Scott, with Howard, with some other people that are very professional. And I think it probably came together early this morning, fairly early this morning. Just wrote it up,” he said, referring to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

“It was written from the heart, and I think it was well-written too, but it was written from the heart. It was written as something that I think was very positive for the world and for us, and we don’t want to hurt countries that don’t need to be hurt, and they all want to negotiate,” he added.

As he increased US tariffs on Chinese imports to 125% on Wednesday, Trump said that he was open to granting over 75 nations a 90-day reprieve from a Wednesday deadline. Trump earlier announced 104% tariffs on Chinese imports after China retaliated with 34% tariffs, which in turn was a response to the slapping of 34% tariffs by the US on Chinese imports.

For the Philippines, Trump ordered the imposition of 17 tariffs despite the country being considered a close ally of the US.
Meanwhile, other countries like Singapore were only impose the 10% baseline tariff.

The president said in a post on his Truth Social platform that he was taking the action because the nations had reached out to their US counterparts “to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs” and because they have not retaliated “in any way, shape, or form against the United States.”

Markets mounted one of their largest rallies in history after news of the decision, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq closing up more than 12% and the Dow up more than 7.8% after a week of staggering losses.

Analysts have also noted that what Trump really wanted is to force its trading partners to enter into individual trade agreements with the US, breaking the long-held order of global free trade.

ANADOLU PHOTO