Trump signs order to extend China tariff truce by 90 days
Image: Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP
US President Donald Trump on Monday 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. The truce on steeper levies had been due to expire Tuesday.
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.
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%. Those rates will now hold until November -- or whenever a deal is cut before then.
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 Monday 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.
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Trump-Xi summit?
"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."
Since Trump took office, China's tariffs have essentially boomeranged, from the initially modest 10% hike in February, followed by repeated surges as Beijing and Washington clashed, until it hit a high of 145% in April. Now the tariff has been pulled back to 30%, a negotiated truce rate.
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 Sunday that he hoped China will "quickly quadruple its soybean orders," adding this would be a way to balance trade with the United States.
China's exports reached record highs in 2024, and Beijing reported that their exports exceeded expectations in June, climbing 5.8% year-on-year, as the economic superpower works to sustain growth amid Trump's trade war.
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