For days, the Donald Trump And the White House team insisted that they were fully committed to their decision to impose sweeping “reciprocal” duties in dozens of countries.
They even mocked a relevant publication by last Tuesday (08.04.2025), which aHe said that Donald Trump was considering a 90 -day cessation – news that caused a brief rise of the stock market.
But now, the Announcement that freezes duties at 10% to US trade partners for 90 days, With a few notable exceptions, it’s a reality. The Reduction of the World Economic Order is on hold And Trump’s promise of a golden age of American manufacturing should wait.
The White House said that To impose high duties and then pressing the pause button before the start of negotiations with individual countries was the plan from the beginningwrites the BBC in today’s (10.04.2025) analysis.
“We had over 75 countries that contacted us and I imagine that there will be more after today,” he said. Minister of Finance Scott Bessed to reporters shortly after the announcement.
This Framework by the White House is no surprise, of course. And it’s hard to ignore the Investor panic, bond market fall and growing choir of criticism Republicans and public disapproval that preceded the announcement.
Strategic retreat
Was therefore a strategic retreat In the face of the unexpected resistance or yet another example of Trump’s negotiating strategy on the “art of agreement” in action?
It was not late for Trump’s team – many of the same people who said they would never retreat – to come out and celebrate the president’s move.
THE Peter Navarro Trade Advisor He said that the situation with Trump’s duties “evolved exactly as it should”.
“Obviously you didn’t see what President Trump is doing here,” spokesman Caroline Levitt said in a large number of concentrated journalists. “The whole world calls the United States of America.”
Were less clear about the details of the suspension of Trump’s duties, which Announced via post on the Truth Social website. Is the suspension of higher duties for the EU? Are Mexico and Canada, who had avoided the original basic duties of 10%, in some way now included? Were duties affected by specific areas?
In the end, the White House provided some clarity to these questions – but for hours the US trade partners were allowed to carefully consider Trump’s post on Truth Social and draw details of the answers to questions shouting at the press rallies.
Wednesday afternoon, Trump acknowledged that Markets showed ‘pretty bad’ And that “the world had begun to be stunned a little” – a reflection that undermined some of the bravery it expressed last week and could imply the real reason for changing its duties.
Earlier in the day, he was on Truth Social, urging people to “calm down!” And promising that “everything will go well”.
In the end, however, Trump was the one who made a sudden change of course.
He insisted, however, that the announcement of his duties was a statement that had to be made and that any economic disorders reflected a disease that had been left to rise to the American economy.
The Democrats, meanwhile, described a less pink image. Senate minority leader Chuck Sumer accused Trump of “ruining chaos”.
“He swings, he retreats and that’s good,” he said.
In the end, the process of thinking behind Trump’s decision may not really matter.
The reality is that US now find them well -or at least better- With the nations faced with the retaliation of their commercial fires, although Trump still imposes a 10% horizontal duty that would be huge news just a few weeks ago.
However, it is enough step down to recover the stock market and Trump is now leaning in a trade war with China, which hit 125%.
This will have its own global economic implications, but it is more in line with recent US foreign policy – including that of Democratic President Joe Biden – as it seeks to limit Chinese ambitions.
The big unknown, however, is whether Trump’s actions last week – who put the allies confused and threatened to the established world order – would have made it more difficult to implement such a strategy.
And in 90 days, when Trump’s cessation ends, the economic drama and this week’s uncertainty could start from the beginning.