As Tariffs Get Real, Trump Could Edge Back From the Brink

His risky tariff policy has given trading partners and markets the jitters. The US President could be poised to stage a tactical retreat.

- Bhagyashree Garekar

WASHINGTON - It's spring in DC. The pretty pink and white cherry blossoms, which draw thousands to the national capital at this time, have more or less faded. The sun is riding higher and it is getting hotter, perhaps presaging a torrid summer.

This week, finance ministers and central bank governors from around the world will descend upon the city for the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It is an annual exercise to keep the cogs of trade and commerce turning smoothly in an economic machine fashioned by the US after World War II.

Until US President Donald J. Trump upended the whole finely tuned ritual in 2025 by imposing tariffs on all trading partners, in pursuit of "fair," not free trade.

CHANCE FOR BREAKTHROUGH

Whether by design or by mere happenstance, the meetings of the world's top finance officials could offer the first real opportunity for a breakthrough in the trade war provoked by the US.

And talk of an exit strategy is what most animates Washington these days.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that he expects to "bump" into the Chinese delegation as he goes around shaking hands in the soft-lit corridors of the modern glass and stone buildings a few blocks from the White House.

"I know that the People's Republic will send someone from finance, probably the PBOC (People's Bank of China) Governor. I may bump into them," Mr Bessent said in an interview with American media last week.

But, he hastened to add: "We don't have anything scheduled."

The Trump administration believes it has entered uncharted waters after putting a tariff of a thumping 145 per cent on China, the nation that poses a threat to America's 34-year reign as the world's lone superpower.