Trump Tries to Unite the World Against China, Calm Markets With Tariff Pause

He insists Xi will come to negotiating table, but analysts say Beijing is unlikely to yield

- Bhagyashree Garekar

WASHINGTON - Was it about isolating China or calming the markets? Or both?

Whatever the case, US President Donald Trump stunned the world with his abrupt decision to escalate the trade war against America's biggest rival and postpone the high tariffs imposed on allies.

And Chinese President Xi Jinping, he insisted, would come to the negotiating table.

In swift retribution against China's decision to match in kind the tariffs imposed by the US, Mr Trump announced on April 9 that China's tariff rate had been increased to a total of 125 per cent.

At the same time, he issued a 90-day pause in the implementation of reciprocal tariffs that had been applied on trade partners with which the US has trade deficits, including important allies in Asia like Japan and South Korea.

"Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the world's markets, I am hereby raising the tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125 per cent, effective immediately," Mr Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Until that point, China had been hit with tariffs of 104 per cent. It had retaliated with 84 per cent tariffs that matched Mr Trump's announcement of 34 per cent "reciprocal" tariffs and an additional 50 per cent for retaliating.

Meanwhile, the baseline 10 per cent tariff that went into effect on April 5 remains in place for all trading partners, including Singapore. This applies also to the European Union, which has suspended its planned retaliatory tariffs of up to 25 per cent on the US.

While slapping another round of tariffs on China, Mr Trump said his Chinese counterpart would want to talk to him.

"China wants to make a deal. They just don't know how to go about it. It is one of those things. They are proud people. And President Xi is a proud man, I know him very well. They don't know quite how to go about it, but they will figure it out. They are in the process of figuring it out. They want to make a deal."