Why did Donald Trump raise US tariffs on China to 125% and hit pause elsewhere?

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a 90-day pause on higher tariffs on trade partners, but raised duties on China to 125%.

The US president’s stunning u-turn came roughly 13 hours after high duties on 56 nations and the European Union took effect, fueling market turmoil and stoking recession fears.

According to Bloomberg, Donald Trump was facing massive pressure from business leaders and investors to reverse course.

“I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line,” Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday when asked why he backed off.

“They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid. No other president would have done what I did. Somebody had to do it…They had to stop because it was not sustainable. I’m honoured to have done it. Somebody had to do what we did.

Trump, however, announced that he would raise the tariff on Chinese imports to 125% from the 104% level that took effect at midnight, further escalating a high-stakes confrontation between the world’s two largest economies.

He said in a social media post that he is pausing his so-called “reciprocal tariffs” on many other trading partners because they had responded by reaching out for talks rather than retaliating and blamed China for “lack of respect”.

“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%, effective immediately,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable, ” he added.

US- China trade war

Since taking office in January, Trump has now raised the tariff on Chinese goods five times.

The first two hikes of 10% each were met with what analysts described as a measured response from China that left the door open for talks. But after Trump announced an additional 34% duty on Chinese goods last week, along with tariffs on other countries in his “Liberation Day”, China matched that with a 34% tariff on imports from the US.

Following China’s retaliations, Trump then added a 50% tariff on goods from China, saying negotiations were terminated, and bringing the cumulative US. tariff to 104%.

China again responded by raising the tariff on American products by the same amount, bringing its total rate to 84%. Then Trump upped the American tariff to 125%.

Amid the economic tension between the two nations, China warned its citizens to “assess the risks” before travelling to the US.

“In light of worsening China–US trade relations and security concerns in America, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism advises Chinese citizens to carefully assess the risks of traveling to the United States and proceed with caution,” the ministry said in an alert Wednesday night.