Duties, Trump suspends trade war with China for 90 days: another U-turn by the White House

The Trump administration is backtracking on tariffs yet again, this time against the country that has been hit hardest by the trade war imposed by Donald Trump : China .

Washington and Beijing, as reported by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, " will reduce their reciprocal tariffs by 115 percentage points ": thus the United States will lower its tariffs on Chinese goods from 145 to 30 percent and China will lower its tariffs on US goods from 125 to 10 percent.

The joint US-China statement said the suspension would take effect “ by May 14 ” for 90 days . China will review “additional duties” on US goods, the Commerce Department said in a joint statement after negotiations in Geneva.

By May 14, the United States will “modify the application of the additional ad valorem duty rate on Chinese-origin customs duties (including those from the Hong Kong and Macao Special Regions) by suspending 24 percentage points of that rate for an initial period of 90 days, while maintaining the remaining 10 percent ad valorem duty rate on such items.”

China will instead adjust the application of the additional ad valorem rate on U.S. items accordingly, “by suspending 24 percentage points of that rate for an initial period of 90 days while maintaining the remaining additional ad valorem rate of 10 percent on such items.” After adopting the agreed measures, “the parties will establish a mechanism to continue discussions on economic and trade relations.

That an agreement was about to be made, to avoid the paralysis between the two strongest economies in the world, had been made clear and hoped for by the US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick , in an interview given Sunday afternoon to Fox News. "The 145% and 125% are types of tariffs with which, in fact, we no longer trade. Bessent is there to see if we can re-establish the dialogue", he had explained to the American broadcaster most aligned with the Trump administration.

The Swiss announcement was welcomed on the stock exchange . European stocks soared in the morning after the suspension of duties: Milan gained more than 2%, Paris rose 1.25% and Frankfurt advanced 1.57%. London recorded a progress of 0.62%.

Positive session also for the Asian stock markets: Tokyo closed up 0.38%, Hong Kong rose (+1.4%) for the eighth consecutive day, Shanghai gained 0.69% and Shenzhen 1.38 percent.