{"id":3740,"date":"2025-04-10T14:10:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T18:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3740"},"modified":"2025-04-10T14:10:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T18:10:51","slug":"trump-figuring-out-next-steps-in-global-tariff-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3740","title":{"rendered":"Trump figuring out next steps in global tariff battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 In the aftermath of this week\u2019s tariff whiplash, President Donald Trump<\/a> is deciding exactly what he wants out of trade talks with as many as 75 nations in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump is also figuring out next steps with China. He upped his tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% after China placed retaliatory taxes<\/a> of 84% on imports from the U.S. While his 90-day pause on other tariffs caused the stock market to rally on Wednesday, countries still face a baseline 10% import tax instead of the higher rates announced on April 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, told Fox News\u2019 \u201cFox and Friends\u201d on Wednesday that the administration already has \u201coffers on the table from more than 15 countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hassett said the next step will be determining exactly what Trump wants out of the negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a meeting today with all the top principals where we\u2019re going to present to the president a list of what we think his priorities might look like,\u201d Hassett said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m sure he\u2019s going to, you know, have his own ideas about where to move things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a look at where Trump\u2019s tariffs showdown stands:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The financial markets can tame Trump<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With $28.9 trillion in publicly held debt, the U.S. government can still be beholden to the investors who lend it money. Trump might be willing to run roughshod over political rivals, judges he dislikes and a host of political norms, but the bond market showed Wednesday<\/a> that it can temper his plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going into Wednesday, the interest rate on a 10-year U.S. Treasury note was increasing and approaching 4.5%. That meant the U.S. government was having a tough time finding possible buyers for its debt, as market participants were wondering if Trump\u2019s tariffs had caused foreign buyers to sour on the U.S. government. Higher interest rates for the government could trigger even higher mortgage rates and auto loans for consumers, among other problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump on Wednesday said investors were getting \u201cyippy,\u201d but after his tariff pause he described the bond market as \u201cbeautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tariff drama is far from done<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The S&P 500 stock index jumped 9.5% after the pause was announced. But reality crept back in on Thursday and the stock market slumped. Sure, Trump was no longer going to put a 20% tariff on goods from the European Union, a 24% tariff on Japan or 25% on South Korea. But those nations still have imports taxed at an elevated 10%, Trump\u2019s new baseline as trade talks begin. And tariffs went up against China, locking the world\u2019s two largest economies in a trade war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, the trade war has expanded with China, and 25% tariffs still apply to imported autos, steel and aluminum. Imports from Canada and Mexico, the two largest U.S. trading partners, still face import taxes of as much as 25%. And Trump still plans tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs, lumber, copper and computer chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because tariffs are taxes paid by importers, the costs generally get passed along to consumers and businesses in the form of higher prices and slower economic growth. The Budget Lab at Yale University estimated on Thursday that even with the pause, Trump\u2019s current tariff regime would pull down a household\u2019s average disposable income by $4,364.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Trump really, really wants<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that any trade agreements will be \u201cbespoke\u201d deals, rather than some overarching pact among a group of countries. Trump has laid out a series of grievances and goals regarding tariffs, but Canadian and European counterparts have said the actual asks from administration officials have been vague so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has said he wants to eliminate the $1.2 trillion trade deficit, which means he no longer wants the U.S. to import more goods than it exports to other nations. He also wants revenues from tariffs to offset his income tax cut plans. The president has also said he wants the tariffs to bring back factory jobs and raise workers\u2019 wages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aides have said that Trump wants other nations to scrap regulations and other policies such as Europe\u2019s value-added taxes that he deems to be a barrier to U.S. goods, an ask that would require other countries to change their laws. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said the goal is to get other nations to \u201crespect\u201d Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A trade war with China could cause mutual pain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration views China as violating basic trade norms with how it subsidizes its manufacturers, takes intellectual property from its global competitors, suppresses wages for its workers and manipulates its currency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House clarified that the 125% tariffs that Trump announced on Wednesday against China were actually 145%, once his previous 20% fentanyl tariffs were included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Census Bureau data show the U.S. ran a $295 billion trade deficit last year with China. Because U.S. consumers and businesses are such a major customer of Chinese manufacturers, Bessent has said that gives the U.S. an edge in terms of inflicting pain on that nation\u2019s economy through tariffs. Of course, China has also spent several years preparing for a trade war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wendong Zhang, an economist at Cornell University, said that the Chinese economy might suffer a steeper hit to its gross domestic product than the U.S., but it\u2019s \u201clikely to stick to its guns\u201d due to internal public support and the ability to increase consumption domestically on goods that might no longer be going to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Trump will need to deal with voters who might be frustrated over the higher price of electronics and other goods resulting from the trade wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany products that the U.S. imports are predominantly from China: smartphones (73%), laptops (78%), video game consoles (87%), toys (77%), and also antibiotics for U.S. livestock production,\u201d Zhang said in an email. \u201cResourcing from other countries will take time and result in much higher costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 In the aftermath of this week\u2019s tarif […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3741,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740\/revisions\/3741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}