Trump introduces in the case of customs dispute – but not for China

US President Donald Trump is back in the international trade conflict and exposes certain tariffs that have just come into force for 90 days. Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform that he ordered a 90-day break and during this period a reduced customs duty grabs ten percent. However, this does not explicitly apply to China: for Chinese imports, Trump raised the duty again – to a total of 125 percent.

Trump’s surprising and short announcement on social media caused some confusion and left many questions open. The US President had only committed the fight with a huge customs package in the world with a huge customs package in the world.

The United States recently introduced new flat -rate tariffs of ten percent to imports from almost all countries in a first step. For many states, in a second step, depending on the trade deficit, significantly higher so -called reciprocal criminal levies were introduced. On imports from Germany and other countries of the European Union to the United States, new tariffs of a total of 20 percent were due.

Markets most recently on a descent

After great turbulence on international stock exchanges, Trump now admitted. US government agents suggested that the break applies to the country-specific tariffs of different heights. The uniform customs set of ten percent for all countries that previously came into force remains during the break. This also halves the duty rate for Germany and the EU.

During the 90-day break, there should be negotiations with the states concerned. From the beginning, Trump’s goal was to force other countries with the help of tariffs to reduce trade barriers for imports from the USA.

« There will be a 90-day break at the mutual tariffs while these negotiations are running, » said Karoline Leavitt’s spokeswoman for the White House. The customs level is reduced to a general set of 10 percent. The announcement gave rise to the US stock markets in the evening in the evening in the course of the trade.

Leading democrat: « This is chaos »

The democratic minority leader in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, criticized the economic policy approach of the President. « This is chaos, » said Schumer. « He changes things from day to day. His advisors argue and insult each other. (…) With such unpredictability, such as poor knowledge of what is happening in the world, no country can be governed. »

Trump’s finance minister Scott Bessent, however, tried to present his boss’s procedure as a success – it was his strategy that made more than 75 countries to get to the negotiating table. Besser also dealt with the market fluctuations that Trump’s customs policy had caused in the past few days. The exchanges would now get more certainty, he argued.

The White House had recently rejected speculation about a possible suspension of the huge US customs package and referred to it as « fake news ». Corresponding rumors had caused a sensation in particular on social media and strong fluctuations on the stock exchanges.

EU brings against tariffs

The EU countries had previously cleared their way for the first counter-tariffs between 10 and 25 percent in response to the tariffs ordered by US President Donald Trump. Among other things, special levies for jeans and motorcycles from the USA will come into force next week, as can be seen from a message from the EU Commission.

Further counter -tariffs will then follow in mid -May and end of the year – this affects food such as beef, poultry or citrus fruits such as oranges or grapefruit. At the beginning of December there are nuts and soybeans.

According to EU information, the first tariffs make a trading volume of 3.9 billion euros. On May 15, tariffs are to be charged on goods worth 13.5 billion and the third wave hits a volume of 3.5 billion.

The planned EU special tariffs are not the reaction to the so-called mutual tariffs, but to steel and aluminum imports imposed about a month ago.

College of 125 percent for China

In the meantime, the customs conflict between the United States and China continues to come to a head. Due to the lack of respect, Trump wrote to the global markets, he increases the duty on imports from China with immediate effect.

Most recently, Beijing had announced to the same extent in response to a previous US increase in the amount of 50 percent-the special tariffs on all US imports are now to be 84 percent and come into force on Thursday, the Chinese leadership said. The People’s Republic had already threatened to react to US tariffs with its own measures.

With his aggressive customs policy, Trump spreads great uncertainty worldwide. The US President wants to correct alleged trade weights with tariffs and shift production to the USA. At the same time, customs income should serve to at least partially counter -financed tax cuts promised in the election campaign.

EU also relies on negotiations

When the first counter-tariffs were announced, the EU Commission emphasized: « These countermeasures can be suspended at any time if the United States agree to a fair and balanced negotiation result. » At the beginning of the week, EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said that Plan A was to focus on negotiations – a determined reaction is plan B. The aim was to negotiate, emphasized Sefcovic on Monday.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also emphasized on Monday that the European Union was ready to talks despite the pay decisions of US President Donald Trump. The offer to the United States: an agreement on the lifting of all tariffs on industrial goods – which the Americans have already rejected. In the event of a failure of negotiations, possible countermeasures would be prepared, according to the Leyen.