U.S. President Donald Trump partially reversed course Wednesday on his global trade war following days of market turmoil — but he’s not offering any changes to the tariffs hitting Canada.
Trump announced an immediate 90-day pause on the levies on nations slapped with the highest duties under his “reciprocal” tariff regime. A White House official later clarified that a 10-per-cent baseline tariff will remain in place for all countries.
The president has held fast to his plan to rapidly realign global trade through a benchmark “reciprocal” tariff since his return to the White House in January, but his tariffs have spread chaos throughout global markets.
The 10-per-cent baseline tariffs on all imports to the U.S. from most countries, and higher duties on dozens of nations, came into force just after midnight Wednesday. Those higher tariffs included a 20 per cent levy on imports from the European Union, a 25 per cent tariff on South Korea and a 32 per cent levy on Taiwan.
Trump also increased tariffs on Chinese goods to 104 per cent.
Beijing responded with additional duties on U.S. imports, pushing its total tariffs on U.S. goods to 84 per cent.
Trump posted on social media that Americans should “BE COOL!” and “Everything is going to work out” a few hours before changing course and pulling back some of the most devastating duties.
On social media, Trump said he made the decision after more than 75 countries called his administration “to negotiate a solution.”
Later at the White House, the president said he lowered the levies because “people were jumping a little bit out of line.”
“They were getting yippy, you know,” Trump said. “They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid.”
While some countries saw a reprieve, Trump posted that China had shown a “lack of respect” and announced he’s increasing tariffs on Chinese imports to 125 per cent, effective immediately.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spread his own confusion by telling reporters that Canada and Mexico were included in the 10-per-cent universal levy. The White House official later stated that the tariffs on Canada remained unchanged.
In early March, Trump imposed — and then partially paused — 25-per-cent across-the-board tariffs on Canada and Mexico, with a lower 10 per cent levy on energy and potash. Goods imported under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known as CUSMA, do not face duties. Imports that fall outside the continental trade pact are hit with the 25 per cent tariff.
Tariffs on automobiles, steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. also remain in place.
Ottawa added to its retaliatory measures earlier Wednesday in response to the automobile duties by implementing similar tariffs on vehicles imported from the United States. Unlike the American duties, Canada’s tariffs will not affect auto parts.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sent a warning to Canada that if its countermeasures remain in place Trump could hit back hard.
He said “having watched how it went with China,” Canada deciding to keep its retaliatory move “would be a really, really bad choice.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney called Trump’s pause a “welcome reprieve” but said the upcoming negotiations will “likely result in a fundamental restructuring of the global trading system.”
“As President Trump and I have agreed, the U.S. President and the Canadian Prime Minister will commence negotiations on a new economic and security relationship immediately following the Federal election,” Carney posted on social media.
At a rally Wednesday night, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made comments about Trump’s latest tariff moves and said that “almost every country in the world got a pause on American tariffs, but not us, America’s best friend.”
“This, after Prime Minister Carney boasted that he had a ‘productive phone call with the president,'” Poilievre said, adding that he would “move quickly” to negotiate an end to tariffs with protections for Canadian sovereignty. “He said that he had made progress with the president. What progress? What progress do the auto workers in Brampton and Windsor and elsewhere in Canada today see?”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said earlier in the day that Trump is causing “chaos” and that Canadians are fed up. He said Canada needs to build a more independent economy, become less dependent on the U.S. and do more to protect workers.
Also on Wednesday, America’s new top diplomat in Ottawa was confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Former Michigan congressman Pete Hoekstra said in a statement that “Canada is our most valuable trading partner, our largest source of foreign investment, and our largest source of energy imports.”
Trump has repeatedly said America doesn’t need anything from Canada. Canadian officials have said Trump’s tariffs undermine CUSMA and his goal is to crush Canada’s economy in order to annex the country.
Damage to the relationship with Canada came up repeatedly as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer faced pushback from lawmakers on a congressional committee for a second day on Wednesday. Greer maintained his support for Trump’s trade agenda as Republican and Democrats alike questioned the president’s tariff rollout and the uncertain goals of his massive trade agenda.
Claudia Tenney, the Republican congresswoman from New York, said there’s been a 23 per cent drop in Canadian visitors to her district’s wineries and she’s concerned about what’s happening to the “historically strong relationship.” Local industries also rely on steel and aluminum from Canada, she said.
Richard Neal, a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, told the House Committee on Ways and Means on Wednesday that the trade war is “not only dumb, it’s unconstitutional.”
Greer told hearings this week that there would be no exclusions or exemptions, but Trump has shifted course on that as well. The president told reporters at the White House that he would rely on instinct to decide whether any companies or industries should get tariff carve-outs going forward.
“You have to have flexibility,” Trump said.
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