Compiled from news service reports
President Donald Trump’s additional 50% on China takes effect on Wednesday at 12:01 a.m., White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
The president on Monday threatened to impose an extra 50% on the Chinese regime if Beijing didn’t remove its tit-for-tat 34% retaliatory levies on U.S. goods entering the country. Beijing rejected the demand.
“It was a mistake for China to retaliate to the president. When America is punched, he punches back harder,” Leavitt said Tuesday. “That’s why there will be 104% tariffs going into effect on China tonight at midnight.”
Leavitt said if Beijing reaches out to make a deal, Trump will “be incredibly gracious, but he’s going to do what’s best for the American people.”
In total, the Trump administration is set to impose a 104% tariff rate on Chinese imports.
Leavitt: Trump Wants ‘Tailor-Made Trade Deals’ for Each Country
The United States wants to craft “tailor-made trade deals” with each country that is willing to negotiate in the face of reciprocal tariffs on imports announced by Trump on April 2.
These deals, Leavitt said Tuesday, will be based on each country’s markets, exports, imports to the United States and “what makes the most sense for the American worker and for our industry.”
Furthermore, Trump is looking to get foreign trade leaders to come to Washington to directly speak about trade and other international matters, Leavitt said.
“I think the president is going to have a custom, tailor-made approach to each and every country,” Leavitt said. “If that means discussions of foreign aid, of our military presence in these countries, how those troops are paid for … that could be part of the negotiation.”
Bessent: Deals Are Happening ‘Quickly’
Vietnamese and Japanese officials are ready to make a deal, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters on Tuesday morning.
Trade representatives from the Southeast Asian country, which is facing a 46% so-called reciprocal tariff, are headed to the United States “this week,” Bessent said.
Moreover, he said Japanese trade representatives are “very eager to get it over.”
“I think you’re going to see a couple of big trade partners do deals very quickly,” Bessent said.
Bessent said that about 70 countries have reached out to the Trump administration to negotiate on tariffs that were announced last week.
While he did not confirm whether there was any headway in negotiations, Bessent told Fox News’ Larry Kudlow on Monday that “50, 60, maybe almost 70 countries” have gotten in contact with the Trump administration looking to hold talks.
“It’s going to be a busy April, May, maybe into June,” he said.
“As I advised on many shows on April 2, I suggested that the foreign officials keep your cool. Do not escalate, and come to us with your offers on how you’re going to drop tariffs, how you’re going to drop non-tariff barriers, how you’re going to stop your currency manipulation, how you’re going to stop the subsidized financing. And at a point, President Trump will be ready to negotiate.”
He then spoke of talks with the Japanese government, confirming that Trump told U.S. trade officials to lead negotiations with Japan.
“Japan is a very important military ally. They’re a very important economic ally, and the U.S. has a lot of history with them. So I would expect that Japan is going to get priority just because they came forward very quickly,” the Treasury secretary said.
“But it’s going to be very busy, and President Trump, again, gave himself maximum negotiating leverage, and just when he achieved the maximum leverage, he’s willing to start talking.”
When asked about whether the United States could reach a deal with Japan, Bessent did not say but cautioned that “negotiations are going to be tough.”
In a comment to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Bessent said that he believes “a couple of big trading partners” will “do deals very quickly” with the administration, although he didn’t go into specifics.
“If they come to the table with solid proposals, I think we can end up with some good deals,” he told CNBC in a separate interview about the negotiations.
Last week, the White House said that a 10% baseline tariff would be imposed on almost every country in the world, while more significant trading partners would see higher rates. In the subsequent days, Wall Street posted its worst two-day loss since the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, the three major U.S. stock indexes clawed back some of their losses from the previous week as Bessent and other Trump administration officials confirmed negotiations would start. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up well over 1,000 points by Tuesday morning, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 saw gains as well
Trump administration officials say the president is following through on a promise to reverse decades of trade liberalization that he believes has undercut the U.S. economy. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump often said he would impose tariffs on countries to offset longstanding trade deficits.
Amid the uncertainty on Monday, Trump said that he wouldn’t initiate a pause on the tariffs amid online rumors that the administration would issue a 90-day reprieve.
“Well, we’re not looking at that,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office. “We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us, and they’re going to be fair deals. And in certain cases, they’re going to be paying substantial tariffs. There will be fair deals.”
Bessent said the Chinese regime’s announcement to increase U.S. tariffs was a “big mistake.”
Chinese officials last week said the regime would impose a 34% increase in tariffs on U.S. goods after Trump announced an initial 54% duty on Chinese imports. Later, China’s commerce ministry doubled down on its statement and indicated it would “fight to the end” and take measures against the United States.
“I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation, because they’re playing with a pair of twos,” Bessent said. “What do we lose by the Chinese raising tariffs on us? We export one-fifth to them of what they export to us, so that is a losing hand for them.”
After Beijing’s announcement, Trump warned on Monday in a social media post that he’ll add a 50% charge on top of the other tariffs and said that China has engaged in “long-term trading abuses” against the United States.
The Trump administration has said that the tariffs are designed to shore up national security around supply lines and drive job creation inside the United States. White House officials also framed the tariffs as a way to allow the United States to reduce imbalances with major trading partners that have long imposed tariffs on U.S. imports.
The European Commission, meanwhile, said it is ready to negotiate a “zero for zero” deal with the U.S. government and said all instruments were on the table to avoid a tariff war. However, the bloc’s president cautioned that the European Union would be ready to issue countermeasures should negotiations fail.
In addition to levying tariffs on Europe and other countries that trade heavily with the United States, Trump issued a 10% baseline tariff on most countries worldwide.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett says administration officials are “managing a massive amount of requests” for trade negotiations following Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement.
In a Fox News interview on Tuesday, the president’s top economic adviser stated that it has been logistically challenging to sift through the many negotiation requests. The White House is prioritizing trade talks, and Trump plans to quickly negotiate with Japan and South Korea.
The president’s early discussions with the Japanese and South Korean leaders have been “positive,” as there have been “a lot of concessions” presented, Hassett noted.
“In the end, the president, of course, is going to be the one who decides whether the deal is good enough to change his mind about the tariffs.”
Rep. McClain: ‘Trump’s Long-Term Strategy Will Pay Off’
Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, contended Tuesday that Trump’s tariff plans will be a net positive for the economy in the long run.
“The reality is (Joe) Biden left behind a broken economy. And the status quo won’t fix it,” McClain wrote in a post on social media platform X.
She added that “no one should fault” the president “for trying unconventional ways to get us out of this mess. Because that’s what it’s going to take.”
The House Republican Conference “knows that President Trump’s long-term strategy will pay off,” McClain said.
Reuters, Andrew Moran, Samantha Flom, Jack Phillips and Austin Alonzo contributed to this report.
