Donald Trump slams brakes on some China tariffs in third trade war U-turn
7 February 2025, 20:19
President Donald Trump has delayed US sanctions down on certain Chinese imports in the third U-turn he has made since threatening trade wars.
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Mr Trump’s executive order, signed Wednesday but made public on Friday, slams the breaks on looming tariffs on low-cost packages from China.
The tariffs will still be rolled out once the Commerce Department confirms procedures are in place to process them and collect tariff revenue.
It means Americans will for now be spared forking out extra costs on smaller goods from Chinese sites such as Shein and Temu.
This comes after his sudden order, which ended duty-free treatment for shipments worth less than $800, left the US postal service and other agencies in a crisis as they struggled to cope.
The president gave just 48 hours' notice before implementing the change, which forced the US Postal Service to stop accepting packages from China and Hong Kong temporarily.
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Meanwhile, more than a million packages piled up at New York's JFK Airport alone. Mr Trump’s Friday announcement is the third delay to sanctions he had previsouly unveiled.
Earlier this week, he rolled back on slapping down the proposed 25% tariffs on goods imported from Canada for 30 days in a dramatic u-turn following a phone call with Trudeau.
It came after he paused US tariffs on Meixco after a winning concessions on the US-Mexican border in a last ditch deal.
Mexico agreed to reinforce its northern border with 10,000 National Guard members to stem the flow of illegal drugs, particularly fentanyl, Mr Trump said.
The US President posted on social media earlier this week that the tariffs were necessary "to protect Americans," pressing the three nations to do more to curb the manufacture and export of illicit fentanyl and for Canada and Mexico to reduce illegal immigration into the US.
He said China would pay tariffs for its exporting of the chemicals used to make fentanyl.
The action fulfilled one of Mr Trump's commitments to voters, but threw the global economy and the new president's political mandate to lower prices into turmoil.
In response to the measures, both Canada and Mexico said they were also preparing similar tariffs on US goods, while China confirmed it would take "necessary countermeasures to defend its legitimate rights and interests".