Trump announces 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs, hikes levies on China

U.S. President Donald Trump has made a dramatic reversal, announcing a 90-day pause on the reciprocal tariffs that went effect on Wednesday.

But he hiked China's tariff rate to 125% after Beijing retaliated.

Kim Bo-kyoung has our top story.

In just 13 hours since the reciprocal tariffs for so-called "worst offender" countries took effect on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly backed down on this set of tariffs for 90 days for all countries apart from China, which instead saw its tariffs raised to one-hundred-25-percent.

Trump's stunning reversal came through his social media just before 1:30 PM Wednesday where he said Washington would pause higher targeted tariffs to more than 75 trading partners who reached out to negotiate with the U.S., rather than retaliated.

He repeated his thoughts during an event with race car champions on the White House South Lawn.

"I did a 90-day pause for the people that didn't retaliate, because I told them, if you retaliate we're going to double it. And that's what I did with China, because they did retaliate."

The decision means countries that would have faced reciprocal tariff rates on Wednesday including South Korea, see rates go back down to the universal ten-percent rate.

But for Beijing, which had retaliated to Trump's 104% tariffs by upping its tariff rate on U.S. goods to 84%, Trump raised tariffs on China yet again, to now 125%.

Products that aren't exempt under the trade deal --steel, aluminum and autos, will still have a 25-percent tariff.

When asked whether volatile bond markets persuaded him to pull back on his plan, Trump said he saw people were getting afraid.

"The bond market right now is beautiful. But yeah, I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy. . They were getting yippy, you know, they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid."

On this, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly told the press at the White House,. that what people saw --the reciprocal tariffs that went effect on Wednesday was a "ceiling", and now that they have a temporary "floor."

He added it would take some time for each country's tailor-made solutions.

Meanwhile for South Korea, the 90-day pause will likely serve as time to negotiate with the U.S. after the new administration launches in June.

Kim Bo-kyoung, Arirang News.