UNITED States (U.S.) President Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause on the reciprocal tariffs imposed on 60 countries, including Nigeria, with the exception of China.
Trump announced the reversal of his rattling trade policy, which took effect yesterday, in a post on Truth Social.
However, the U.S. president kept the 10 per cent baseline tariff in place for all countries.
“I have authorised a 90-day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10 per cent, also effective immediately,” he said.
Nigeria was one of the 60 countries affected by the reciprocal tariffs with the U.S. imposing a 14 per cent tariff on goods from Nigeria, the second highest in West Africa.
In response, the Nigerian government said it would not retaliate but use the instruments of the World Trade Organisation to call for dialogue between all parties.
In his statement, Trump also increased tariffs imposed on China from 104 to 125 per cent and noted that the levy would continue to rise due to the country’s continued retaliation.
The tariff increase on Chinese goods will take effect immediately, he said.
“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the world’s markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125 per cent, effective immediately.
“At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realise that the days of ripping off the USA and other countries are no longer sustainable or acceptable,” he wrote.
The higher tariffs on China came after the Asian country hiked its retaliatory duties on U.S. imports to 84 per cent from 34 per cent.
This tariff was a response to the U.S. earlier doubling its duties on Chinese goods, bringing the total tariff rate to as much as 104 per cent.
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President Trump’s reciprocal tariff imposed last Tuesday escalated the trade war between the two global giants.
Trump described it as payback for unfair trade policies used in the past years. However, several countries retaliated with a levy on U.S. imports.
Earlier yesterday, the European Union approved a 25 per cent tariff on a broad range of U.S. goods as its first countermeasure against Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.
The bloc imposed a 25 per cent duty on U.S. cars, steel and aluminium.
The levy also affected imports from the U.S., such as soybeans, sweet corn, rice, almonds, orange juice, cranberries, tobacco, iron, steel, aluminum, certain boats and vehicles, textiles, and certain clothes, and various types of makeup.
The total value of US goods affected by the EU tariffs is 22.1 billion euros, based on the EU’s 2024 import data from Eurostat.
However, this is less than 26 billion euros of EU metals exports hit by Trump’s tariffs.