Dow soars as trade war with China partially paused

The Trump administration declared success in a pact war with China Monday after a temporary economic ceasefire that sent the Dow leaping points According to Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent the deal reached between Beijing and Washington will see tariffs temporarily reduced by both governments leaving U S importers paying dues on Chinese made goods while Chinese importers cough up an extra on U S goods We have reached an agreement on a -day pause and substantially moved down the tariff levels both sides on the reciprocal tariffs will move their tariffs down the Treasury Secretary explained at a press conference in Geneva Switzerland The stock markets responded with glee and by the end of the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up about the S P by about and the Nasdaq Composite by around The tariffs had been set at on majority Chinese goods entering the U S and at on U S goods headed into China They got to that level after President Donald Trump entered a tit-for-tat fight with the Chinese establishment which saw rising U S tariffs met with similar measures from Beijing The first round of tariffs ostensibly aimed at reducing the amount of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors illegally brought into the United States but manufactured in China were established on Feb and March and each added a tax on U S imports from China The Chinese leadership swiftly responded by imposing equally sized import duties on U S natural gas coal farm machinery food and selected specific agricultural products Trump s April Liberation Day global tariff announcement added an additional tax on top of the earlier After China responded on April with broad-based tariffs of their own Trump reported on April that the U S duty would jump by another to The next day China answered with an duty on U S imports A day after that Trump upped the U S imports tax once more to and within days China again responded with their own larger levy topping out at Bessent described the sky-high tariffs as a sort of embargo and noted that neither side wants that We do want contract We want more balanced bargain he commented And I think that both sides are committed to achieving that Dropping import fees to and according to the Chinese Commerce Ministry aligns with the expectations of producers and consumers in both countries and serves the interests of both nations as well as the common interests of the world The ministry encouraged the Trump Administration to refrain from future use of the erroneous practice of unilateral tariff hikes What did the U S president get for his efforts According to the White House the -day pause on tariffs represents a historic business win for the United States and is a further example of the art of the deal in action According to Harvard economist Dani Rodrik the agreement doesn t solve any problems except those that Trump created As the US and China step back from a needless bargain war it is worth noting that a US tariffs on China will remain high and will hurt mainly US consumers and b Trump has obtained absolutely nothing from China for all the chaos he generated Zilch he stated via social media Brooke Thomson the president and CEO of Bay State-based business group the Associated Industries of Massachusetts reported that the plan is a positive rise but cautioned a -day pause isn t enough to help restore falling business confidence The agreement between the United States and China to suspend their respective tariffs for days represents a step in the right direction but does little to resolve the long-term uncertainty that has eroded confidence among Massachusetts employers The AIM Business Confidence Index last month hit its lowest level since the Covid- pandemic It also remains to be seen whether the new agreement s percent tariff on imports from China will eliminate the possibility of product shortages Thomson commented According to the Trump Administration s U S Bargain Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer the business sector will respond well to the negotiated ceasefire We are going to have our financial system continue taking off as we put structure around these negotiations and get global transaction into a better place Greer declared While both Bessent and Greer were in Geneva negotiating on behalf of the U S to lower tariffs Trump was back home defending his tariff program as an economic winner According to the U S President the tariffs have meant that TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS and therefore record numbers of JOBS HAVE BEEN POURING INTO THE USA THIS IS BECAUSE OF MY TARIFF PROCEDURES and our great November th Polling WIN The very STUPID Democrats are doing everything within their power to disparage what is happening They are totally unhinged and have lost all levels of Confidence It is a financial REVOLUTION and they are being Crushed MAGA he wrote emphasis his Monday s announcement of a reduction in tariffs will apparently not impact import taxes on Chinese steel and aluminum nor will it reinstate the de minimis tariff exemption on orders worth less than which the Trump Administration nixed earlier this month Herald wire services contributed