What just happened with Trump’s tariffs?

Welcome to The Logoff: Today I’m breaking down President Donald Trump’s wild afternoon of trade moves.

What is going on with tariffs? Last week, Trump announced two sets of tariffs: a minimum 10 percent tax on imports from all countries, and then a separate set of higher tariff rates that varied by country. Today, Trump said he was pausing those new country-by-country tariffs for 90 days, but he’s keeping the baseline 10 percent tariff rate in place.

Why did Trump change course? The White House is claiming the delay was a result of nations worldwide offering to negotiate new trade deals. We’ll see if those negotiations are really happening and what comes of them.

So what did we learn? Since Trump announced the tariffs, the big question has been whether they were a massive change in economic policy or a bluff aimed at getting other countries to negotiate new deals. Today’s answer is that they were a bit of both.

We’re by no means back where we started: A 10 percent global tariff minimum and an economic war with China — one of our largest trading partners — will raise prices on imports and cost jobs that depend on international trade. And even with the pullback, the threat of tariffs have created new economic uncertainty at home and strained our relationships abroad.

On the other hand, had Trump left the country-by-country tariffs in place, we were staring at a full-blown, self-inflicted economic crisis. Now the president says we get some relief — at least for the next 90 days.

And with that, it’s time to log off…

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