(Al Jazeera Media Network) On Monday, the United States and China reached an agreement to slash sky-high tariffs for 90 days. Though both sides claimed they could withstand a long trade war, they reached a truce quicker than many analysts expected.
The breakthrough marked a dramatic ratcheting down of trade tensions following the tariff war launched by US President Donald Trump during his “liberation day” announcement on April 2.
Trump initially unveiled so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries before pausing them just one week later. China, however, did not get off the hook, as the United States government had been trying to and Beijing soon retaliated with tariffs of its own.
Tit-for-tat exchanges quickly snowballed into eye-watering sums. By April 11, tariffs on Chinese goods entering the US had reached 145 percent and levies on US products going to China had swelled to 125 percent.
Tensions were at boiling point last weekend when US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and He Lifeng, China’s vice-premier, agreed to a ceasefire that would slash respective tariffs by 115 percentage points for three months.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/14/did-the-us-flinch-first-in-tariff-war-with-china
