2025, April 8 - April 14

Even with Trump's 90-day suspension of high Liberation Day tariffs and the EU responding to a US suspension of retaliatory levies, investor sentiment has been adversely impacted by the trade dispute.

Though Canada and Mexico were largely exempt after a temporary exposure to 25% tariffs in March, since these were revoked two days later under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the U.S. retains its baseline rate of 10% tariff on imports from all countries, keeping prices higher than last month. Yet, tensions in trade with China have risen spectacularly, with China responding with tariffs of 84% and the United States raising tariffs on Chinese imports to 125%. As a cultural response to the war, China also issued a statement to reduce the number of American films permitted in Chinese cinemas. The Trump administration did so intentionally, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, to pressure China into exposing itself as a "bad actor" on the world stage. Now that the majority of the "reciprocal" tariffs have been reversed, the Trump administration is concentrating on attempting to negotiate bilateral trade deals with nations who don't respond by telling them more than 75 nations have shown interest. Though specifics are yet to be disclosed, the administration's changing tariff policy has spoken of a range of objectives, including narrowing trade deficits, reviving factory jobs, and increasing government revenues, in already planned negotiations with Japan.

Following the announcement of 145% tariffs on Chinese goods last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently released new rules exempting cell phones, computers, and other tech devices from President Trump's recent tariffs. The move, according to White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai, reflects Trump's intention to shatter U.S. reliance on China for vital technologies. Exceptions include products like semiconductors, solar panels, TV screens, flash drives, and memory cards, to give companies time to shift production to the U.S. Though there remains a 20% tariff on all Chinese imports, twenty product categories are no longer subject to the 10% initial duty on other nations or the 125% duty on Chinese imports. Uncertainty exists as to the exact overall tariff rate on the exempted goods. According to the White House Press Secretary, Leavitt, President Trump has made it apparent that the United States cannot depend on China to produce vital technologies like processors, semiconductors, laptops, and smartphones. For this reason, the President has gotten the biggest tech firms in the world, such as Apple, TSMC, and Nvidia, to invest trillions of dollars in the United States. These businesses are working hard to bring their manufacturing back to the United States as quickly as possible, per the President's directive.