Tariff Pauses and Exemptions Prove the Need to Rethink
The endless back and forth suggests the White House doesn’t believe its own case for trade barriers.
What makes phones so special?
Photographer: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images
If you thought US tariff policy couldn’t get more confusing — after the chaos of “Liberation Day” followed by financial turmoil followed by a 90-day reprieve for some but not all US trading partners — think again. New declarations, hesitations and “clarifications” keep coming.
When China retaliated against the first round of tariffs by raising its own, the US responded with further hikes, boosting the tax on many Chinese imports to 145%. Late Friday, though, Customs and Border Protection announced that cellphones, laptops, memory chips and other electronics made in China would be exempted from most of the new penalties. On Sunday, the White House appeared to reverse course yet again, saying the new exemptions were likely temporary.