A woman buys car seats, all made in China, at a Walmart in Rosemead, California, on April 11, 2025. (Credit: Frederic J. Brown.)
China and the United States lifted the bulk of their heavy tariff increases on Wednesday for 90 days, a truce in their grueling trade war that has disrupted supply chains and global markets.
Just hours before this partial lifting of tariffs, U.S. President Donald Trump told the press that he foresaw a "very solid" agreement with the Asian giant.
This reduction in surcharges was theoretically supposed to be implemented Wednesday at 04:01 GMT.
On Monday, after weekend negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, the Chinese and Americans announced a suspension of most of their punitive tariffs. This was a result well above expectations, which triggered cautious optimism in stock markets.
Under this agreement, the United States agreed to reduce its tariffs on Chinese products to 30%, while China will reduce theirs to 10% on American goods.
"We have the framework of a very, very solid agreement with China," Trump said in an interview broadcast by the American television channel Fox News on Tuesday, U.S. time.
"It's time for China to open up - and that's part of our agreement," Trump also said, without further specifics. He is currently on a tour in the Middle East and was interviewed aboard the presidential airplane Air Force One.
- "Like a weapon" -
After Monday's agreement, China lifted the ban it had imposed on its airlines to accept planes from the American manufacturer Boeing, Bloomberg news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the U.S. administration on Tuesday canceled new restrictions on the export of semiconductors used for developing artificial intelligence (AI), which would have particularly penalized China.
Despite this lull, Beijing has been seeking for several weeks to unite other nations against the global tariff campaign launched by Trump.
Before an audience of leaders and foreign ministers from Latin American countries meeting Tuesday for a major diplomatic event, Chinese President Xi Jinping once again denounced the United States' practices - without naming them.
"No one can win a tariff war or a trade war," he asserted.
"Bullying and hegemony only lead to isolation," Xi emphasized.
Foreign minister, Wang Yi, urged Latin American nations to "act hand in hand" with Beijing to defend their rights against a power that "uses tariffs as a weapon to intimidate other countries."
- Uncertainty persists -
Despite the Beijing-Washington easing, the fentanyl issue, a drug wreaking havoc in the United States, remains a significant bilateral friction point.
Of the 30% punitive tariff surcharges Washington continues to impose on Chinese products, two-thirds, or 20%, are in place to pressure Beijing in the fight against this opioid trafficking.
Some chemical precursors of fentanyl, a drug that claims tens of thousands of lives each year in the United States, are partly manufactured in China. Chinese authorities are accused by Donald Trump of turning a blind eye.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs again urged Washington on Tuesday to stop "blaming" Beijing and decried "unreasonable" tariff surcharges, given China's "good faith" in cooperating on combating drug trafficking.
Analysts thus warn that the possibility of re-establishing the tariffs after 90 days remains.
"Further tariff reductions will be difficult to achieve, and the risk of another escalation remains," Yue Su, an economist at Economist Intelligence Unit, told AFP.