Trump Signs Order Extending China Tariff Truce By 90 Days, White House Says

  • U.S. President Donald Trump extended a tariff truce with China by another 90 days on Monday, August 11, 2025, a White House official said, thereby staving off triple-digit duties on Chinese goods as U.S. retailers prepared for the critical end-of-year holiday season. The executive order signed by President Trump delays the start of higher tariffs until mid-November 2025.
  • The tariff truce between Beijing and Washington had been due to expire on Tuesday, August 12, 2025. However, the timing of the extension until early November 2025 buys crucial time for the seasonal autumn surge of imports for the Christmas season, including electronics, apparel and toys at lower tariff rates.
  • Earlier this year, imports from China had surged to beat Trump's tariffs, but dropped steeply in June 2025, Commerce Department data showed last week. The U.S. trade deficit with China tumbled by roughly a third in June 2025 to $9.5Bn, its narrowest since February 2004. Further, over the past five consecutive months of declines, the U.S. trade gap with China has narrowed by $22.2Bn - a 70% reduction from a year earlier.
  • Notably, the new order prevents U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods from shooting up to 145%, while Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods were set to hit 125% - rates that would have resulted in a virtual trade embargo between the two countries. Instead, it locks in place - at least for now - a 30% tariff on Chinese imports, with Chinese duties on U.S. imports at 10%. "We'll see what happens," Trump told a news conference earlier on Monday, August 11, 2025, highlighting what he called his good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
  • "It's positive news. Combined with some of the de-escalatory steps both the United States and China have taken in recent weeks, it demonstrated that both sides are trying to see if they can reach some kind of a deal that would lay the groundwork for a Xi-Trump meeting this fall," said Wendy Cutler, a former senior U.S. trade official who is now a vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

(Source: Reuters)