US President Donald Trump has put a 90-day pause on his "reciprocal" tariffs, just hours after they had been placed on imports from dozens of countries.
Almost all trading partners except China will now be subject to the same "baseline" 10 per cent tariff rate, rather than the additional rates announced by the president at "liberation day" last week.
In the same social media post, Mr Trump said he was again increasing the tariff on Chinese goods, this time to 125 per cent and effective immediately.
China had earlier announced an 84 per cent tariff on US imports, a hike from its previous 34 per cent, to take effect from Thursday.
Mr Trump wrote that his pause was based on the fact more than 75 countries had reached out "to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed", and they had not "retaliated in any way, shape, or form".
The 90-day freeze does not apply to duties paid by Canada and Mexico, because their goods are still subject to 25 per cent tariffs.
Those duties remain in place for the moment, with an indefinite exemption for USMCA-compliant goods.
Asked later why he decided on the pause, he said: "I thought that people were jumping a bit out of line … they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid."
The announcement represents another dramatic turn in the trade war that had up-ended international relations and wiped trillions of dollars from stock markets.
It came just two days after the White House dismissed reports the president was considering a 90-day pause, calling them "fake news".
'People were getting a little queasy'
US stocks surged on the news of the pause, recovering some of the past week's losses.
Within minutes of Mr Trump's social media post, the S&P 500 shot up more than 7 per cent. It finished the day up 9.5 per cent — its biggest one-day gain since 2008.
The Nasdaq composite saw its second-largest session surge on record to finish 12.2 per cent higher.
Mr Trump was asked if the markets had influenced his decision to hit pause. He responded that he had been "watching the bond market".
"The bond market right now is beautiful," he said. "But, yeah, I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy."
Tariffs placed on Australian goods will remain the same, as Australia was already subject to the minimum 10 per cent tariff.
Sector-specific tariffs, such as those on aluminium and steel products, remain in place.
"Nothing's over yet," Mr Trump said, "but we have a tremendous amount of spirit from other countries, including China. China wants to make a deal. They just don't know how quite to go about it."
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent earlier described Mr Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs regime as a "successful negotiating strategy".
"It took great courage, great courage for him to stay the course until this moment and what we have ended up with here."
The White House had been "overwhelmed by the response from, mostly, our allies, who want to come and negotiate in good faith", Mr Bessent said.
"So we are expecting them to come with their best deal," Mr Bessent said.
European Union member states had earlier voted to bring in a package of retaliatory tariffs. But because they have not yet taken effect, the 20 per cent reciprocal tariff on imports from the EU is also on pause.
