Headline Roundup • May 12th, 2025
US and China Agree to Pause Most Tariffs for 90 Days
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The US and China have reached an agreement to roll back most of the recent tariffs placed on each other by 115% for 90 days while they continue to negotiate trade disputes.
The Details: The US agreed to reduce tariffs by 115%, leaving a remaining tariff of 30% on Chinese goods. China agreed to lower its rate on US goods by the same amount, to a total of 10%. China also agreed to suspend or remove other measures, such as export controls on rare earth minerals, that it has taken in response to President Trump’s tariffs.
For Context: Trump placed Tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China in early March, as he aimed to get the countries to assist in dealing with the US’s fentanyl crisis. Trump previously announced a 10% tariff on all US imports and higher tariffs on over 90 countries, though after talks with many of the countries, he rolled back tariffs on every country but China, which he increased to 125%. On Thursday, the US and United Kingdom announced a “full and comprehensive” agreement to lower tariffs.
Key Quote: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “The consensus from both delegations this weekend is neither side wants a decoupling. And what had occurred with these very high tariff(s)... was an embargo, the equivalent of an embargo. And neither side wants that. We do want trade. We want more balanced trade. And I think that both sides are committed to achieving that.”
How The Media Covered It: Reuters (Center bias) and Associated Press (Left) both highlighted the US market’s positive reaction to the news, but Fox Business (Lean Right) did not.
Written by the AllSides staff (of humans). Learn more. Support our mission. Suggest an improvement to this summary.
Featured Coverage of this Story
U.S. and Chinese officials said Monday they had reached a deal to roll back most of their recent tariffs and call a 90-day pause to keep talking to resolve their trade disputes.
Stock markets rose sharply as the globe’s two major economic powers took a step back from a clash that has unsettled the global economy.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the U.S. agreed to drop its 145% tariff rate on Chinese goods by 115 percentage points to 30%, while China agreed to lower its rate on U.S. goods...
The United States and China said on Monday they have agreed a deal to slash reciprocal tariffs for now as the world's two biggest economies seek to end a trade war that has disrupted the global outlook and set financial markets on edge.
Speaking after talks with Chinese officials in Geneva, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters the two sides had agreed on a 90 day pause on measures and that tariffs would come down by over 100 percentage points to 10%.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images / Getty Images
The U.S. and China announced on Monday that tariffs against one another will be reduced for a 90-day period after officials held trade negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland.
The tariffs President Donald Trump announced against China on April 2 are being cut by 24 percentage points for this temporary period while retaining the remaining ad valorem rate of 10% from that announcement, according to a joint statement.
China agreed to the same stipulations, adding that it will "adopt all necessary administrative measures to suspend or remove the non-tariff countermeasures taken against the United States since...
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