US-China Trade War Escalates and Retreats: Trump Imposes Massive Tariffs Before Negotiating 90-Day Truce in 2025
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US-China Trade War Escalates and Retreats: Trump Imposes Massive Tariffs Before Negotiating 90-Day Truce in 2025
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Tariffs between the United States and China have shifted significantly since early April, when President Trump announced a sweeping 34 percent “reciprocal tariff” on most Chinese imports. China responded in kind, imposing its own 34 percent levy on US goods and introducing strict new licensing rules that effectively halted American access to Chinese rare-earth minerals and magnets, a key input for many US tech and defense industries, as noted by Wikipedia’s update on April 2 and 10. In just days, the trade standoff escalated, with both sides rapidly raising tariff rates—the US moved to a 104 percent base tariff and then, briefly, to as high as 145 percent, while China matched these steps with retaliatory tariffs reaching up to 125 percent on US goods through mid-April.
By late April, widespread concerns from US business leaders about surging prices and looming shortages pressured the Trump administration to reconsider its approach. This led to a notable softening of rhetoric from Washington, and by early May, both sides had agreed to reset the tariff standoff. According to a May 12 joint statement released through the White House, President Trump and Chinese officials negotiated a truce: each country suspended the bulk of reciprocal tariffs, lowering them to a 10 percent base rate for an initial 90-day period. China also agreed to suspend non-tariff countermeasures enacted since April, and the US retained some previous baseline duties, such as the Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs still in place from earlier rounds. China Briefing and Thompson Hine both confirm these details, highlighting May 14 as the effective date for these reductions and the start of the ongoing truce period.
As of today, the average US tariff on Chinese goods stands at about 55 percent, a composite rate that includes the 10 percent baseline plus sector-specific measures—up from just 24 percent at the start of the year but dramatically lower than the springtime peak of more than 120 percent, according to China Briefing’s June 18 update. China, meanwhile, now maintains an average tariff of roughly 10 percent on US goods, with certain anti-dumping duties and special levies on specific products like agricultural commodities and engineering plastics still in effect. The Peterson Institute notes that these rates remain far higher than they were before the Trump administration returned, covering nearly all US-China trade flows.
Looking ahead, both countries have pledged to enter new talks to address deeper concerns—market access, industrial policy, and technology protection among them—but it’s clear the tariff issue is nowhere near fully resolved. If this fragile truce holds when the current 90-day window expires in August is the next major question on the minds of companies and consumers alike.
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