Thursday, June 12, 2025

It's Tariff Day, Again

Bessent says Trump will likely keep pausing the tariffs, though I can't keep track of precisely which tariffs these are.

Or maybe not!
Trump said Wednesday he would be willing to extend a July 8 deadline for finishing trade talks with countries before higher U.S. levies take effect, but that the extensions may not be necessary.

“I would, but I don’t think we’re going to have that necessity. We made a great deal with China,” Trump told reporters. “We’re dealing with Japan, we’re dealing with South Korea. We’re dealing with a lot of them. So we’re going to be sending letters out, in about a week and a half, two weeks, to countries, telling them what the deal is, like I did with EU.”

And the big beautiful deal with China just takes us back to where we were.
It remains unclear whether the truce will hold — or crumble like one struck in May did. Even if the agreement does prove durable, its big accomplishment appears to be merely returning the countries to a status quo from several months ago, before President Trump provoked tensions with China in early April by ramping up tariffs on goods it produces.
I was amused that this story fronts the critics. I'm not saying that's bad practice, just highlighting that it is a choice.