AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Well, President Trump is backtracking - sort of - in his trade war. He said in a social media post this afternoon that he is suspending most of the double-digit tariffs that went into effect overnight. That sparked a relief rally in the stock market. But Trump has left some tariffs in place, and he's ordered even higher taxes on imports from China. NPR's Scott Horsley joins us now. Hi, Scott.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, this has been so dizzying. And it's kind of hard to keep up with. Can you just bring us up to speed on where things stand with tariffs right now?
HORSLEY: I will try.
CHANG: (Laughter).
HORSLEY: The 10% tariff that President Trump imposed on most imported goods over the weekend, those are still in place.
CHANG: OK.
HORSLEY: But he is lifting, at least for 90 days, the even higher tariffs that took effect last night on goods from dozens of different countries. Trump said on social media that he's pleased to see more than 75 countries reaching out to try to make some kind of accommodation with the U.S. In some cases, they're offering concessions in exchange for tariff relief. That's how the president's explaining his turnaround this afternoon.
It's also the case, though, that this trade war has been disastrous for the stock market. Businesspeople were complaining. Trump's own economic poll numbers have taken a beating, and it was time for some kind of course correction. It's still not a complete 180, but the changes the president announced this afternoon were enough to send the Dow Jones Industrial Average soaring nearly 3,000 points...
CHANG: Wow. OK.
HORSLEY: And with that gain, Ailsa...
CHANG: Yeah.
HORSLEY: ...The Dow is down only about 4% from where it was when Trump first announced these tariffs a week ago.
CHANG: OK, so how are all those businesspeople you speak of reacting to all of these new developments?
HORSLEY: Yeah, it's kind of a hangover-inducing cocktail...
CHANG: (Laughter).
HORSLEY: ...Of relief on the one hand and disbelief that hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of import taxes can be added and then subtracted on the president's whim.
CHANG: Yeah.
HORSLEY: In just the last week, we've gone from very low tariffs on most countries to tariffs of up to 50%, and now back down to 10%. You know, it's hard if you're a businessperson or, you know, just someone shopping for groceries to know how to behave in this environment. Steve Lamar heads a trade group of businesses that import clothing and shoes. He's encouraged by the president's move but still kind of nervous.
STEVE LAMAR: We're navigating between costs and chaos. Clearly, the fact that many, many countries are coming to the White House asking, begging for these tariffs not to be imposed and signaling their willingness to have talks, we think is actually a very positive indication that many other trading partners want to continue to be trading partners.
HORSLEY: But while peace talks have begun with a lot of those trading partners, Trump is still in a pitched battle with China.
CHANG: Yeah, where do things stand with China at the moment?
HORSLEY: Yeah, unlike some of these other countries, China has not made any concessions to Trump. In fact, Beijing announced stiff new tariffs of its own on U.S. exports last night, so Trump pushed the tax on Chinese goods even higher this afternoon. Since last week, they've gone from 54% to 104% and now 125%.
CHANG: One hundred twenty-five percent. What does that mean for U.S. companies doing business with China?
HORSLEY: Yeah, I talked to a clothing importer, Bonnie Ross, who said at first Chinese factories were willing to absorb some of these taxes. But now that we're talking 125%, that's off the table. She's got to figure out what to do with merchandise that's supposed to be leaving China on a boat in five days. And she's worried that when it gets to the U.S., it's going to cost more than double what the discount stores she sells to were expecting.
BONNIE ROSS: We deal with customers that are serving the people who live paycheck to paycheck. A dollar makes a difference to them, which I totally understand. So one of the options might just be, if it's not here or if it's not on the way on a vessel, then we might not bring it here because we won't be able to sell it.
HORSLEY: Ross says she doesn't think Trump had any idea how much chaos he was going to cause with these tariffs.
CHANG: That is NPR's Scott Horsley. Thank you, Scott.
HORSLEY: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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