The White House announced Monday that President Donald Trump is slated to sign an order delaying his 90-day tariff pause by another month, as the president began announcing a suite of new tariff rates on foreign goods, sending letters to countries including Japan, South Korea and Malaysia that impose tariff rates of 25% or higher.
How Did Stocks React To The Tariffs?
Stocks slightly fell Monday in response to Trump sharing his letters to Japan and South Korea, with losses steepening immediately after the announcement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were all down about 1% as of early Monday afternoon, while stocks of Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda had bigger slides, dropping by 4%.
Crucial Quote
“These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country,” Trump said in his letters Monday.
The Trump administration has not given any specifics on which countries it will prioritize for sending letters to or reaching trade deals with before the Wednesday deadline. The European Union has expressed confidence in recent days it will reach some sort of trade agreement with the U.S. before the deadline, with EU trade spokesperson Olof Gill saying Monday, “We’re fully geared up to get an agreement in principle by Wednesday, and we’re firing on all cylinders to that effect.” Thailand has also offered concessions to the U.S. in order to avoid a 36% tariff rate, Bloomberg reported Sunday, and negotiations reportedly still remain ongoing with countries including India, Indonesia and Switzerland.
Key Background
Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs have been a major source of controversy since the president first imposed them in early April, over concerns from economists that doing so would raise prices for U.S. consumers and harm the economy. The president imposed sweeping tariffs on nearly all countries that ranged from 10% to 50%, but paused the worst of the tariffs a week later, after the tariff announcement caused the stock market to plunge and sparked fears of a recession. Trump officials vowed to use the 90-day pause to aggressively reach trade deals with foreign countries—predicting they’d make “90 deals in 90 days”—but as of Monday morning, the U.S. had so far only reached formal agreements with the U.K., Vietnam and China. Trump’s letters to South Korea and Japan come after he has now been teasing for weeks that his administration would simply send out letters imposing new tariff rates if formal deals can’t be reached. The president previously suggested letters would start being sent last Friday, but when that date passed without any notices being announced, Trump then said Sunday evening the letters would begin rolling out Monday afternoon.
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