If you don’t like President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, wait a minute.
Just after the stock market had its second freak-out in a row, just after businesses around the country planned “what are we going to do now” board meetings, just after Canada and China retaliated with tariffs of their own, just after Republican members of Congress pleaded with the administration to dial down its trade policy, just after the International Chamber of Commerce warned of a Great-Depression-like economic catastrophe, the Trump administration appeared to change its mind on its massive tariffs on its biggest trading partners.
Maybe. We’ll see.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Tuesday evening made a stunning statement: Canada and Mexico had been blowing up his phone all day, and he believes Trump is “probably” ready to announce Wednesday that he’ll meet America’s neighboring nations halfway on tariffs.
“I think he’s going to work something out with them,” Lutnick said on Fox Business Tuesday. “It’s not going to be a pause, none of that pause stuff, but I think he’s going to figure out, you do more, and I’ll meet you in the middle some way.”
On Wednesday, in an interview with Bloomberg, Lutnick clarified that Trump is “thinking about a plan” that he’ll decide and announce later this afternoon that could keep tariffs at 25% on Mexico and Canada but could include certain product exemptions, including autos.
“The president gets to make the decision,” Lutnick said. “There will be some categories that will be left out. It could well be autos.” Shares of GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda and Stellantis, which have been rocked by tariffs over the past few days, shot higher in morning trading Wednesday.
Lutnick had left the door open to a walkback on tariffs for days. Even as Trump insisted that tariffs would go into effect in full force on Mexico and Canada Tuesday, Lutnick had suggested on cable network interviews that maybe some tariffs would go into effect, or perhaps the percentage would be lower to start.
Nope. Trump at midnight Tuesday morning enacted massive 25% across-the-board tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada (save Canadian energy, which got a lower tariff). He also added 10% to the existing tariffs on Chinese goods.
Wall Street was seriously unhappy — the Dow fell 1,300 points in two days. Business leaders, a contingent that has largely supported Trump, spent hours griping in press releases and on CNBC.
Members of Trump’s own party, who were hearing it from their constituents, pleaded with the administration to backtrack. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and other top advisers were on the phone with Congress members “all day long,” one senior administration official told CNN, with some of the loudest concerns coming from members of Congress representing the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
