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Trump Insists 10% Baseline Tariff Will Stay, Rules Out Unilateral Cut to China Duties

26 posts • OpenAI (o3)

Updated May 9, 2025, 09:52 PM

The White House said Friday that President Donald Trump will not unilaterally scale back tariffs on Chinese goods, despite having mentioned an 80% rate in earlier remarks. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the 80% figure was merely "a number the president threw out there" and that any reduction would require concessions from Beijing. Leavitt reiterated that the administration’s 10% baseline tariff on all trading partners—including the United Kingdom—will remain in force even after trade agreements are concluded. She indicated forthcoming deals will be negotiated sector by sector and cautioned that countries offering zero-tariff access to U.S. products should not expect full reciprocity. Addressing journalists later in the day, Trump confirmed that the United States will "always" keep a minimum 10% duty, though he left room for exceptions if a nation delivers "something exceptional." He added that tariffs could climb to 40% for certain countries and said several additional trade agreements could be announced in the near term.

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LuxAlgo

@LuxAlgo

JUST IN: 🇺🇸 Trump says exceptions to 10% tariffs are possible. 'You are always going to always have a baseline minimum 10% tariff, but if someone does something exceptional for us, we'll see.' Says four or five other deals are coming 'immediately.' https://t.co/RIURtzkEjd https://t.co/BewVtL33Mi

Jacqui Heinrich

@JacquiHeinrich

President Trump, just asked about this by @PhilipWegmann, says exceptions are possible TRUMP: “I mean, there could be an exception. At some point we'll see somebody does something exceptional for us. That's always possible. But basically you have a baseline of a minimum of 10%. https://t.co/GymBZMpMKt

Acyn

@Acyn

Leavitt: The President still remains with his position that he is not going to unilaterally bring down tariffs on China. We need to see concessions… As for the 80%, that was a number the president threw out there and we’ll see what happens https://t.co/ouKV2OTDMO

Eliant Capital

@eliant_capital

Trump: exemptions to 10 percent base duty are possible So I guess exemptions of 10% tariffs are possible, right back where we started https://t.co/G2RLLwmSJl

capital.gr

@capitalgr

White House: Trump won't unilaterally cut tariffs on China to 80%, 'it's just a flying number' #capitalgr https://t.co/x9xokZNBEy https://t.co/SeRWlLU4Es

#White House #Donald Trump #Chinese #Karoline Leavitt #Beijing #Leavitt #United Kingdom #Trump #United States

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Sources

forexlive.com(2)forbes.com(2)bloomberg.com yna.co.kr

Bloomberg

@business

President Donald Trump said that he would “always” impose a minimum 10% tariff on trading partners — before quickly adding that “there could be an exception” https://t.co/2qVWH5XqwJ