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President Donald Trump promised on April 9 to delay his sweeping tariffs by 90 days, but he’s wavering on his position.
In a press conference on Wednesday in the Oval Office, Trump said he thought the US would get “great deals” in its trade negotiations.
“If we don’t have a deal with a company or country, we’re going to set the tariff,” he added.
Trump said his administration had spoken with 90 countries on the tariffs thus far.
“That will happen, I’d say, over the next couple of weeks, wouldn’t you say? I think so, over the next two, three weeks. We’ll be setting the number,” he added.
If Trump were to impose tariffs three weeks from press time, it would be a major departure from his previous stance, which allowed 90 days for negotiations to take place.
On April 2, a day he dubbed “Liberation Day,” Trump announced a baseline 10% tariff on goods from all countries. Some regions, like the European Union with 20% and Vietnam with 46%, would be subject to even higher reciprocal tariffs.
However, on April 9, he announced a 90-day delay on the reciprocal tariffs. He said levies would drop to 10% for goods from most countries.
In a Truth Social post on April 9, he said he was granting the pause because more than 75 countries had reached out to the US to negotiate solutions, and they had not retaliated in any way.
He did not extend the same offer to China. The US now has a 145% tariff on goods from China, which has retaliated with a 125% tariff on US-made goods.
From the start, Trump has used tariffs as a negotiation strategy. On April 3, he said he would be open to reducing tariffs on countries willing to give the US “something that’s so phenomenal.”
Representatives for Trump did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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