Only China receives a serve
Trump directs: customs break for more than 75 countries
From T-online,, AFP,, Reuters
Updated on April 9th, 2025 – 8:52 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Surprising turn in the customs dispute: US President Donald Trump has announced a customs break for “more than 75 countries”. Only China is left out.
Trump made the turn on his Truth Social platform public. The break is therefore valid for 90 days for countries that have so far not announced any countermeasures. A base tariff of only 10 percent applies to them for three months.
The stock exchanges reacted to Trump’s customs break with strong price gains. In the meantime, the US tech index Nasdaq increased by 9 percent, the Dow Jones rose by 6 percent. The German stock index Dax landed just under 21,000 points in post-exchangeable trade. Analysts were relieved by the step that the financial markets in particular could calm down.
US finance minister Steve Bessent confirmed that Canada and Mexico benefit from the new customs tariff. There, too, the stock exchanges turned into the plus.
It initially remained unclear whether the EU also benefits from the customs break. The EU member states had imposed special tariffs on US products such as whiskey and motorcycles on Wednesday. However, these measures do not refer to the current customs announcements, but an older trade conflict. At the beginning of the year, Trump had imposed special tariffs on EU imports such as aluminum. The EU had now reacted to this. The customs conflict for aluminum and steel dates back to Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2019.
China remains with the exception of the discount. Here Trump imposed another surcharge to 125 percent. Preking had previously announced new tariffs for imports from the USA on Wednesday. He missed respect, he said on Truth Social.
The trade conflict of the two largest economies in the world thus reaches another escalation level. Compared to other countries that operate with the USA, China is affected by particularly high tariffs.
China had complained on Wednesday about Trump’s customs policy at the world trade organization. “The situation is dangerously escalated,” it said in an explanation
