Latest in Trump Tariff Turmoil: POTUS extends duty pause on China by 90 days hours before deadline

US President Donald Trump has done it again! In yet another dramatic turn of events in the US-triggered trade war, the 47th US president extended a pause on a "reciprocal" duty on Chinese goods by another 90 days, foreign media reported. The POTUS signed the executive order in that regard on Monday. The development comes hours before the end of an existing pause on the steep duty on China and follows a round of talks between American and Chinese trade negotiators in Stockholm in late July.

Here are 10 key things to know about this development:

• America's tariffs on Chinese goods were originally set to resume on Tuesday. Now, the pause on those tariffs is set to be in place till at least mid-November
• If the deadline was not extended, the US levy on China would have returned to a level last seen in April--when the tariff war between the world’s largest two economies was at its peak, with Trump slapping blanket tariffs to the tune of 145 per cent on Chinese imports and China retaliating with 125 per cent duties on American goods.
• Thanks to talks between negotiators in Geneva, in May, both sides agreed to pause many of those tariffs, with the US paring back its duty back to 30 per cent and China lowering it to one-third of that, at 10 per cent.
• In June, the two countries reached a settlement to ease tensions, with the US agreeing to pull back export restrictions on computer chip technology and ethane, and China making it easier for American businesses to get access to rare earth material.

• In May, both sides had averted an economic catastrophe by reducing their massive tariffs on each other.
• Trump's move on Monday is the latest example of how the incoming tariff announcements, and the related back-and-forth, has kept investors on edge. Many analysts have found this US trade dynamic unpredictable for businesses.
• Over the past few months, Trump has announced steep tariffs on several of America's trade partners or specific sectors, only to pause them or revise them later.
• His “reciprocal tariffs” on most of America's trade partners, slapped in early April, have since been paused and delayed multiple times before taking effect in an altered form last week.
• Trump has already upended the global trading system by slapping double-digit tariffs on almost every country. The EU, Japan and other trading partners have agreed to lopsided trade deals with Trump.

• Many analysts also say that Trump's confusing trade policies have turned the US from one of the most open economies in the world into a protectionist fortress, with the average US tariff reportedly rising from around 2.5 per cent at the beginning of 2025 to a more than 90-year high of 18.6 per cent.