Officials in the White House were stunned by US President Donald Trump’s decision to delay the imposition of duties on 75 countries for 90 days, the Washington Post reports.
A senior foreign diplomat who was involved in trade talks with the US said he learnt about the postponement from the media minutes after Trump published his post.
According to the newspaper, after the news broke, his aides began conferring on further tactics and called a press conference with US Treasury Department chief Scott Bessent and White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt.
There are indications that Trump had preliminary discussions about the tariffs with Republican congressmen and a number of foreign leaders who expressed concern about the reaction to the imposition of duties by global stock markets.
Earlier, the New York Times wrote that the suspension of US duties is associated with the threat of a new crisis.
On the eve of Trump said that he was suspending for 90 days additional import duties imposed on the principle of reciprocity against a number of countries.
According to him, people are ‘starting to get a little scared’.
