President Donald Trump's agreement with China to temporarily slash tariffs for 90 days offered the world a bit of welcome relief. But what persists is a sense of uncertainty and the possibility that some damage from the trade war could already be done.
The Trump administration agreed after talks this weekend in Switzerland to pare back its 145 in tariffs charged on imports from China to 30. The Chinese government chose to reduce its retaliatory import taxes on U.S. goods from 125 to 10 while the sides continue to negotiate.
Trump declared the de-escalation of the trade war a victory, saying he would soon chat with Chinese President Xi Jinping about how to preserve the financial relationship between the world's two largest economies.
Regardless, the tariffs are now elevated from when Trump took office and the scramble to respond to the White House's mix of threats and olive branches might leave CEOs, investors and consumers uneasy and unwilling to take risks .
Trump is going to keep tariffing