Trump Trade: Trump considers cutting tariffs on Chinese imports

TipRanks

Thu, Apr 24, 2025, 10:25 AM 4 min read

TARIFFS ON CHINESE IMPORTS: The Trump administration is considering slashing its tariffs on Chinese imports, in some cases by more than half, in a bid to de-escalate tensions, Gavin Bade, Lingling Wei and Josh Dawsey of The Wall Street Journal report, citing people familiar with the matter. One senior White House official said the China tariffs were likely to come down to between roughly 50% and 65%, the Journal reports. The administration is also considering a tiered approach with 35% levies for items the U.S. deems not a threat to national security, and at least 100% for items deemed as strategic to America’s interest, some of the people told the paper.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told investors in a closed-door meeting Tuesday he expects ‘there will be a de-escalation” in President Trump’s trade war with China in the “very near future,” a person in the room told CNBC, reports Eamon Javers and Kevin Breuninger. “The next steps with China are, no one thinks the current status quo is sustainable,” Bessent said at a private investor summit in Washington, D.C., hosted by JPMorgan Chase, according to CNBC.

FED CHAIR: President Trump told senior aides he wouldn’t try to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell following interventions from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Brian Schwartz, Josh Dawsey and Nick Timiraos of The Wall Street Journal report, citing people familiar with the matter. The two warned Trump that such a move could trigger market chaos and a messy legal fight, sources told Journal. Lutnick also told the president that efforts to fire the Fed chair likely wouldn’t lead to any practical change on interest rates because other members of the Fed’s board would likely approach monetary policy similarly to Powell, one of the people added.

SAVINGS TO FEDERAL CONTRACTS: Seven of the 10 biggest U.S. consulting firms have offered billions in additional cuts to their contracts after the Trump administration told firms that they had to pony up for deeper price concessions or face potential consequences, The Wall Street Journal’s Chip Cutter reports. The firms have now offered up to $20B in savings by offering to either terminate existing contracts or lower the scope of their work within federal agencies, Cutter says, citing a person familiar with the negotiations. Some firms are even proposing to offer credits towards their work on AI services for no pay, the author notes. Publicly traded companies in the space include Booz Allen (BAH), Marsh and McLennan (MMC), IBM (IBM), and Accenture (ACN).

TRADE AGREEMENTS: The White House is closing in on general agreements with Japan and India to stave off U.S. tariffs, but they are likely to leave many of the details to be hashed out at a later date, Megan Messerly, Ari Hawkins and Daniel Desrochers of Politico report. In the absence of full trade deals, administration officials are working to secure what three people close to the White House described as “memorandums of understanding” or a broad “architecture” for future deals, the website says. It “may take months for final deals,” said one of the people.

MUSK AND DOGE: During the company’s earnings call on Tuesday, Tesla (TSLA) CEO Musk said that his time allocation to DOGE will to “drop significantly” next month.

EXPLORATION PROJECT: Hecla Mining (HL) announced that its Libby Exploration Project in Montana was included in the Trump Administration’s March 18, 2025, announcement of advancing critical mineral projects under Executive Order 14241, Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production. As a result, the Project has been placed on the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council’s FAST-41 permitting dashboard, which will ensure the environmental review and authorizations schedule for the project is publicly available and allows all stakeholders to benefit from increased transparency.

STEPPING DOWN: The White House asked Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Commissioner Willie Phillips, a Democrat who chaired the agency under President Joe Biden, to step down, Catherine Morehouse of Politico reports. “I heard from the White House, and they expressed their interest that I step aside. It’s something that’s not a surprise to me. In fact, I had already planned to do so,” Phillips told the website. Phillips said he will step down effective immediately. Publicly traded companies in the energy space include BP (BP), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Shell (SHEL) and TotalEnergies (TTE).

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