WASHINGTON — When the clock clicked past midnight on April 9, President Trump's latest and largest volley of tariffs against some 90 countries kicked in, setting off a wild ride that saw trading partners retaliate with their own tariffs, the financial markets around the world tremble and dive, and then, later that day, amidst the chaos and enmity, hit the pause button.

Trump announced that he was backing down on most of his reciprocal tariffs for 90 days. President Trump cited new talks with foreign nations on trade as the reason for his reversal of the tariffs first announced April 2. However, his reversal was not universal. China, he said, would not be included in this walk back. In fact, he announced that tariffs would on its exports would increase to 125 percent.

Initially, Trump had imposed a 104 percent tariff on Chinese goods, prompting the Chinese Ministry of Finance to clap back with its own tariffs against American goods, increasing them to 84 percent.

Trump, facing, as Bloomberg put it, "global, domestic and perhaps most importantly Wall Street fury at his singlehanded destabilization of stock markets, bonds and even oil prices," had said all week he would not back down from his tariffs, backed down.

US tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles remain at their current rates, and tariffs of 10% or 25% on many Canadian and Mexico goods stayed the same. Exceptions to these tariffs are items covered by the North American trade pact. Lumber, for instance, was spared from Trump's tariff blitz. When the president announced reciprocal tariffs on a list of dozens of countries, lumber, composite wood panels and related products and other USMCA-compliant goods from Canada and Mexico were exempted.

Trump, who said he had the authority to issue the sweeping round of tariffs against its global trading partners under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA), said the plan imposes 10% tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. from most of the world's remaining countries. 

Trumps's expanded tariff rates would have directly affected countries that send wood and wood based products to the U.S., and not just Canada and Mexico. According to the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association, imports from Vietnam faced reciprocal tariffs of 46%, imports from Malaysia 24%, and imports from Thailand 37%.

Some U.S.-based companies say the tariffs have been a help to their bottom line. Ethan Allen, for example, said that in the wake of recent tariffs that have introduced significant challenges to furniture retailers dependent upon global supply chains, its vertically integrated structure, with manufacturing operations based in North America, provides the company with a competitive advantage.

“We are a vertically integrated enterprise from manufacturing to logistics to retail. When other furniture companies moved their manufacturing overseas, we chose to stay in North America and today make about 75% of our furniture in these workshops,” said Farooq Kathwari, chairman, president and CEO of Ethan Allen. “That decision has enabled us to focus on our longstanding reputation for quality and continue offering products at competitive values while also ensuring consistent, high levels of service to our clients. Making products in our own plants also enables us to offer a wide range of furniture styles, sizes, and customizations, bolstering our reputation as a leading interior design brand.”

The threat of Chinese tariffs against U.S. imports, scheduled to go into effect today, April 10, may have already had an effect. The National Hardwood Lumber Association, in an email to its members, citing the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), said that some Chinese importers had canceled orders of hardwood exports. However, the email said that U.S. goods shipped before April 10 and arriving in China before May 13 may be exempt from these tariffs, the report said.