US President Donald Trump meets with US Ambassadors in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 25, 2025.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said that tariffs will likely be more “lenient than reciprocal,” as the April 2 tariff deadline looms for a number of levies to go into effect.
“I’ll probably be more lenient than reciprocal, because if I was reciprocal, that would be very tough for people,” Trump said Tuesday in an interview with Newsmax.
“I know there are some exceptions, and it’s an ongoing discussion, but not too many, not too many exceptions,” the president added.
The White House later clarified the president’s remarks, saying the Trump administration will no longer take into account non-tariff barriers countries raise against the United States to determine the reciprocal tariff rate, as told to CNBC’s Eamon Javers.
Non-tariff barriers include factors such as a value-added tax (VAT) — which is a tax on the final consumption of a good or service based on the value added at each production stage — as well as wage suppression and currency manipulation.
The softening stance on tariffs from the Trump administration could soothe investors worried a global trade war will slow down the U.S. economy.
Already, consumer and corporate sentiment have taken a hit. On Tuesday, the Conference Board said its measure for consumer expectations on business, income and labor dropped to a 12-year low.
Stocks have struggled recently, with the S&P 500 dropping 3% in the past month. The benchmark also dipped into correction territory amid the tariff pressures, briefly trading more than 10% below a record set in February.
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