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Trump Orders 90-Day Pause on New Tariffs Except for China. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 09, 2025 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We just heard from President Trump moments ago touting his decision to pause tariffs, these so-called reciprocal tariffs on all countries except China, and the stock market is rallying on the news of this 90-day pause. Of course, that's a big exception, China.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, no question about that. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are reacting to the news. CNN's Lauren Fox is there for us.

Lauren, what are you hearing?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just to set the scene a little bit, Republican senators were actually having their daily policy lunch when this announcement was unleashed. And one of the senators in the room, Senator Roger Marshall, actually told his colleagues, announced it during the lunch. And Senator John Cornyn joked he wouldn't really describe it as jubilation.

But Senator Mike Braun said people were smiling, people were happy, largely with this announcement, in part because you can guess that Republican lawmakers have been hearing from their constituents, hearing from farmers, hearing from manufacturers in their state, and that they have been voicing their concerns privately, sometimes in a public setting, to the White House, as well as here to reporters on Capitol Hill.

Meanwhile, you have Republicans in the House of Representatives who have been much more supportive, perhaps, of this tariff strategy, saying that this is a sign that Donald Trump's plan all along was working. Here's Representative Dusty Johnson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DUSTY JOHNSON (R-SD): Done a really good job in the last few days of making it clear to America that they're taking negotiations, right? They're having conversations with some of these key trading partners. I'm not the world's biggest fan of tariffs, high tariffs as a permanent part of the economic landscape.

I'm not opposed at all to using tariffs as a negotiating tool. Seems like that's what the White House is doing. I think the president's shown a willingness to change tactics as the situation changes. And so we're just going to need to see what the next few weeks hold.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And it was also really interesting in the House of Representatives because Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was supposed to be briefing members of the Republican Study Committee, both on the tariffs and trying to push them toward supporting this budget resolution. At the last minute, he couldn't arrive on Capitol Hill because he'd gotten called into a meeting at the White House. That just shows you how quickly all of this was developing and the impact that it was having on Capitol Hill.

KEILAR: Lauren Fox, thank you so much. We'll have more on our breaking news ahead. Stay with us.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Americans' grocery carts have been caught in the crosshairs of President Trump's back and forth on tariffs.

KEILAR: And despite the pause of 90 days now for most countries, some of the president's policies still could make several pantry staples more expensive. Stu Leonard, Jr., the CEO of Stu Leonard's Grocery Stores, is with us now. Stu, thank you for joining us from the store, no less.

How are you handling all of this back and forth on the tariffs?

[15:40:00]

STEW LEONARD JR., CEO, STEW LEONARD'S GROCERY STORES: It's a roller coaster ride right now with these tariffs. We were lucky enough. We do about $600 million, our family business here in the metro New York area. And I would say probably about 500 of it is U.S. products, our meat, you know, a lot of our products. We even found a lot of packaging supplies are made right here in Connecticut. So we're pretty well insulated.

We don't do a lot with China, but we do a lot of salmon with with Mexico -- I mean, with Canada and that's relaxed, completely fresh products were. And same with with Mexico right now, avocados is the big thing. These little guys right here. Everybody was nervous about that getting tariffed.

But right now, the seas seem calm. Last night I went to bed. I was worried about things like French champagne. How am I going to get that? Tequila from Mexico. How am I going to get that? We have Easter coming up. How am I going to get a lamb from New Zealand? And guess what? By noon today, I was happy and I'm going to sleep like a baby tonight.

SANCHEZ: We are glad to hear that, Stew. I do wonder 10 percent tariff, at least temporarily, while these negotiations are hammered out with these 75 plus countries over 90 days. Is not nothing. So I wonder how are you planning to split that increase? How much of that might wind up getting passed to your customers?

LEONARD JR.: Well, you know that, Boris, that's a good question, because one of the things we found during COVID was that we did the same thing, but the tables returned a little bit. We were begging our suppliers to sell us product. You know, today they're looking at us and they're saying, you know, they don't want to raise their prices.

What usually ends up happening it's a 50 50 deal at the end of the road. I don't want to hurt. We buy from a lot of local small farmers and ranchers and I don't want to hurt them. We want to help them. And so we sort of have to craft individual deals with each one of them. We definitely give the benefit of the doubt to the small family businesses we deal with.

But right now, I'm not expecting any price increases. All of our suppliers have basically said to us a wait and see approach. And, you know, this was yesterday's message was wait and see.

And today it was a good decision because they didn't raise any prices. They didn't do anything when the tariffs took effect. So right now we're just have our fingers crossed. This is all going to work out great for America at the end of the day.

KEILAR: Is your hope with this 90 day pause that this is actually a permanent thing then?

LEONARD JR.: Hey, first of all, I it's -- this is a moving target right now. I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but we've spent a huge amount of time here at Stew Leonard trying to figure out backup plans.

Like, for instance, right here, here's a beautiful French champagne right here. You can buy the same thing out in California from actually domain Cornelius that has Pat and Jay over in France. You can buy the same thing. It's not called a champagne. It's a sparkling wine. But the same family makes it. So we're hoping we could convert customers over to that.

Another good example with Easter coming. Obviously, we have New Zealand lamb right here, which is big right now for Easter coming up. We have American lamb, too. So we were making provisions to move all our buying to the U.S. as much as we could. Tequila was a problem because I can't buy that anywhere else in the world.

But even the wines from Europe right now, hey, Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley and even Washington state make some of the best wines in the world. So customers may switch and start buying more U.S. made product. And that's what we've been spending our time at Stew Leonard doing.

SANCHEZ: Tariffs or not, I think a lot of folks would agree that tequila generally can be a problem. Stew Leonard, we very much appreciate you sharing your time and your props with us. Thanks for joining us. LEONARD JR.: Hey, check with me tomorrow and let's see what's going to happen.

SANCHEZ: Who knows? Who knows? Much more on the breaking news ahead.

The closing bell just minutes away after a roller coaster day on Wall Street. We'll see where stocks end up for the day. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Back to our breaking news now. U.S. stocks really spiking after President Trump says he's ordering a three month pause on most new tariffs. But Trump said tariffs on Chinese goods will actually increase to one hundred and twenty five percent after it announced additional retaliatory tariffs against the United States earlier today.

KEILAR: Let's discuss this now with Ben Bergman, senior correspondent for Business Insider. Ben, I'm sure you heard the president saying that, yes, he was looking last night at the bond market and he was seeing that people were getting yippy. Investors were getting yippy, as he put it, queasy.

What do you think was kind of the logical stress point that may have prompted this pause?

BEN BERGMAN, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, BUSINESS INSIDER: Well, it's interesting because President Trump's treasury secretary stood in front of the White House in front of reporters just an hour ago and said this was all part of the plan.

[15:50:00]

I don't think any of us really believe that. And President Trump himself just confirmed that it wasn't, that he probably felt the same fear and panic all of us have been doing.

I don't think any of us really believe that. And President Trump himself just confirmed that it wasn't, that he probably felt the same fear and panic all of us have been doing, looking at our portfolios and our 401ks. And he decided enough was enough and to put this 90-day pause. And you can see the reaction. Markets are very happy about it.

SANCHEZ: Ben, this pause is supposed to give the administration and other countries this window for negotiations. Trump saying that a deal is going to be made with all of them. There are going to be bespoke deals.

Is that enough time to actually reach dozens of new deals with all of these trading partners?

BERGMAN: It really doesn't seem like it. And it seems very messy. Once again, the White House has tried to portray this all as an intricate game of high-stakes poker.

But it really seems more like playing roulette or blackjack at the casino at 3 a.m. after having three tequilas because it's changing so often. And now it's unclear if even Mexico and Canada, which were earlier excluded from those reciprocal trade agreements, now it looks like they're going to be brought into this 10 percent. And also President Trump said that certain U.S. companies would be exempted from these temporary 10 percent tariffs. So that seems to invite a lot of CEOs to suddenly go to the White House and say, I'd really like to be exempt from this.

KEILAR: I guess at least that tequila won't be taxed at as high of a rate after this pause, we should note.

Talk to us a little bit about China because, you know, China has a lot of leverage here owning so much U.S. debt. And the posture is just aggressive, right? They're not backing down. Retaliatory tariffs, scuttling these deals on TikTok in the Panama Canal. How are you seeing it?

BERGMAN: You know, all this glee over the 90-day pause and the rest of the tariff, people seem to forget that with China, it's just digging in. And, you know, I really wouldn't want to be playing poker to go back to that overused analogy right now with President Xi because he doesn't seem to be someone who wants to back down. And it's hard to overstate the importance of the Chinese economy to the U.S.

I was just having coffee with a venture capitalist here in San Francisco, and he said they're still pausing all of their investments for the week. They just want to make sure that everything is going to be settled. And it seems like they're going to have to wait a long time for things to be settled because everything is still so in flux.

SANCHEZ: The U.S. trade representative, notably Jamieson Greer, was in front of the House Ways and Means Committee as this announcement was happening. Let's watch a clip of the moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIESON GREER, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: The tariffs have been paused. I am, yes.

REP. STEVEN HORSFORD (D-NV): When were you made aware of that?

GREER: Well, I understood the decision was made a few minutes ago --

REP. STEVEN HORSFORD (D-NV): Sitting here.

GREER: And under discussion.

HORSFORD: Sitting here, under discussion. So did you know that this was under discussion, and why did you not include that as part of your opening remarks?

GREER: So typically what I don't do is divulge the contents of my discussions with the president.

HORSFORD: What are the details of the pause?

GREER: Well, my understanding is that because so many countries have decided not to retaliate, we're going to have about 90 days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: What does it tell you that the U.S. trade representative is having to answer for this seemingly without much of an understanding of exactly what's being announced?

BERGMAN: I mean, it really seems like we're in an episode of Veep. And, again, this does not seem like a methodical, well-thought-out policy. And, yes, markets are really happy today. Apple now up 15 percent. Markets look like they're going to close with the best day since 2020. Still down 12 percent from the February highs.

But the uncertainty is a tax itself. And a lot of the damage is already done because business and business leaders need certainty. And changing every day just makes it impossible.

And now I think you talk to a lot of foreign executives, and the U.S. is not a place they want to do business right now.

KEILAR: Ben, it is great to get your perspective. Ben Bergman with Business Insider. Thank you so much.

BERGMAN: Thanks a lot.

KEILAR: We are minutes away from the closing bell. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt will pick up our breaking news after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: A massive turnaround for the stock market after a surprise turnaround from President Trump. He just ordered a 90-day pause on his latest round of tariffs. Except for tariffs on China that are set to climb even higher. The closing bell just moments away.

Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro will join us live here in THE ARENA.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

HUNT: Hi everyone, I'm Kasie Hunt. It's good to have you with us in THE ARENA on this Wednesday as U.S. stocks are soaring on the breaking news from President Trump. He is now putting nearly all of the punishing tariffs that went into effect overnight on hold.

Our correspondents covering every angle here as we wait for the closing bell. We're going to start with Vanessa Yurkevich at the New York Stock Exchange. Vanessa, what a moment, the closing bell about to ring.

I've gotten used to seeing the people who do it clapping. It has not been a great few days as that clapping has been going. But today, obviously, things have turned around dramatically.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, what a dramatic turnaround. We are waiting. We're just moments away from the closing bell. You're going to hear the clapping starting behind me. You're going to hear that bell ring any single moment. But what a turnaround earlier ...