A day earlier, Trump announced a 90-day pause on higher tariffs against all countries except China, reversing a policy that had roiled global stock markets and spooked the American bond markets -- a key barometer of investors' faith in the US government's ability to pay its debts.
Trump's announcement leaves China facing a steep 125 percent tariff on top of existing 20 percent levies, and almost all other countries facing a baseline tariff of 10 percent.
Speaking to CNBC before markets opened on Thursday, Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, said that the 10 percent was likely here to stay.
"I think everybody expects the 10 percent baseline tariff is going to be the baseline," he said. "And it is going to take some kind of extraordinary deal for the president to go below there."
Hassett said the sharp rise in bond market yields in recent days had added "perhaps a little more urgency" to Trump's decision to roll back some tariffs, but insisted that the decision would ultimately have happened anyway.
"The president recognizes that in order to get the big change that we need for America's workers... we need to create enough pressure on our trading partners that things that American presidents have been asking for for the last decades are actually offered at the table," he said.
Shanghai finance workers worry after front-row seat to tariff turmoil
Shanghai (AFP) April 10, 2025 -
As stock prices flashed across a huge screen at a bustling intersection in China's business hub Shanghai, finance workers shared their concerns after getting front-row seats to the global market turmoil wreaked by Donald Trump this week.
After equities tanked at the beginning of the week, the US president on Wednesday paused the sweeping tariffs he had introduced on most countries.
But he increased levies on China to 125 percent, citing a "lack of respect" over Beijing's introduction of retaliatory duties.
At lunchtime on Thursday in central Shanghai, the news didn't appear to be disrupting people's enjoyment of a warm spring day -- but asked whether it had been an interesting week at work, a woman who gave her name as Catherine laughed.
"Every night Trump sends out a social media post, then the market goes up or down... us finance professionals are getting first-hand experience of this," she said, standing in front of a bronze-coloured statue of a bull charging.
Shanghai lost over seven percent on Monday, though it has subsequently clawed back some of those losses.
"We think (Trump's) words and deeds have attacked all our financial systems, especially the global stock market," a fellow worker surnamed Zhang told AFP.
"He is a hugely unpredictable, uncertain factor, and this is a very big risk point from an investment perspective."
- 'Just emotional rage' -
The Chinese government on Thursday urged the United States to meet it "halfway", but the stand-off currently shows no sign of de-escalating.
Catherine said that at this point the exact figure of the constantly rising tariff percentage made little difference.
"As soon as (Trump) put 60 percent on, the trade relationship is over, so if he puts 100, over 100 percent on, that's just another number, it's just him expressing his emotional rage," she said.
Zhang said that although she hadn't noticed any effect on her own life yet, the whole economy would eventually be impacted because of the importance of foreign trade to China's growth.
Overseas shipments represented a rare bright spot in a sluggish economy last year, with the United States as the top single country buyer of Chinese goods.
"I hope there will be a mutual rejection of tariffs, that it can be negotiated as soon as possible, and that the negotiations will end well," Zhang said.
Semi-retired Arthur Zheng, who was taking his dog Charlie for a stroll in a pram, said he thought China could ultimately thrive on the competition.
"If he raises (tariffs), we will also raise them... and everyone's costs will get higher and higher," he said.
"But I think for everyday Chinese people... most things are not imported," he said, gesturing at the pink floral shirt his dog was wearing.
"It's all domestically produced, we're self-sufficient."
The 57-year-old held no animosity for the US president.
"I think this guy is a hero," he said animatedly.
"The world needs someone to stir things up like this. But I hope he's able to guide things in a positive direction -- you don't want him to stir and stir, stir the whole world up and then just stop at that, that's not ok."
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