The White House has not applied a baseline 10% tariff only on three nations, following this evening's announcement made by Donald Trump. Tariffs above 10% have been paused for 90 days for all countries except Canada, China and Mexico. A White House official said that rate was never applied to those three countries.

Mr Trump posted to his Truth Social platform on Wednesday evening that he had authorised the pause in recognition of the more than 75 countries which he said had been negotiating on trade and not retaliated against his latest increases in tariffs.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later told reporters outside the White House that Mr Trump was pausing his reciprocal tariffs on most of the country’s biggest trading partners, but maintaining his 10% tariff on nearly all global imports.

China is the huge exception with Mr Trump saying tariffs are going up to 125% against its products. That decision raises the possibility of further swings ahead which could further upset financial markets.

The White House official told the BBC that 25% tariffs announced on steel, aluminium and cars would remain unchanged.

Canada and Mexico were subject to an earlier round of US tariffs designed to force them into curbing the flow of illegal migrants and drugs into the United States.

A 25% tax was imposed on all goods from Canada except those under an existing North American free trade agreement.

Mr Trump, speaking from the Oval Office, said he "can’t imagine" he would need to increase tariffs on China again to get them to the negotiating table.

Earlier today Beijing repeated its vow to "fight to the end" against Mr Trump's tariffs, arguing trade between the two countries is in balance.

So far, China has not appeared interested in bargaining. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian said today: "If the US truly wants to resolve issues through dialogue and negotiation, it should adopt an attitude of equality, respect and mutual benefit."

A statement from China's commerce ministry said history and facts have proven the United States’ increase in tariffs will not solve its problems.

It added: "Instead, it will trigger sharp fluctuations in financial markets, push up US inflation pressure, weaken the US industrial base and increase the risk of a US economic recession, which will ultimately only backfire on itself."

Tensions between the world's largest and second largest economies escalated further when China said it would hike its retaliatory tariff on the US to 84% (up from 34%) to take effect on April 10.