Sumi Somaskanda
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
tariffs in a century have now been put on pause for three months. Roll back to a base of 10% for most of the countries in the world, except China, which now, as we just mentioned, has that 145% tariff on the products it sells in the United States. While in return, China has put tariffs of 84% on products coming in from America.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
And just before we go, let's go back to Wall Street outside the New York Stock Exchange. Our New York business correspondent, Aaron Delmore, is still standing by for us there. Aaron, we keep hearing that markets and businesses don't like uncertainty. What are traders there telling you about how they are managing expectations for the days and weeks to come?
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
By the way, the original higher tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada, we understand at this point, still stand. Also, tariffs of 25% are still in place on all aluminum and steel imported to the United States.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
And what about the impact, Erin, beyond Wall Street on Main Street, as it's often said here? Do we have a sense of how all of this will impact average Americans with the possibility of prices going up significantly?
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
Aaron, really interesting. Great to talk to you as always. Thank you, Aaron. And thank you so much for joining us for Trump's Tariffs Explained with me, Sumi Somaskanda in Washington.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
All right, we have been watching the dramatic ups and downs of financial markets. So let's take stock of where things stand. Financial markets in Asia and Europe, they have made gains reflecting relief at Donald Trump's decision to suspend those additional reciprocal tariffs for 90 days. This is how the key European indices have closed. In London, the FTSE 100 was up 3%.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
In Germany, the DAX index was up 4.5%. While in France, the CAC 40 was up 3.8%. Here in the U.S., at times, the Dow Jones was down more than 5%. The S&P 500 is down more than 4.5%. The Nasdaq at the moment, more than 5%.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
And that fall contrasts with some of those really big gains that we saw made on Wednesday directly in response to Donald Trump reversing that decision to impose many tariffs on countries other than China. So let's take a closer look at how markets are reacting to all of the twists and turns. We can go to our North America business correspondent, Erin Delmore, who is in New York for us.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
And me, Sumi Somaskanda, here in Washington. We're going to be asking and hopefully answering some of the key questions about the Trump tariff roller coaster of the last few days.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
Erin, we've been speaking pretty much every day about the market's reaction to the tariff policies. Can you characterize where things stand right now? Sue me.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
So for now, the turbulence continues. Our North America business correspondent, Aaron Delmore, in front of the New York Stock Exchange there. Thank you, Aaron.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
We've been looking at the economics of all of this. Let's take a look at the politics now and what's been happening inside the White House. President Trump's explosive announcement on tariffs last week caused shockwaves around the world, but it also seems to have ignited some tensions among key figures in his administration.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
We've seen the Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, for example, with some dissonance in his messaging compared to what the president has been saying. And Elon Musk, the world's richest man and also a close advisor to Donald Trump, he clashed with another one of Donald Trump's senior advisors, the trade czar Peter Navarro.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
Mr. Musk, who advocates free trade, called Mr. Navarro a moron and, quote, dumber than a sack of bricks. While Mr. Navarro said Elon Musk isn't a car manufacturer, he's just a car assembler who wants to keep importing cheap foreign parts for his products. So Let's talk about the politics of all of this now with our North America correspondent, Anthony Zerker, who is following the latest.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
Anthony, very good to have you on. You know, we heard the White House press secretary say when asked about this spat between Elon Musk and Peter Navarro that boys will be boys. But what does this actually tell us about the tariff policy and how the administration, Republicans and the president feel about it?
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
Anthony, we've seen at least two explanations for what we saw at the White House on Wednesday. It was either the art of the deal, as we've heard from the Trump administration, or a U-turn, as Democrats say, a climb down from the president. What do we actually take away from all of this? Has any of this weakened President Trump's position?
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
And there may have been a rollback on American tariffs for the rest of the world, but why has Donald Trump doubled down on China with even steeper tariffs? In fact, the White House confirming today that the tariff rate for China is now 145 percent, a staggering number.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
And Anthony, polling generally lags a few weeks behind, so we don't always have a snapshot that's up to date. But what can we take away from what Americans, average Americans, think of all of this?
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
Anthony Zerker, as always, thanks so much for that analysis.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
So are we now witnessing an all-out trade war that is escalating at dizzying speed between the two biggest economies in the world, China and America? And if we are, which of them will blink first? So key questions to ask there. With President Trump changing up tariffs over the last few days, let's take stock bend of where we are right now. That would be helpful, wouldn't it? The highest U.S.