China retaliates against Trump with 84% tariff on US imports
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
China announces an 84% tariff on US imports, to take effect on Thursday, after Donald Trump imposed a 104% tariff on Chinese goods entering the US. We'll hear from South Korea and from Germany on what they can do to protect themselves.
Also on the programme: The people of Myanmar, ignored and desperate after the earthquake; as the BBC puts a restored sculpture back on display, can you separate great art from appalling artists? And we'll hear from a British woman who has been reunited with a "talking postcard" - also known as a "voice-o-graph" - she recorded in New York 70 years ago.
(Photo: American company Basic Fun!, which is known for its popular Care Bear toys, said it had to put out a notice earlier this week to halt shipments from China to the US. Credit: Gettty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service |
| 0:07.5 | Studios in central London. I'm Tim Franks. It was nine hours ago that Donald Trump pushed his |
| 0:14.0 | red button and detonated what he himself has described as his explosive tariffs. About 60 countries, again in the President's |
| 0:22.6 | words, the worst offenders, will now see their imports to the United States heavily taxed. None |
| 0:29.2 | is steeper than the levies imposed on China, as Mr. Trump mused late last night at a Republican |
| 0:35.6 | party fundraising dinner. |
| 0:44.7 | Right now, China's paying a 104% tariff. Think of it, 104%. Now, it sounds ridiculous, but they charged us for many items 100%, 125%. Many countries have. They've ripped us off left and right. |
| 0:56.1 | Until they make a deal with us, that's what it's going to be. I think they'll make a deal at some |
| 1:00.6 | point. China will, they want to make a deal. They really do. They want to make a deal. They just |
| 1:05.9 | don't know how to get it started because they're proud people. The tariff may be punishing the words, talk of the Chinese being a proud people in Donald |
| 1:17.4 | Trump's word, slightly more emollient than the language used by his vice president, J.D. Vance, |
| 1:22.1 | who described China's trade surplus for the U.S. being the work of peasants. |
| 1:26.5 | The Chinese government is for its part projecting |
| 1:28.5 | a steel resolve. At a media briefing today, the foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Beijing |
| 1:34.7 | would not bend. |
| 1:38.4 | The US side is still putting extreme pressure on China by imposing tariffs indiscriminately. |
| 1:45.2 | China firmly opposes and will never accept such arrogant and bullying behavior. |
| 1:50.7 | If the US really wants to solve the problem through dialogue and negotiations, |
| 1:55.6 | it should show an attitude of equality, respect and reciprocity. |
| 2:00.6 | If the US disregards the interests of both countries and the international community |
| 2:05.4 | and insists on wage on a tariff war and trade war, China will definitely retaliate. |
| 2:12.5 | Well, you can change the tense on will definitely retaliate because China has now announced |
... |
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