Markets soar as Trump pauses some tariffs
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a dramatic change of policy, Donald Trump has paused higher tariffs on goods entering the United States from every country except China. In a post on social media, the President said levies would be lowered to ten percent, but taxes on Chinese imports would rise to 125%. We get reaction to the turmoil from Republican congressman Pete Sessions and French Member of Parliament Éléonore Caroit.
Also in the programme: We've live in the Dominican Republic after that nightclub roof collapse; and the new London exhibition of Cartier - jeweller to the rich and famous.
(Photo: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speak with the media about tariffs at the White House in Washington DC, April 9, 2025. Credit: Reuters Nathan Howard)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome to the program. This is News Hour from the BBC World Service. I'm Paul Henley. This is coming to you live from London. |
| 0:11.3 | If you ever needed proof that President Trump can suddenly change his mind on the big issues, |
| 0:16.8 | take today's decision on his landmark economic policy tariffs, having effectively declared a trade war on most of the rest of the world and wiped several trillion off share values on the international markets. |
| 0:30.0 | Donald Trump took to social media two and a half hours ago to announce a 90-day pause on all tariffs over and above his 10% baseline. |
| 0:39.0 | So all the individually applied extra tariffs are on hold, except those on China. |
| 0:44.3 | That other global economic superpower is the big exception now. |
| 0:48.7 | President Trump has raised the rate on goods from China to 125% effective immediately. |
| 0:55.6 | A short time ago, the president spoke to the media |
| 0:57.9 | and he was asked to explain the thinking behind his 90-day pause. |
| 1:02.3 | Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. |
| 1:07.0 | They were getting yippy, you know. |
| 1:09.2 | They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid, unlike these champions. |
| 1:13.6 | Because we have a big job to do. |
| 1:15.6 | No other president would have done what I did. |
| 1:17.6 | No other president. |
| 1:18.6 | I know the presidents. |
| 1:19.6 | They wouldn't have done it. |
| 1:20.6 | And it had to be done. |
| 1:21.6 | What was happening to us on trade, not only with, you know, if you look at it, not only |
| 1:26.6 | with China, but China was by far the |
| 1:29.3 | biggest abuser in history and others also, but somebody had to do it. They had to stop because it |
| 1:36.2 | was not sustainable. Last year, China made one trillion dollars off trade with the United States. |
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