Global News Podcast - China hikes tariffs on US imports

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Beijing retaliates against Trump with an 84% levy on American goods. Also: we look at what aid is getting through to earthquake survivors in Myanmar and why olive oil is the target for Italian armed gangs.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Available now on the documentary from the BBC World Service. We look at the phenomenal rise in the use of headphones and earbuds. People in just about every city in the world have started wearing them. The revolution shows no signs of slowing. It's my time. It's my moment. My own little bubble. How and why did this happen? Life in a Bubble, the headphone revolution.

Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Myles and at 14 Hours GMT on Wednesday the 9th April these are our main stories. Turmoil in trade. Beijing has announced its retaliations to Donald Trump's recent tariffs against China. We look at the impact of Ecuador's record cocaine export and a hijacking at gunpoint in southern Italy. Why olive oil is being targeted.

Also in this podcast, nothing has come in for the reconstruction, no donations, only food for the aid workers. More than a week on from the deadly earthquake in Myanmar, just what aid is getting through. is getting through. The largest round of US trade tariffs yet have come into effect. Two trillion dollars worth of what Donald Trump's described as explosive levies are now in place on about 60 nations. President Trump said they would be legendary in a positive way. In a moment we'll hear how Beijing has responded. But first let's look at the reaction on the financial markets. Across Europe and legendary, in a positive way. In a moment we'll hear how Beijing has responded. But first let's look at the reaction on the financial markets. Across Europe and Asia, stock markets

have fallen yet again and there's also been a big sell-off of US government debt or bonds. Tonya Beckett is a presenter on BBC Business. She told me a little bit more about the bond market and why it's so important. It's the debt market. It is packaged debt. If I lent you a hundred dollars, you wouldn't give me a piece of paper saying that I'd done that. You would give me a hundred pieces of paper and each one of those would represent one dollar and it's simply that. It's just packaged up debt. And in this particular case, we're talking about US government debt and that is packaged up and traded back and forth according to how confident people feel in whether they want to lend the US government money or not.

The problem at the moment is they seem to be voting with their feet and saying they don't want to lend this money and they are dumping some of this debt on the market. So there's a lack of confidence in the US economy. What will the sale of all this debt mean more broadly for the US economy? The debt that has a fixed interest rate on it, so the only way of adjusting that interest rate for somebody who wants to invest or not is to sell and it goes down in price and therefore the yield or the interest rate on that debt would be higher. So when people dump debt that's exactly what happens. So that the risk associated with lending to the US government

is seen as being higher and therefore the interest rate being demanded is higher. What does it mean? Well, this debt is continually refinanced by the central bank. All central banks around the world do this on behalf of their governments and they auction this debt. And if they are unable to find takers for it, that means they cannot refinance it, that causes a funding crisis. But it may also be also, and this is what's happening, is that the US government simply has to pay more for the debt to entice investors in. And if they have to pay more, obviously people pay more in higher interest rates for their

mortgages as well, one supposes. There's also been a stock market sell-off and that affects ordinary people too, I suppose, in terms of pensions amongst other things. Yeah, sure. I mean, all of this starts coming down the track. It doesn't feel real, does it, because it's so conceptual? But actually, this is what makes up your pension funds. And you're right, borrowing costs start to change as a result of this. So it does start coming down the track. It's just that people don't feel it until they start looking at their savings and realising perhaps also they are finding it difficult

to borrow money. So it affects people, individuals directly at some point or another. And what goes up can come down, bond markets can come down again but it takes a little bit of time briefly doesn't it? It does sometimes and you have to inject confidence into the market and Donald Trump is not doing that right now quite simply because he doesn't seem to be moving ahead with striking a trade deal more particularly with China and also the EU. Tanya Beckett, well Tanya mentioned China there and China is one of the nation's hardest hit by the latest round of levers. US imports from China will now face an eye-watering 104% tariff. But it seems Beijing is showing no signs of backing down and has responded.

Mickey Bristow is our Asia Pacific Regional Editor. China has increased its tariffs on US imports to 84%. That's an increase of 50% exactly matching the latest tariff introduced by President Trump on Chinese imports of 50%. So essentially what you have in China now is everything that it imports from the United States comes at an 84% tariff, which is a staggering level, both figures are staggering levels. And when you think of the fact that $600 billion of trade, of goods are traded between these two countries every year, this is what it's going to affect. And you have to start wondering, actually, at this levels of tariff, exactly what is

going to be traded, because perhaps the tariff price is going to push up prices so much that it's just not worth buying those goods from each other's countries. Just give you an example a couple of years ago China sought to punish Australia for certain political things and it put a hundred to two hundred percent tariff on wine. The wine trade with to 200% tariff on wine. The wine trade with Australian wine trade with China just collapsed. Nothing was sold there. So you've got to wonder how much left of US-China trade there will be if these tariffs continue for any length of time. And that explains probably why Beijing is looking to its neighbors and saying look we've got a trade more with each other. It is looking to its neighbors and saying look we've got a trade more with each

other. It is looking to its neighbors the Chinese leader Xi Jinping said it has to build up supply chains but really the the relationship with America is so big that nothing can really replace it. I'm presuming that in the coming weeks both sides are going to have to find or you would assume find some face-saving way of getting rid of these tariffs because it's going to destroy trade otherwise. Interesting that you say that because from an outsider's point of view it looks as though they're tit for tat and nobody's backing down but you anticipate Beijing at a certain point to do that. I'm not going to make any prediction on what President Trump is going to say and what he's going to do next, but a rational observer would imagine they would find some way to

back down. But obviously we're not really living in rational times. Mickey Bristow. So China is taking a hard line against Donald Trump. Let's look at how the American tariffs are affecting some of Beijing's smaller neighbours. Here's our South East Asia correspondent, Jonathan Hayne in Bangkok. Well it's a much bigger impact for them than it is for China because simply because exports to the US account for a much bigger proportion of their economies.

I think Vietnam is the most affected and the irony here is that Vietnam and the United States have been working very hard to build a much closer relationship in the last few years. They now have a comprehensive strategic relationship, the highest level of diplomatic relations Vietnam has with its partners. And that for Vietnam was very much predicated on the idea that it could rely on increased exports to the US to help its very ambitious growth targets. Those have now been thrown into complete disarray. 46% tariffs imposed on Vietnam and 30% of his exports going to the United States. Cambodia probably devastated by this because the garment industry, which is really its only significant employer, private

employer, relies very heavily on US markets and it's now facing 49% tariffs. Thailand is less dependent, but the Thai economy is a lot more vulnerable than Vietnam's. It's been stagnating for a long time, and the Thai government's been trying every possible lever to reignite it. And so with its own dependence on the US for around a fifth of its exports, these are very big barriers, in particular auto exports. Thailand's facing exports of a lot of auto products to the US, both the 25% tariff in addition to the 36% special tariff for it. So all these countries badly affected.

Their message until now has been, don't panic, retaliate like China, negotiate. And they're all sending delegations to Washington, but it's a long, long queue, a long line of people. And the other thing you have to remember is that Trump officials are saying, well, even if you bring your tariffs down to zero, that's something Vietnam has already offered, that's not good enough for us. What the US administration wants to do is eliminate the trade surpluses these countries have.

And that's, frankly, totally impossible for poor countries like Cambodia. There isn't a world that exists in which Cambodia could buy as much from the US as it exports. Jonathan Hed. The UK's media watchdog, Ofcom, has launched its first investigation under new powers to tackle dangerous online content. It is believed to be looking into a pro-suicide website uncovered by a BBC investigation. If sites don't remove this kind of material they could face fines of more than $20 million or even be blocked entirely. Angus Crawford reports.

The forum, which we're not naming, has tens of thousands of members, including under-18s, and describes itself as pro-choice. Users promote suicide, share detailed instructions on methods and recommend how to buy and use a toxic chemical. BBC News has investigated the site for three years, finding links to the deaths of four British children and more than 50 adults in the UK. It's now believed to be the target of Ofcom's first ever investigation under the online safety act. Angus Crawford. The world's attention may now be elsewhere

but fighting in Myanmar has been reported just over a week on from that major earthquake that the country's state media said killed more than 3,000 people. Well this violence is despite a ceasefire between the junta that governs Myanmar and rebel fighters. It's happening as many people are still living in makeshift shelters and having to contend with heavy rain. As we heard from locals in the rebel stronghold of Saigang, little help has arrived. 16 children died here. Nuns, monks, students, elderly people.

All dead. Everything collapsed on top of a woman. They're at the water basin, two monks and another woman died. And here someone was killed too. Nothing has come in for the reconstruction. No donations. Only food for the aid workers. Well James Rodehaver is the chief of the Myanmar team at the United Nations Office of the High

Commission of Human Rights. He gave an update to my colleague Emma Barnett. This is the time of year when traditionally the weather begins to turn from the dry season to the very rainy season, which means that you have periods of extreme heat and humidity followed by torrential downpours. And then it just repeats itself over and over. And in the context of the earthquake that has destroyed so many structures and shelters in the areas affected, it means that you have people sleeping rough out of doors, looking for any possible way to get shelter.

It's one of the main priorities of the UN humanitarian effort is to pass out canvas and plastic sheeting to make such structures. But there's no doubt that people need sort of help rather urgently. Potable water, food, all of those things are desperately needed right now. And are they able to get where they need to get? Well, that's one of the biggest problems is that of course you have areas right now that were impacted, many of which were outside the areas where humanitarian organizations

operated or could get access to. And as a result, you have large areas that are outside of the military's control where we still don't know the full extent of the damage and destruction. And so these places are lacking in the critical kinds of equipment that you need in order to conduct real rescue efforts. And of course, now that the rescue period has essentially ended, you fear that the death toll, the dangers of disease and other illnesses will spread rather rapidly in those areas. LARLEY And what about the fighting and the impact on aid getting there and the impact

on the people? GERRARD Despite the military's announcement of a unilateral ceasefire, they have continued to carry out military operations really across the country, including in earthquake affected areas. Really, since an hour after the earthquake struck, we have reports of well over 100 different incidents in which attacks have been carried out by the military. And you know, over 60 just since the ceasefire took effect on the 2nd of April. These are a combination of airstrikes, strikes by drones and paramotors, as well as ground operations where they are burning villages, forcibly conscripting people, some really heavy fighting that they are instigating.

James Roadhover. Still to come on this podcast. Tricky to hear, I know, but it is 70 years old. We find out how one man tracked down the voice of a talking postcard. People in just about every city in the world have started wearing them. The revolution shows no signs of slowing. It's my time, it's my moment. My own little bubble. How and why did this happen? Life in a bubble, the headphone revolution.

Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Cocaine exports from Ecuador hit a record high last year, making it the world's largest exporter despite not producing the drug at all. Ecuador sits between Colombia and Peru, two of the world's biggest cocaine producers. So its ports have become key trafficking hubs, especially to Europe, where its demand is rising. It's led to soaring violence as January this year was one of the country's bloodiest on record. The BBC spoke with people across the country, from gang members working for the Albanian Mafia to Ecuador's president, who urged Europe to curb cocaine use. Reporting from Guayaquil, here's our South America correspondent, Aini Wells. I'm at one of the biggest ports in Guayaquil.

It is absolutely huge and full of shipping containers that are being collected and dropped off by trucks here. These are mostly full of goods headed for Europe. I was their contact outside the port. I knew the guards, the transport drivers who work with the shipping containers, also the CCTV camera supervisors who control the security inside the port. This man is a member of Latin Kings, one of Ecuador's biggest drug gangs. He wanted to remain anonymous, so we've changed his voice.

He was recruited by a corrupt anti-drugs police officer to help the Albanian mafia, a powerful international criminal network that dominates Europe's cocaine trade. His role? To help them contaminate shipping containers with cocaine. They call me and tell me, we want to send 500 kilograms of drugs in a container. I will have the contact for the person who was going to move the container. Cut it, open it, put it in the blocks of drugs and put it back. He told me he regrets the collateral damage of what he's done, but it's not easy to stop. "'Everything is done because of a threat of death. If you don't accept a job the Albanian

mafia has asked for, they will kill you." Ecuador doesn't produce cocaine, but its huge ports provide a shipping route for gangs to traffic drugs to Europe. And it's not just gangs and smugglers involved. Some ordinary workers unknowingly become part of the trade. The first warning sign was when I went to the warehouse to pick up the cargo and there was nothing else there. This truck driver once picked up a shipment of tuna to take to the port.

About two months later, the news came out that those containers had been seized in Amsterdam. Inside the tuna containers, apparently there were drugs. We never knew. The issue of contamination is more frequent now. That makes us more vulnerable to those criminals. If you don't accept and you don't contaminate the containers, you have two options. Leave the job or end up there. All the police at this port who are checking containers and crates and crates of bananas and other goods are heavily armed. And that's because if they find drugs,

the chances are somebody who works at this port will be complicit, somebody will be working with the gangs. So if drugs are found, it could trigger a violent incident. The total amount of drugs has increased. Major Cueva from the national police coordinates police searches here. Cissures of drugs in Ecuador exceeded 300 tons in the past year. That was the record year we have had here in the country so far. There has been about a 30 percent increase in seizures headed for Europe in recent years. The UK has the second highest rate of cocaine use in the world, something I asked Ecuador's

president Daniel Nouboa about. I think there should be programs in each country to tackle this issue, to reduce consumption because the whole chain that ends up in the UK fund is a lot of violence, involves a lot of violence. So what's fun for a single person is probably 20 homicides on the way." Striking how similar the message from the president is to the message of the drug gang members at the heart of this all. If people buy drugs in Europe, it will always come from here. Where should we tackle this problem first?

There. Where they consume it. where they sell it most. That report was by Ioni Wells. Poverty can have as big an impact on the brain development of babies as being born prematurely. That is according to a study from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. It found that babies born into deprived families face a similar risk of problems such as speech and language difficulties. Katrina Renton reports. About one in 12 babies in the UK is born pre-term, before 37 weeks, and is a leading cause of death and disability among newborns.

Scientists have traditionally focused on the medical issues and care practices that can affect premature babies' brain development. But research for the There World Edinburgh birth cohort, which is following 300 premature and 100 full-term babies, has found that disadvantages from living in a poor neighbourhood, such as having a low income, less access to education and jobs, and fewer resources to help young children develop well, are factors. Researchers found providing more support to disadvantaged families could improve early brain and language development in vulnerable babies. The charity Their World, which funds the study, is chaired by Sarah Brown, whose daughter Jennifer died at 10 days old after

she was born at 33 weeks. Katrina Renton, 70 years ago, in an era long before voice notes, 20-year-old Valerie Stanard from a town in southern England sent a talking postcard from the Empire State Building in New York City. I was speaking from the top of the Empire State Building, the most beautiful building in the world. It has 102 stories, nine on about the 90s. The wonderful places in America

are rather difficult. We have one minute to speak. Everybody in America has been 100 pounds with and part with no end. Honest, Valerie. A wonderful place is America and a wonderful view from the top of the Empire State Building that Valerie had, she sent that ropey recording of her voice on a vinyl record, a voiceograph, to her parents. It eventually ended up in a warehouse where it was found by a record dealer, Joel Dayath. Joel tracked down Valerie via her daughter Zoe and sent her a digitally remastered copy of the recording. She's now Valerie McBean, 90 years old and living in Canada. The BBC's James Kumrasami spoke to her and to Joel who told him what it was like to discover the recording.

I often get calls from people who are either moving house or selling their collection of records and I got a peculiar call from someone who happened to find some records in a warehouse and I found myself elbow deep in a dusty warehouse finding some, I must be honest, pretty awful records and amongst them was this voiceograph and I'm just, was just so intrigued by it and I had to get it. Just tell us a bit about it, what sort of size is it? Oh it's about the size of a seven inch single, it's just a minute long and the most exciting thing about it was it came in the original envelope that it

was sent in so I had a few leads to try and source who was the person behind that voice. And how how did that go? I did a bit of detective work which is pretty much going on Facebook these days and I managed to find a Wellingard in City Facebook group and asked a few people seeing if anyone would have known the family name and from that town 70 years ago and and I got a lead and it led me to Valerie. Well that's wonderful, Valerie. You now live in Canada, I think it's your daughter wasn't it who was the initial point of contact with Joel, but when you heard that the voice-ograph had been found, what did you think?

I was astonished that such a little, almost meaningless interview would be held for posterity. We heard it. It put a whole different perspective on my past life. And when you heard it, what did you think? You know, it reminded me of who I used to be. And literally, it was like regaining contact with my past life, my junior life put it that way. It sounded as though I died and born again but none of that nonsense, I just got old that's all. Well what do you remember of that trip to New

York? I remember wondering how these people had strange accents and it took me a while to figure out that so many of the expressions that the average New Yorker used were quite different from many of the expressions that we as the British used. I can give you one rather dramatic example. I was a customer in a hotel. I had to catch an early flight the next morning at five o'clock. So I said to the receptionist, would you knock me up at 4.30? She got very huffy and said that we are not that kind of establishment. And I thought, well, I paid for a good night's fee and accommodation. Is that a really unusual service to want someone to phone me to wake me up to travel further?

But then I was informed that that was rather a vulgar expression and was akin to suggesting they offer prostitute services. So anyway... Two nations separated by a common language. That's exactly how it was. Well tell us about the actual recording of that message. I'm just interested about why you sent that voice message rather than maybe just as well as a normal postcard. Well it was my mother's birthday was coming up so I wanted to give her a more

personal congratulations and hello more personal than a postcard. It was very personal. And when you listen back to your voice from 70 years ago what do you think? Listening to that it sounded alien in the present and I guess I'm just a very very different person from the one who arrived all those 70 years ago. Valerie McBean. Now a lorry hijacked at gunpoint, a driver kidnapped and the contents of his truck stolen. It happened in Puglia in southern Italy a few days ago and it is part of a growing trend. The plunder? Hundreds of liters of extra virgin olive oil. High demand, falling harvests and the subsequent soaring prices

have turned olive oil into a lucrative target for organized crime, as our reporter Carla Conte explains. target for organised crime, as our reporter Carla Conte explains. In the rolling groves of southern Italy, where ancient olive trees have stood for centuries, a new kind of threat is taking root, this time not just from pests or drought, but from armed criminals. On a quiet road in the region of Puglia last week, a lorry carrying several pallets of extra virgin olive oil was hijacked in a paramilitary style operation. Five masked men in an SUV forced the truck to stop by shooting at the driver and then kidnapping him. While he survived the attack unscathed, the truck was found abandoned in the Apulian countryside. Its precious cargo vanished.

From holdups on provincial roads to attempted raids on oil mills, these heists are becoming more frequent and more sophisticated. Police believe the Puglia gang had insider knowledge of the lorries' route, destination and contents. And the tactics they used echoed those of the so-called Fast and Furious gangs from the nearby town of Cerignola. They are Kalashnikov-wielding criminals known for hijacking vehicles by scattering nails across busy motorways and setting fire to lorries, before vanishing in stolen sports cars. As Italy's olive oil prices have doubled over the past three years, the

product has become increasingly valuable, earning the nickname green gold. That's something Nicola Di Noia, the director general of Italian olive oil producers consortium Unabrol, says is only adding to the pressure on the industry. Extra virgin olive oil has become really expensive and this evidently attracts the attention of criminals. We've also had a few years of lower production than usual. We're experiencing climate changes, particularly a shortage of water. That's why we're working to increase production through irrigation by using more water. In the Apulian town of Andria, the heart of Italy's olive oil industry, producers are selling oil for up to $13 a litre.

By the time it hits supermarket shelves, that price rises to $16. With each pallet worth thousands of dollars, the oil is now transported with the kind of security once reserved for highly vulnerable commodities. But beyond the price tag lies a deeper fear that the line between agriculture and organized crime is blurring. As rural roads become more susceptible to robberies, Italy's olive oil is no longer just a staple of the Mediterranean diet, but a lucrative target. Karlakonte. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later on. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk.

You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag global news pod. This edition was mixed by Mark Pickett and the producer was David Lewis. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye. Available now on the documentary from the BBC World Service, we look at the phenomenal rise in the use of headphones and earbuds. People in just about every city in the world have started wearing them. The revolution shows no signs of slowing. It's my time, it's my moment. My own little bubble. How and why did this happen?

Life in a bubble. The headphone revolution. Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.