Global News Podcast - Trump tariffs trigger steepest US stocks drop since 2020

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

The shares of Apple were among brands worst hit after US tariffs were announced, but President Trump maintained the American economy would ultimately "boom". Also: release date of Nintendo Switch 2 console revealed.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Good Bad Billionaire is back. Yes, the podcast uncovering the lives and livelihoods of some of the world's richest people is back for a new season. I'm Simon Jack. And I'm Zing Zing. Join us each week for a closer look at the lives of some of the world's billionaires from Minecraft creator Marcus Person to basketball star LeBron James.

Zing and I have more intriguing billionaires lined up for a new season. Good bad billionaire from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and in the early hours of Friday the 4th of April these are our main stories. President Trump has said his policy of putting steep tariffs on US imports is going very well despite huge falls in stock markets. The new taxes have led the World Trade Organisation to revise down its growth forecast.

It now expects the global economy to shrink by 1% this year. The authorities in Gaza say an Israeli airstrike has killed over 30 displaced people sheltering in a school. Also in this podcast... This is absolutely a transformation. I don't think people were really expecting 4K for a start. The screen 1080p, like this is really big upgrades that people weren't necessarily expecting going into it.

The Japanese gaming company Nintendo has revealed the Switch 2, the long-awaited successor to one of the best-selling consoles in history. Donald Trump has defended the tariffs he's announced on US imports from around the world, despite a global stock market sell-off. Wall Street suffered one of its worst days in recent years on Thursday. But speaking to reporters as he left the White House, Mr Trump expressed optimism. I think it's going very well. It was an operation like when a patient gets operated on. And it's a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is.

We have six or seven trillion dollars coming into our country and we've never seen anything like it. The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom. We'll hear more about what the US president had to say in a moment, but let's hear from India, Vietnam, Japan and South Africa. And first from the US president had to say in a moment. But let's hear from India, Vietnam, Japan and South Africa. And first from the US. We're a small independent company that's been in business in Michigan, USA for 67 years. A lot of our parts that come in, they're made of steel. So we've already been hit with the steel tariffs. But I think what was frightening today is that some of our components

that come in, come in through Taiwan, and now there's a 32% tariff on Taiwan. So in effect, when you couple the 32% with that 25% steel tariff, we could very well be looking at 57% tariff. 90% of our business is imported coming from Latam countries. So most of the countries that we operate are going to be a 10% tariff. Food is already retailing at a ridiculously high price and big box stores such as Costco, Walmart, I don't know how much more they can pass on these tariffs to the consumer. So in the end, it's going to come off our bottom line. I understand what President Trump is trying to do. He's trying to bring back agricultural

food production, which has been very important. I think around the world, people have seen since COVID, how we are so interconnected as a global economy. More than 60% of business comes from the US alone. So this is a big setback. Already there were a lot of challenges in terms of pricing. Our customers were finding it difficult to sell at large scale. So reducing price is an option, but we will have to shrink our margins also. This is very labor-intensive business, textile and garment making. Something has to be done so that sectors like us

should be incentivized to remain competitive. Many people in Vietnam were so optimistic about the prospect that Trump will be lenient towards Vietnam because the Vietnamese government has done so much to appease Trump and his administration. The thing is, so many US companies have set up their factories in Vietnam to produce exactly for the US market. So that is going to add on to their prices as well.

Most of these order companies are more or less global. So the supply chain is going to be disrupted, but I am confident that the manufacturers in Japan are pretty innovative. So that may become a very good opportunity for the Japanese companies to get innovative in a rather interesting way. In South Africa, there's significantly higher imports of automotive components from the

US versus the number going into the US in terms of exports. So the sector we're really concerned in our priority is to look to try and find a mutually beneficial way of maintaining the US as the key trade partner for the South African economy. By one estimate, more than one and a half trillion dollars was wiped off the value of shares on Wall Street at the start of Thursday's trading. Shares in tech firms were the worst hit. Apple's value dropped by more than 250 billion dollars. The dollar also fell and there's been a slide in oil prices.

Investors fear the tariffs will hit growth and drive up inflation worldwide. Despite all this, President Trump remained buoyant. I heard more from our North America correspondent, David Willis. It was a fairly wide ranging conversation, Nick, on that flight to his Florida home and Donald Trump conceded that there was going to be what he called a transition period whilst some trading partners transferred their manufacturing operations to the United States. He stressed that for companies that chose to make their products here in the US there will be no tariffs of course and he said that he'd already spoken to two of the five major automobile makers and maintained that they had already

started moving aspects of their operations out of neighbors Canada and Mexico and into the US. Yet for all of his confidence, it's worth remembering that Donald Trump has long hailed the stock market as the barometer of this country's economic health and I think much as he may pretend otherwise he won't be pleased to see the sort of sharp falls that we've seen today. As you mentioned both the NASDAQ and the S&P experienced their worst declines in about five years. Retailers, tech companies taking a particularly bad hit, both Apple and Amazon down more than 9%, companies like Dell and Ralph Lauren experiencing falls

of more than 15%. And David, in that clip we heard from Mr Trump, he referred to what's happening as an operation that's getting to work. To what extent do Americans like the idea of being operated on? Well, I think like people in many other parts of the world, Nick, American consumers are holding their breath, if I can put it that way, they are waiting to see what all this means in terms of the price of goods in the shops. The stock market, of course, is not the the economy but the reaction that we've seen today is nonetheless an early, somewhat say visceral demonstration of the sort of widespread and growing concern that exists here over rising prices, the prospect of rising prices, the prospect of raising prices, the prospect of slowing growth and of

course the prospect of recession as one analyst here put it. Traders are shooting first Nick and asking questions later. And no sign of any kind of dissent within the Trump administration, far from it at the moment? Far from it although I think the closest we've come to that is perhaps some Republicans who voted in favor of a Democrat-led measure in the Senate to prevent the tariffs being introduced on Canada, but that was the vote for Republican senators. It's a small protest, but it does can underline the fact, I think, Nick, that there is concern at grassroots level to an extent at least over what these tariffs could mean for industries

here in the US such as farming. David Willis in Los Angeles. The World Trade Organisation has revised its forecast for global economic growth sharply downwards in the light of the new US tariffs. In contrast to its previous forecast of 3% growth for the world economy this year, the urgency now expects a contraction of 1%. Jonathan Josephs reports. The drastic scale of this reduction underlines that these US tariffs pose the biggest challenge to the global trading system since the World Trade Organisation began drawing up and enforcing the rules 30 years ago. The Director General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says the tariffs will have substantial implications

for global trade and economic growth prospects. She added she was deeply concerned about escalation and retaliatory measures, which have already started making things even worse. Jonathan Josephs. Well, many people around the world see Donald Trump's tariffs as the moment the post-war system of global trade was turned on its head. So are they right? Our business correspondent, Mark Ashdown, gave me his assessment. Look, in terms of trade tariffs, we haven't seen anything like this since probably the 1930s. An escalating scale of universal tariffs, anything from 10% for the ones that got off

most likely up to 50% or so. And this all depends on what Donald Trump sees as the level of trade deficit. In his words, how much America has been ripped off over the years. He wants to level that playing field. I think the feeling now, the hope among some countries is Donald Trump has had his big showman moment. He wanted that moment with the big ledger in the Rose Garden. So now the work begins behind the scenes to kind of mitigate the situation to improve those trade terms really for as many countries as possible. Now some people, the doom and gloom mongers, are saying it could lead to a global recession. It's far too early to predict that. But at what point does a run on the

stock market that we've been seeing become pretty unsustainable and really worrying? Well, I think, yeah, a day of volatility to put it lightly. It started out in the Far East, spread across to Europe, and then from the opening bell really in America, all the major indices were down. The Nasdaq, very tech heavy that one, down 5.5% at one point. Now, I believe 10% is what they call a correction, 20% a bear market. We don't really talk about crashes and there is that mantra, isn't it? Shut your eyes, over time the stock market will recover. So I think on days like this, the likes of Apple, Amazon, Dell, HP, Nike, Tesla, who saw billions wiped off their values. I think investors,

individual and pension funds will just sort of grit their teeth and hope for the best. In terms of this was a wider global recession though, I mean Donald Trump is convinced this short-term pain is going to lead to long-term gain. He said today on his socials that the patient has survived, it will get stronger. So I think his feeling is this has been a successful day. Of course, we do await the retaliation now from the likes of the EU, the likes of China. They've promised strong responses to this. In the UK, they've talked about a calm and considered approach, but even here they've published this afternoon this 417-page list of US goods. Potentially they could put tariffs on, so strengthening of their position there. But as I say, they are going to try and hope

they can come up with a deal. Mark Ashdown. The Southern African nation of Lesotho says it will send a government delegation to the United States to plead its case after Washington imposed 50% tariffs on its imports. Thousands of people in Lesotho are employed making clothes for the US market under a tax-free initiative set up more than two decades ago. Our Africa regional editor Will Ross reports. The owner of a clothing factory in the capital of Lesotho, Merseru, said waking up to news of the 50% tariff had been devastating for the country but said he'd look for markets

in Africa and Europe. Across Africa, tens of thousands of workers produce clothing for the US under a tax-free initiative known as AGOA. It was partly set up to help countries trade their way out of poverty. Now Lesotho's government is warning of job losses. Botswana faces a 38% tariff on its exports because Donald Trump wants to get rid of a trade deficit. But that won't be easy. Botswana has diamonds. Well Ross, there's more concern in Asia as well to these tariffs. Bangladesh was number 16 on President Trump's tariff list, which was shown to the invited guests on the White House lawn. The South Asian country now has a 37% tax levied on its imports into the US. Bangladesh's

economy has grown in recent years and it's scheduled at the end of next year to graduate from the UN's Group of Least Developed Countries, or LDC, status. But it's still vulnerable, as Tim Franks has been hearing from Salim Rehan, Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka. This has created a lot of tension among the business community as well as among the policymakers. And it's not only about that the tariff is not only imposed on Bangladesh, but also quite a lot of countries with which Bangladesh compete in the US market. The problem is Bangladeshi exporters, they face a lot of challenges at home because of the business environment or there is a high cost of doing business and various

other challenges is there for the exporters. Now this additional pressure coming from US, especially with respect to this reciprocal tariff, that has created a lot of tensions and a lot of wariness, I can tell you. How much does Bangladesh export to the United States? I mean, how important a market is it? As a single destination, country destination, US is the largest export destination for Bangladesh's exports.

It's around between 15 to 20 percent of total export goes to the US. And of course, a large chunk of it is the legitimate governments. And also, I must tell you that Bangladesh is expected to graduate from the LDC status next year. That is another challenge the country is going to face, where after the graduation, Bangladesh will not be able to enjoy many trade preferences the country enjoys at this moment. So all these things are actually now made the whole situation very complicated.

Well, it certainly is complex and there certainly is uncertainty. And as you mentioned, Bangladesh has actually been doing rather well economically. Hence, it's the possibility that it will, it will, as you say, graduate from LDC status, least developed country status. You did mention at the start of the interview that there will be tariffs imposed on a lot of essentially your competitor countries. A lot of other Asian countries will have tariffs, some of which are considerably higher even than yours. So actually in terms of a competitive disadvantage you may not be in that sense in too bad a position. We'll have to wait and see to what extent

this new scenario translate into as as you say, that's comparative disadvantage for some countries or less comparative disadvantage for some countries over others. And this will be a very tough situation, I can tell you. These countries will try to absorb this shock. And the countries which are better prepared with respect to they have better infrastructure, better competitiveness in terms of supporting trading institutions and low cost of doing business. And also more importantly, having more diversified export basket, they will be in a better position, I think compared to Bangladesh, which has a very concentrated export basket, low level

of competitiveness. You also know that Bangladesh just a a few months back, had a very significant political transition. It's not only the US's action which is important because there will be counter actions and already there are some counter actions from many countries. That means the global trading regime is getting into a very uncertain territory. If the overall demand gets reduced in the US market, all countries will suffer and Bangladesh with the kind of problems and challenges the country is going through, they will suffer or likely to suffer more than other countries.

Salim Rehan, economics professor at the University of Dhaka. Still to come. Where there are clusters of Somalis in the West, that there is higher preference of autism in the Somali community. Against these findings, the condition itself is said not to be recognised in Somali culture. Good Bad Billionaire is back. Yes, the podcast uncovering the lives and livelihoods of some of the world's richest people is back for a new season.

I'm Simon Jack. And I'm Zing Zing. Join us each week for a closer look at the lives of some of the world's billionaires. From Minecraft creator Marcus Person to basketball star LeBron James. Zing and I have more intriguing billionaires lined up for a new season. Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence agency says an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering

displaced people east of Gaza City has killed at least 31 people, some of them children. Israel says it had targeted a Hamas command and control center. More details from Dan Johnson in Jerusalem. A statement from Israel Defense Forces says it targeted a site being used by Hamas militants to launch attacks on its soldiers but Gaza's civil defense agency says a school sheltering displaced Palestinians was hit in Tufa, north-east of Gaza City. Video from a nearby hospital shows children being rushed in in cars and trucks with very serious injuries. More than 100 people are reported wounded and the number of dead keeps increasing. The Hamas-run health

ministry in Gaza says more than 100 people have been killed in the last 24 hours after Israel expanded its military operation in the north of the territory. Dan Johnson, Myanmar's military leader is attending a regional summit in Bangkok after the number of people known to have died in last week's earthquake passed 3,000. Critics say he should have stayed at home to help oversee relief efforts. Nick Beak reports. The head of the junta, Senior General Min Aung Lai, flew to Bangkok for a regional economic summit. He's been largely ostracised from the global stage, relying on support from Russia and China. So his presence today marks a rehabilitation of sorts. But the dire domestic reality to which he'll return will

shape his immediate fate. There's now a short-term ceasefire in Myanmar, but the Burmese people often see their fortunes as divine judgment on the deeds of their leaders. Rising anger, despair and disease would represent a new and dangerous threat to the hunter. Myanmar's military hasn't allowed foreign journalists into the country since the earthquake, but our correspondent, Yogita Limai, managed to cross the border from Thailand and made her way to Mandalay,

the country's second largest city. This is the second of her reports. Kanya! Kanya! Kanya! Kuro! Kanya! We've just stopped by the side of the street where we saw that a funeral ceremony was actually just going on by the side of the street and we found out that this is a funeral for a couple, Oong Khang and Dao Ma Marte. They were a couple in their 60s and actually just behind the ceremony is their house which is completely destroyed. I'm looking at it right now and just a pile of rubble and bricks, pipes, steel rods,

the grills of the windows. I can see clothes, towels, what looks like a drying rack. Their bodies were found arms around each other. They were pulled out of the rubble not by trained rescuers, but by locals using basic equipment. There simply aren't enough rescue teams operating on the ground. And we saw more signs of how overwhelmed facilities are at Mandalay's main hospital that we managed to slip into. What we're seeing here is hospitals that are stretched past capacity and they can't even go inside because the building is damaged and so people are just being treated here

outside. As the rescue work continues and access to the epicentre of the earthquake in Sagayin is reached, more people are expected to be brought here. Everything is needed here. Blood, medicines, food. We saw rows and rows of beds full of the injured lying under a makeshift tent in the compound of the hospital. 14-year-old Shwegi Tung-Fu has bloodshot eyes caused by an injury to her head. She's responsive but in a serious condition. Her family by her side. In another bed, Zaza says she has an abdominal injury. Her daughter props her

up. Everywhere we see families who are stepping in to do what trained medical staff should. There aren't enough doctors and nurses. I'm at a sprawling ground in the city where there's lots and lots of different tents and umbrellas put up where I can see families just camping outside. Some of them because their homes are damaged and they can't return to them. And just now I can see an aid truck has come in and people are queuing up to get some food supplies, some water. It just looks like a private vehicle really, someone in the city who's brought their car along and bought some supplies to distribute among the people who are here. Lots of children, families, but some very heartbreaking stories as well.

We meet Daokinsaw Mint, who breaks down as she tells us she's lost her home. I don't know anything anymore. My heart is still trembling. It's really difficult. My house collapsed. It's gone. There is no one to rescue us. Please help us. Even those whose homes are intact don't dare go inside. There have been multiple aftershocks in the days following the earthquake.

This is a city living outdoors, a city living in terror. That report by Yogita Limay in Mandalay. It is autism acceptance week around the world. Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how people communicate and interact and how a person's brain develops and functions from infancy through adulthood. It's a condition that is misunderstood. A new report from the UK has found that Somali children in Britain are six times more likely to be referred for autism than children from any other background. The condition itself is said not to be recognised in the Somali culture. There isn't even a name for it in the Somali language.

So parents of these children with the condition have not been able to get the help they need, both in the UK and in Somalia, because they fear judgement from the community. So they struggle on in silence. But things are starting to change. In 2020, a Somali autism advocate introduced a new word, mungar, meaning unique mind, to describe autism in Somali. And in Mogadishuu the Mustakbal centre is helping such children find a place in society. Audrey Brown spoke to Noora Abe, the founder of Autism Independence here in the UK. How would she define autism?

People with autism then struggle to communicate in situations, although communication can be a different level in the way it impacts them. They can struggle to socialise and interact with people. They often see the world from their own lenses. So for example, they might not express their feelings. They may not articulate themselves if in trying to understand situations or respond to people in questions. The reason why we are talking about this is because in the UK a study has found that Somali

children diagnosed with autism six times more likely than other children. Is there an explanation for why this is the case? So I am one of the researchers who've done some research with Bristol University looking at autism in the Somali community and a lot of the research that we have references have seen where there are clusters of Somalis in the West that there is a higher preference of autism in the Somali community. So why is this? It is yet unknown, but we know from the current research that there is a lack of early diagnosis, there's a lack of understanding, and one of the key things is there's no word for autism in the

Somali language. I'm wondering if that's the case in other African languages as well. It would be interesting to find out. But is there scientific evidence that supports the findings in the UK? You also did say that in Somali communities in the West, there seems to be a higher prevalence of autism diagnosis. The early studies that were carried in Sweden was the studies that highlighted that something is not added up. These studies were later than followed in America and these studies show in the USA that there is higher preference of autism where there has been clusters of Somalis. For example,

in Minnesota there's higher population of the Somali community and those have shown, where the study carried out, high preference of autism. We are seeing in where we are for Bristol, we've seen higher numbers of Somali children with autism within the system, although there hasn't been a particular specific studies that has looked at the numbers in the UK. But yeah, these studies started in Sweden, followed in America, all have shown clusters of Somali people in the West have got higher preference of autism. So there are concrete studies, scientific studies, they're supporting this data. What about in Somalia? There are high incidents of autism and diagnosis of autism.

My understanding of Somalia, I haven't seen any scientific research that showed the numbers, or I don't believe there's the infrastructure in place to show these data. But I think to my understanding from you know conversations and observations there's an emerging numbers of Somali children with autism. Within Somalia often what we're seeing is that autism is perceived as a mental illness and that comes with high level of stigma and segregation. Actually, Hani Ali Mohammed is a parent in Mogadishu actually bumped up against those attitudes in Somalia.

So when her son was diagnosed with autism, she had never heard the word before, and now she encourages other parents to educate themselves about their child's condition. So let's listen to her. There's been a huge difference in my son since day one. He felt like he was gone, but now he's truly alive again. I taught myself to love my son, be proud of him and not hide him from the world.

Hani Ali, Muh Ali Mohammed De. Noora, do you think it's because people don't understand what's going on that there's stigma attached to it? Well, absolutely. There is no educational system. There's no health system that supports the awareness of autism. There's often no hope for the young person to access the right support and therefore, very sadly, they are often either locked up or removed from society. Nura Abe, the founder of Autism Independence in the UK. Even if you've never played a video game before in your life, you've probably heard of Super

Mario and Donkey Kong, two of the hugely popular characters created by the Japanese gaming company Nintendo. Well, Nintendo is also a giant in the video console world. Seven years ago it launched the Nintendo Switch. It has sold more than 150 million consoles since then. Now it's come up with an upgrade, the Switch 2. These gamers in New York had the chance to try it out. It's a big step up from the original Switch. The graphics are quite impressive comparatively

I think. It's a kind of bigger I think and I think it's like a good demonstration of what the Switch 2 is capable of. This is absolutely a transformation. I don't think people were really expecting 4K for a start. The screen 1080p, like this is really big upgrades that people weren't necessarily expecting going into it. And yeah, Nintendo very clearly upping its game. But the Nintendo Switch 2 is being launched at a rather inauspicious time, with hefty American tariffs being put on Japanese imports. I asked our technology reporter Tom Gerken whether that's taken the shine off the launch.

I was just at a big event in Paris with lots of other journalists, lots of other big gaming fans to talk about this console and in amongst the chat of everyone holding these consoles and playing it for the first time and feeling really excited, there were a lot of conversations and I think even bordering on doom and gloom, from people talking about the prices as they were announced. This is a very expensive console in the current climate. In the United States, it's going to cost $450 for a Switch 2. Now to put that in some context for you, you can buy a PlayStation 5 for $400,

and then you get down to the cost of the games. Nintendo is suggesting people pay as much as $80 for a physical copy of Mario Kart World. Now $80 for a video game, even if you're not a keen gamer yourself, but your child might be perhaps. Are you thinking you would spend that to put a present under a Christmas tree? It just seems like a lot of money to me and it's definitely going to dampen spirits. Clearly, this is a result of the tariffs. That's why these prices have come out just now and at the price point they are.

We know for a fact that the tariffs on Japan, where these games are manufactured, are going to be quite significant. So that's having an impact here, but my goodness gracious me, there's no question that the shine and the excitement of this console is being impacted. And Tom, how price sensitive is the market for these games? Will many people say, look, I'll suck it up because it's a must have item? Nintendo has experienced this in the past when it released the 3DS, which was the sequel console to the DS.

Nintendo released the 3DS at a very high price point and it found out very quickly that people weren't willing to pay it. Nintendo simply had to bite the bullet, drop the price significantly and even apologise to consumers and offer them free games by way of making it up. Do you think though the general trajectory of the industry is upwards? Video games market $200 billion around the world at the moment. Is it going to go up do you think? Yes, as time goes on video games get more expensive and we keep seeing year on year that number just getting pushed a little bit more. How high can we go? I think that there is definitely a price point where people are going to say actually that's just too much money for me and of course you would rather sell two games at $60 than one game at $80.

So Tom, what is special about this new Switch 2 that may mean it is a big seller despite the inauspicious timing. There is absolutely no question that this is a heck of a piece of technology. When I was there holding it in my hands, the first thing I thought was, wow, it's like the original console, but the screen is larger, the screen is much more vivid, the colours are more vibrant, the graphics, what it's capable of under the hood is far superior to what previous Nintendo consoles have been able to manage. It feels comfortable. It feels like an expensive piece of technology, which it is. Tom Gerken. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global

News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on x at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Nick Randall, the producer was Liam Sheffield. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye. Hello, it's Claudia here on this week's Slow Newscast from Tortoise. For every person of colour, for every LGBTQ person in this country, they ought to be very, very afraid. The Trump administration seems to have it in for diversity, equity and

inclusion. So what, or rather who, is behind it all? He's the architect, quote unquote, purifying our national DNA. It's beyond absurd. To listen, just search for the Slow Newscast.