Reuters World News - Biden’s China EV tariffs, Blinken in Ukraine and secret US-Taiwan drills

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

President Joe Biden hikes tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Ukraine to reassure Kyiv of American support. Reuters exclusively reports that the US and Taiwan quietly held joint military drills in the Pacific. And a January 6th Capitol officer and a rioter are both on ballots in US congressional primaries.   Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Biden increases taxes on Chinese imports, including electric vehicles. How the US and Taiwan held under the radar drills in the Pacific. And primary season in the US finds two candidates from opposing sides of a January 6 capital attack running. It's Tuesday, May 14th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every week. weekday. I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. U.S. President Joe Biden is sharply increasing tariffs on imports from China, including electric vehicles. There are also higher tariffs on semiconductors and solar equipment, as well as medical supplies like syringes and personal protective equipment. The tariff rate

on EVs will increase from 25% to 100%. Trevor Honeycutt covers the White House for us. The reason why the president is doing this is because he's trying to protect critical industries for the United States. These are industries where the president thinks that China basically has too much control over the supply chain. And when there's an emergency like COVID-19 or when there is a national emergency, basically the United States is flat-footed because they don't make these things anymore. And it's also about jobs. These are industries where Biden thinks they're going to be the future, like electric vehicles. And he wants those jobs to be created in the United States with U.S. consumer dollars staying here rather than going overseas. You know, and then the last factor is that this is an election year. And being hawkish on China, defending U.S. jobs, is seen as a winning campaign message. And it competes with his report. Republican opponent, Donald Trump, who has proposed across the board tariffs to protect U.S. interests.

But Chinese EVs are not dominating the market yet, though, are they? Chinese electric vehicles, you don't really see them on the streets of the United States all that much, but the United States is worried about the potential that they will be extremely competitive in the future. And they're trying to kind of tilt the playing field, right, tilt the scales a little bit in in favor of U.S. car makers. And so that's what we're seeing across industries, but certainly here in the electric vehicle space. And the EV market has been relatively slow to take off. But Biden is hoping that with measures like this, in addition to active investment from the federal government,

that he can really jumpstart and catalyze a new industry in the United States. From U.S. concerns about China's economic threat to concerns about its military ambitions, Reuters has learned that the U.S. and Taiwan quietly held joint drills in the Pacific in April. The two navies boost cooperation in the face of rising Chinese military threats. That's according to exclusive reporting by Reuters. Officially, they did not take place. But four people briefed on the drills confirmed to Reuters that they happened. China's defense ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jerry Doyle in Singapore was the editor on the story. So Jerry, these drills are not new. What's different this time around? Well, it's not necessarily that anything's different about the activity. As the story notes, the U.S. and Taiwan navies have done this sort of thing before. what different this time around is that the tension between China and Taiwan and the United States and other countries in the region are higher than they have been probably in many years. And with the Taiwan presidential inauguration coming up, the timing is just slightly more fraught than it might be at other times.

What does this show us about the current state of China and U.S.-Taiwan relations? Our reporting has showed that Washington and Taipei had been in. expanding their military cooperation in recent years, even as China has begun sort of prodding and poking more into Taiwanese sort of areas, sort of parts of the Taiwan Strait that they hadn't previously gone to before Taiwan's air defense identification zones, even sending balloons directly through Taiwanese airspace. And so it's not necessarily that it's signaling anything new different about where things stand in the region, but things in the region are certainly more tense than they haven't been in the past. And how can they have happened and not happened?

Well, as one of our sources explained to us, it's sort of as though you went into a restaurant and you saw somebody new. And because you know them, you sit down with them. And as you're sitting down with them, you chat with them. The same sort of principle with these nannies at sea, They, our sources say that they sort of arranged this so that the ships happen to be in the same place at the same time. And since they're there, they might as well carry out some exercises. Good morning, state secretary. Nice to meet you again. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arriving in Kiev,

where he's told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a new U.S. weapons package has already started arriving in Ukraine, with more supplies on the way. It's the first visit to Ukraine by a senior U.S. official, since Congress passed a long-delayed $60 billion military aid package. Blinken said it would make a real difference. Zelensky welcomed the supplies, but stressed that the country's biggest deficit is air defense, and that those weapons are needed to defend Ukraine's second biggest city, Kharkiv, from increased Russian air strikes.

In Moscow, meanwhile, the Kremlin has confirmed President Vladimir Putin will travel to China this week. The torts with President Xi will be his first overseas trip since his inauguration for another term. Israeli protesters blocking aid trucks heading for Gaza. They throw boxes of supplies off a truck across the side of a road with some stamping on the packages. Four protesters, including a miner, were arrested at the Tarkumia checkpoint. In hours of dramatic testimony, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former Fixer has described multiple episodes in which Trump signed off on payments aimed at burying sex scandal stories while he campaigned for president.

Cohen said Trump personally approved a hush money payment to Porn Star Stormy Daniels. Jorers also heard a recording of the former president, where he talked about making the payment to Daniels in cash, which Cohen rejected. Trump has pleaded not guilty. Shares of GameStop surged more than second. 70% on Monday after Roaring Kitty returned to X. Don't know what any of that means? Well, that's why we ask our journalists to help explain things.

Mida Singh covers US stocks. So, Mida, we all recall when shares of the video game retailer went bonkers in 2021, because they've become a so-called meme stock. Why did shares explode on Monday all of a sudden? Well, on Monday morning, GameStop, which was at the heart of meme stock, Fancy three years ago, searched after Roaring Kitty, which is the online person of GameStop, Super Bowl, Keith Gill, posted on X for the first time in three years. His posts on Reddit and videos on YouTube were key in triggering a rally in GameStop back in 2021, which later spread to others' shares and became this meme stock phenomenon. His post on Sunday, which was just of a man with what looks like a gaming console in his hands, leaning forward.

and probably looks like he's getting serious. It's a bit mysterious because he did not have any caption. It doesn't mention any company names. But the retail investor crowd and many of his fans are interpreting that as a sign that he might be getting back in action. So this seems to have gotten the retail trade is very excited. Now, here's a useful illustration for America's divided politics. There are two primaries happening today that candidates who found themselves

quite literally on opposing sides of an issue. Harry Dunn is running as a Democrat in Maryland. Dunn is a former capital police officer who defended lawmakers during the January 6th assault. For that, he was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Joe Biden. But over in West Virginia, Derek Evans is running as a Republican. And Evans served time in prison

for joining the mob on January 6th. It's a very scary time in our country, and a lot of people are afraid right now. Dunn spoke to Reuters in January and said he was thrust into politics on that day, which he says stoked his concern for the fate of America's democracy. Donald Trump, to this day, has said he did nothing wrong. And if somebody thinks they did nothing wrong, then what's to stop them from doing it again? As for Evans, who served three months in prison after pleading guilty to a felony charge, he presents the riot as a bad.

of courage. And the leader of his party would agree, as Donald Trump has said he's considering pardoning the rioters. That's it for Tuesday. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show. And to never miss an episode, subscribe on your favourite podcast player or download the Reuters app.