The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/04/03 at 12:00 EDT

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/04/03 at 12:00 EDT

Scott Payne spent nearly two decades working undercover as a biker, a neo-Nazi, a drug dealer, and a killer. But his last big mission at the FBI was the wildest of all. I have never had to burn baubles. I have never had to burn an American flag. And I damn sure was never with a group of people that stole a goat, sacrificed it in a pagan ritual, and drank its blood. And I did all that in about three days with these guys. Listen to Agent Palehorse, the second season of White Hot Hate, available now. From CBC News, it's the World This Hour. I'm Joe Cummings.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is issuing Canada's response this hour to the tariffs implemented by U.S. President Donald Trump. Today I'm announcing that the Government of Canada will be responding by matching the U.S. approach, by matching the U.S. approach with 25 percent tariffs on all vehicles imported from the United States that are not compliant with KUSMA, our North American free trade agreement. And Carney says the tariffs Canada issued earlier in response to the American trade action against Canadian steel and aluminum will stay in effect.

Carney's announcement comes after he met this morning with the premiers. It's now the second straight day. Carney has been away from his campaign schedule, but tonight, along with the other leaders, he'll be sitting for a French language interview on Radio Canada. Meanwhile, out on the campaign trail today, New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh is promising that an NDP government would sell victory bonds as part of its trade war effort against the United States. A victory bond would be a guaranteed investment where you would purchase a bond, a five-year

or ten-year, and if you hold it to maturity, you would get all the revenue tax-free. So it's a way to raise money to be able to build the roads, the bridges, the infrastructure we need. As for Conservative leader Pierre Polyev, he is in Kingston, Ontario today with a promise to help boost Canadian auto sales. I'm announcing today that a new Conservative government will eliminate the federal sales tax on Canadian-made automobiles. Everyone who's looking to buy Canadian, to support Canadian workers, will be able to save money as a result of this announcement.

That promise from Poliev comes after previously announced U.S. tariffs on Canadian, on the Canadian auto sector went into effect at midnight and the fallout was immediate. Stellantis says it is pausing production at its Windsor, Ontario assembly plant for two weeks. And Flavio Volpe, the head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association, says there will be more closures to come on both sides of the border. At some point on a publicly traded company, if you're booking losses that are in the millions at every assembly plant, and that's what we're talking about, $3, $4, $5, $8 million a day

per production plant, you have a fiduciary obligation to your shareholders not to burn their money. Stalantis has also announced today that it is temporarily laying off 900 workers at five of its production facilities in the United States. And of course, all of this economic turmoil has the North American markets in freefall today. John Northcott has the details. North American markets lower, much lower. Toronto opening 3% Dow. Dow Jones Industrial Average down almost 1200 points.

Companies that manufacture many of the products in countries hit hard by the tariffs, paying the price on the trading floor. Shopify down some 15%. Amazon down 6%. Big tech, oil, all falling. And even if in some cases those industries under the Canada-US trade deal might not be hit as hard as others, everyone is wondering how to cope. Goldie Heider is the president of the Business Council of Canada.

We do look at that and worry about workers, worry about the jobs, worry about the economic slowdown, worry about having a situation where you're adding to your deficit at a time in which you're not having a lot of growth. The numbers matter on any given trading day for sure, but it is the uncertainty that really has traders and governments very worried about what the future in a Donald Trump tariff world will look like. John Northcott, CBC News, Toronto. British officials have opened an investigation today into an African charity co-founded by Prince Harry.

Senta Baila provides support for young people in Botswana, but the prince abruptly resigned last week, saying the relationship between the board and its chair was beyond repair. The chair has since accused Harry of orchestrating a bullying and harassment campaign to try to force her to step down. And that is the World This Hour. Remember, you can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts. The World This Hour is updated every hour, seven days a week. For CBC News, I'm Joe Cummings.