The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/04/08 at 11:00 EDT

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/04/08 at 11:00 EDT

It's on. A federal election is here and party leaders are racing around Canada to convince you to give them your vote. We're seeing a lot of spin, a lot of promises and a lot of accusations swirling around. And we are here to filter through the noise. I'm Catherine Cullen, host of The House. And every Saturday we want to slow you down and make sure you're getting the big picture and deep context and everything you need to make politics make sense. Because democracy is a conversation and we're here for it. From CBC News, it's the World This Hour.

I'm Joe Cummings. After consecutive days of heavy losses, the North American stock markets are back in positive territory today. In early trading, the S&P-TSX composite is up sharply and so too is the Dow Jones. Analysts say investors appear to be responding to the news that the White House may be willing to open tariff discussions with, among others, South Korea and Japan. But at this point, it doesn't appear any of those talks will include China. And Beijing is blaming the White House.

Yenna Li has more. A spokesperson from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is accusing the U.S. of being unwilling to sit down and talk. If the U.S. insists on waging the tariffs war and trade war, regardless of the interests of both countries and the international community, China will play along to the end. Until now, Beijing has actually given a measured response. Trump announced a 10% tariff in February, then another 10% in March, and each time China announced targeted retaliatory measures, showing its willingness to negotiate

and its capability to react. Now Trump is threatening an additional 50% tariff. The tone has escalated. In Chinese financial markets, both mainland and in Hong Kong have yet to recover after a catastrophic trading day on Monday. Yesterday, the Hang Seng saw its biggest one-day drop since 1997. Yenilee for CBC News, Beijing. Canada's fashion industry is among the many economic sectors across the country making

plans to deal with the Trump tariff action. Canadian brands may not be facing direct tariffs, but they could still end up paying the price. Paula DeHatchuk reports. The U.S. market's amazing. It's huge. Emma May owns the Calgary women's wear brand Sophie Grace, and all her clothes are made in China. The White House is slapping steep new tariffs on major garment making hubs, a previous exception allowing small orders from China to the US without tariffs will soon be gone. What people have to understand is that making clothing in India and China, it's not just because labour is cheap.

There's an expertise there that does not exist here. Jeremy Oldland co-owns the Montreal kids clothing brand Hatley. We're going to sell less product. It's going to hurt any way you do it. Bob Kirk is executive director of the Canadian Apparel Federation. He says some big name companies had been shifting production out of China to try and get ahead of tariffs, but now the U.S. is also going after smaller manufacturing hubs like Vietnam. You're very much damned if you do, damned if you don't. As for Emma May, she's still trying to grow her business, but for now focusing on customers

north of the border. Paula Duhaczek, CBC News, Calgary. On the election campaign schedule today, Conservative leader Pierre Poliev is getting started in Edmonton. Liberal leader Mark Carney is in Delta, B.C. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is also in the West. He's in Vancouver. Bloc leader Yves-Francois Blanchet is in Ottawa and Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May is in Guelph, Ontario. The Iranian foreign minister is confirming today that Iran will hold senior-level talks this weekend with the United States. The talks come as the Trump administration looks to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear

weapons program. Krister Gomancing has more. I think if the talks aren't successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger. U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran can't have nuclear weapons, and a deal is preferable, but not the only option on the table. It was Trump in 2018 who pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA. The Obama-era accord restricted Iran's civilian nuclear enrichment program, providing some assurances it could not pose an enhanced threat to regional partners, including Israel.

There is deep mistrust on both sides. Overnight, Abbas Arachi, Iran's foreign minister, posted on social media that Saturday's talks would be an opportunity for the U.S. as well as a test. He is expected to be involved in the talks this weekend with U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. Crystal Gamansing, CBC News, London. And that is A World This Hour. I'm Joe Cummings.