Up First from NPR - Trump's Tariff Talks, China's Tariff Response, SCOTUS Probationary Workers

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

President Trump's new tariffs went into effect just after midnight as U.S. trade partners seek negotiations. President Trump has raised the import tax on Chinese goods to a minimum of 104 percent. And, the U.S. Supreme Court has said the Trump administration is free to proceed with the firing of 16,000 probationary federal employees for now. Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Roberta Rampton, Robbie Griffiths, Anna Yukhananov, Jason Breslow, Lisa Thomson and Janaya Williams. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

New tariffs are now a reality and President Trump says trade partners are lining up to talk. We're doing very well in making, I call them tailored deals, not off the rack. These are tailored, highly tailored deals. Which countries want to negotiate? I'm Leila Fadl, that's Amy Martinez and this is Up First from NPR News. Now China is not willing to talk over the 104% tariffs on its goods. We will not tolerate any attempt to harm China's sovereignty, security and development interests.

How is China retaliating? And the Trump administration gets another partial victory from the US Supreme Court. The court has ruled the federal government can proceed with firing 16,000 probationary employees at least for now. Stay with us. As rule, the federal government can proceed with firing 16,000 probationary employees, at least for now. Stay with us, we've got all the news you need to start your day. This message comes from Wyse, the app for doing things in other currencies. Sending or spending money abroad?

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President Trump's sweeping new tariffs took effect shortly after midnight on nearly all U.S. trading partners. Now, those tariffs will mean U.S. businesses will pay extra to import products into the U.S. And for some of those major trading partners, that new tax is steep. From an added 20% on goods from the European Union to an extra 46% on goods from Vietnam. And they will likely mean higher prices for consumers. But Trump has opened the door to changes.

Here's what he said yesterday. And we're doing very well in making, I call them tailored deals, not off the rack. These are tailored, highly tailored deals. Right now, Japan is flying here to make a deal. South Korea is flying here to make a deal and others are flying here. Danielle, Kurt Slavin is NPR's White House correspondent. So Danielle, what is the White House saying about how long these tariffs will last? Well, the White House's messaging on this has been confusing. There were several days there where you'd have one administration official saying these

tariffs are non-negotiable, that they're going to stick around a while, and then you'd have another official saying Trump was open to negotiation. But yesterday, the White House seemed to have settled on the idea that, yes, these tariffs are negotiable. They've said that about 70 countries have reached out for some sort of talks. And yesterday, Press Secretary Caroline Levitt insisted that these tariffs have always been open to negotiation. The entire administration has always said that President Trump is willing to pick up the phone and talk. And the president met with his trade team this morning, and he directed them to have tailor-made trade deals with each and every country that calls up this administration

to strike a deal. And that's a narrative that fits with an image Trump really likes to project, which is that he's a master dealmaker. But he did say yesterday it's a long list of countries and it could take some time to get through. All right, so long list, which countries have reached out? Well, Trump has said he's spoken to leaders of multiple major trading partners, including Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam.

But one country that has not reached out, according to Trump, is China. Now, there's been some back and forth on retaliation with them, but as a result, the tariff on Chinese goods is now at least 104%. So that more than doubles the cost of a lot of consumer goods from them. And if China's retaliatory tariffs on US products stays in place, that could very much hurt some US businesses

like farmers who send a lot of crops there. Yeah, is Donald Trump getting any pushback from within his own party? Well, not only that, Trump getting any pushback from within his own party? Well, not only that, there's been pushback from within his own team. Elon Musk has openly opposed these tariffs. He's the head of Tesla and SpaceX. And yesterday on social media, he lashed out at top trade advisor Peter Navarro in several really insulting posts.

At one point, he called Navarro, quote, dumber than a sack of bricks. Now on Capitol Hill, things are much more polite, but Republican anger is starting to show. U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer faced the Senate Finance Committee in a hearing yesterday, and several Republicans really pressed him on the tariffs. They asked, for example, when and how the tariffs might go away. Now in addition, there have now been bipartisan bills introduced in both the House and the Senate seeking to restrict the

president's tariff authority. Those bills they're unlikely to pass but they do have a little Republican support and that represents some cracks in what's usually a very unified GOP. That's MPR's Danielle Kurtzleibend. Thanks a lot, Danielle. Thank you. Alright, so how is China reacting to those steep new tariffs? With me now to explain is MPR international correspondent John Ruech in Beijing. John, how is China reacting? So far with very strong words, here's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian speaking through an interpreter just a little while ago.

We will not let anyone take away the Chinese people's legitimate right to development. We will not tolerate any attempt to harm China's sovereignty, security, and development interests. We will continue to take resolute and strong measures to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests. So there's a widespread expectation that China is going to follow through and actually retaliate. And soon, we don't know when exactly, but the expectation is that they won't blink. The countermeasures, many say, will probably be similar to what we've seen in the past. You know, tariffs on US goods coming into China, restrictions on US businesses,

investigations into US companies, and possibly limits on exports to the US of things like rare earths. Now, some other countries are choosing not to retaliate, to maybe focus on negotiation instead and maybe offering concessions. So why is China taking this path? Yeah, China's, you know, casting this whole thing in pretty stark black and white terms. It's essentially right versus wrong. Beijing projects itself as a champion of free trade and fair trade and multilateralism. While it says the US is engaged in selfish and irresponsible protectionism, even blackmail.

Trump said yesterday, of course, that China wants to make a deal and he's waiting for them to call. The Chinese leadership has in fact flagged that it's willing to negotiate, but it won't do so under duress. You know, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the US needs to adopt an attitude of equality, mutual benefit and respect. I mean, ultimately, the leadership here believes that China can tough it out and that, in the long run, this trade war is probably going to be more damaging to the US than to China.

It's worth noting, of course, that China's not alone in taking this path of retaliation. The European Union is planning to put sanctions on a range of US goods, from steel to non-alcoholic beer. You said China thinks they can tough it out, but I mean, 104% tariffs, that's got to be painful. Yeah. I mean, there will be pain from the tariffs, but also from the retaliation. And that's sort of the point, according to Guo Shan, she is a partner at the

Beijing based research firm, Hutong Research. She says the tariffs are so high now that meaningful negotiations are impossible basically until one side or the other cries uncle in caves. It's a strategy escalate to de-escalate. Escalate to de-escalate. So she says Beijing has been preparing for this since the first trade war back in 2018. The economy of course has challenges, but the leadership is pretty confident.

You know, China's been doubling down on policies to boost its self-sufficiency and become more resilient to outside shocks policymakers feel like they got a lot of ammunition for economic stimulus if they need it the Currency is already actually being allowed to weaken a bit. The government's been propping up stock prices It's been buying gold and get this a go says that Chinese exports to the u.s Only amount to about 3% of GDP Which isn't exactly massive and that u.s Share of China's exports has been shrinking

as China's been expanding its trade and diplomatic relations with other countries. What other reactions have we seen outside of China? Well, Asian markets were mostly down today on top of big drops lately. As the tariffs kicked in, some countries in the region have been trying to sort of position their economies to cushion the blow.

India's central bank, for instance, cut benchmark interest rates today and signaled a more accommodative monetary policy. But officials haven't been saying much. You know, they're working quietly to get negotiations going so they can get those tariffs lowered or dropped. And so far, there's no word of breakthroughs. All right. That's NPR's John Rewich in Beijing. Thank you, John. You bet. President Trump has set out to drastically reshape the federal workforce, and yesterday

he got some help in the effort from the U.S. Supreme Court. In a brief unsigned order, the court said the administration is free to move forward with the firing of 16,000 probationary federal employees. But the decision wasn't a total victory for the administration, since, for now at least, the court made no ruling on whether the firings themselves were actually legal. NPR's Nina Totenberg has been following the case and joins us now to break it all down. Hi Nina. Hi Laila.

Okay, so let's jump in here. This is only the latest case in which the Supreme Court has taken a so-called emergency action at the behest of the Trump administration. And lately, they're winning more than they're losing, right? Yes. On Friday, the court allowed the Trump administration to cancel millions of dollars in education grants. Then two days ago, the court threw out a lower court action, temporarily barring the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members, though there was a caveat that required all the deportees to have a hearing before a federal judge on their individual deportation orders. And yesterday, the court threw out a lower court order that barred the administration

from firing 16,000 probationary employees. The court said that the plaintiffs in the case were not the employees themselves, but non-profit groups who failed to show that they themselves would be hurt by the firings. Okay, let's drill down on this latest one. What does probationary in this context mean? It means the fired employee has to be on the job for a year or less or in some cases more time that includes people who are serving in a job that they were promoted to for instance. Okay so the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to get rid of that lower

court order and it did so what happens now do these fired employees have any recourse left? Yes but it's gonna take time and therein lies the rub. The employees have to first challenge their firings at the Merit Systems Protection Board, which is the federal agency charged with protecting civil servants. And for the most part, the most efficient way to do that is systematically with a class action that says essentially, we are representing all of these similarly situated fired employees and we as a class should be reinstated. But in order to be certified as a class, they have to go before an administrative judge at the Merit Systems Protection Board.

And so far, there have been more than 10,000 cases filed since October, including 20 class action suits. And I would presume that when the dust settles, there will be lots more class actions. A lot of suits. Can the Merit System Protection Board actually act quickly? The MSPB system is meant to be fast, with cases finalized in 120 days, and the judge's decisions become final in 35 days, unless there's some intervening action by the Merit Systems Protection Board. Initially, any appeal would be taken by the MSPB board, but the agency didn't even have a quorum until two days ago, and the two board members there for the moment might well cancel each other's votes out. And in any event, the law allows a relatively quick appeal to the Court of Appeals for the

Federal Circuit. And in that setting, for sure, there will be thousands of employees who do have legal standing to sue and have been harmed. NPR's Nina Totenberg. Thank you, Nina. Thank you. And that's a first for Wednesday, April 9th. I'm Martínez.

And I'm Laila Faldon. For your next listen, consider this from NPR. We here at Up First give you the three big stories of the day. Our Consider This colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you in less than 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Roberta Ramden, Robbie Griffiths, Anna Yukhanov, Jason Breslow, Lisa Thompson, and Janaya Williams.

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