WSJ What’s News - Trump Floats Blanket Tariff Rate of 10% or 15% for 150 Countries

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

A.M. Edition for July 17. The dollar rises on President Trump’s latest tariff threat to notify as many as 150 nations about unilateral levies. Plus, Canadian convenience store giant Alimentation Couche-Tard abandons a $47 billion bid to buy Japanese 7-Eleven operator Seven & i. And WSJ’s Eliot Brown says some Trump administration officials are holding up a landmark deal that would allow the United Arab Emirates to buy billions of dollars in Nvidia’s cutting-edge artificial-intelligence chips over national-security concerns. Azhar Sukri hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Americans love using their credit cards, the most secure and hassle-free way to pay. But DC politicians want to change that with the Durbin Marshall credit card bill. This bill lets corporate megastores pick how your credit card is processed, allowing them to use untested payment networks that jeopardize your data security and rewards. Corporate megastores will make more money and you pay the price. Tell Congress to Guard your card because Americans lose when politicians choose. Learn more at guardyourcard.com. Investors warn that the independence of the Federal Reserve matters as the market reacts.

It's worried that a politicized Fed will not try its hardest to keep inflation down. That if power was fired and a new person wants to cut rates right away, that you'll reignite the kind of inflation that we saw in the aftermath of the pandemic. Plus, national security concerns hold up a landmark deal for the UAE to buy Nvidia's cutting edge chips. And President Trump tells Coca-Cola to put real sugar back in its American recipe. It's Thursday July 17th, I'm Azhar Sukri for the Wall Street Journal. Here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving

your world today. The dollar rebounded this morning after President Trump said he plans to write to as many as 150 nations, setting a blanket unilateral tariff rate which he said could be 10% or 15%. Trump made the comments to reporters at the White House and said in an interview later yesterday that the administration hasn't decided on the exact rate. Goods from most countries are currently subject to a 10% baseline tariff, while last week Trump floated the idea of blanket levies of 15% to 20%. The President has already sent roughly two dozen

letters to individual trading partners, including the European Union, Japan and South Korea, setting out tariff rates that will kick in on August 1st. individual trading partners, including the European Union, Japan and South Korea, setting out tariff rates that will kick in on August 1. Meanwhile, investors have sent a warning that the Federal Reserve's independence matters to Wall Street. Reports that President Trump was again pondering firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell drove longer-term Treasury yields higher. As we reported on our PM show, Trump did say it is quote, highly unlikely that he would remove the Fed chief unless there was fraud related to renovations at Fed properties. Trump wants interest rates lower, while the

Fed is reluctant to cut rates drastically while inflationary pressures persist. Journal Finance and Economics editor Alex Frangos explains what the gyrations in the bond markets say about the Fed's independence. It's worried that a politicized Fed will not try its hardest to keep inflation down. That if Powell is fired and a new person comes in who's handpicked by Trump and wants to cut rates right away that you'll reignite the kind of inflation that we saw in the aftermath of the pandemic. And, you know, investors say, well, they want to be compensated for that risk with higher yields on long-term bonds because they see that the central bank isn't

going to have control over inflation over the long term and that's a real concern. So what's the importance of a president trying to influence the Fed and how do you see the Trump Powell tussle playing out on the interest rate front? There's actually a long history of presidents not intervening in the Fed which goes back to the early 1980s late 1970s after a long period where there was a lot of intervention and a lot of inflation. And so you saw a lot of the big CEOs of banks this week coming out saying Fed independence is important because they remember the days when there wasn't Fed independence and there was a lot of inflation. And so it's unclear how it's going to play out. Trump from one hour to the next, we get these signals that he is going to fire Powell.

Then he came out yesterday saying he's not going to fire Powell. But either way, Powell's gone next year. So investors are coming to the realization that whether it happens now or whether it happens next year, there's going to be a change. And what do we know about the thinking of members of the Fed's rate setting committee ahead of their meeting later this month? There's a split among the Fed voting members. Some who say the tariff impact is yet to come through, we're starting to see it a little bit, we're going to see it more, therefore keep rates where they are moderately restrictive and kind of wait and see. There are a couple of

members of the Fed board appointed by Trump, Bowman and Waller, who have come out and said, nah, the tariff stuff is going to be temporary, we should be cutting rates now. We are exclusively reporting that some Trump administration officials are holding up a deal that would open the door for the United Arab Emirates to buy billions of dollars worth of Nvidia's cutting edge AI chips over national security concerns. Under the broad terms, the UAE would receive hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips, with most going to power data centers operated by U.S. tech companies. But journal reporter Elliot Brown says there is concern that China could get access to the advanced Nvidia chips.

In May, President Trump went to the Middle East and his administration had negotiated this really landmark package. And it was tied to the UAE investing well over a trillion dollars in the US. But what's happened since is the final details of the deal have been bogged down over sort of administration infighting, where basically the China hawks have been pushing back against this idea that the UAE's main company for AI, G42, which is run by a royal family member, that they don't want them to get some of the chips. And that was a pretty key component

of the deal. A spokesman for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said they are confident the deal with the UAE will continue on time and on schedule, while the UAE's ambassador to the US always expressed optimism, saying it would deliver enormous benefits to both countries. In Markets News, Nvidia shares were up in off-hours trading after one of its suppliers, the world's largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, delivered a record profit last quarter as demand held up despite tariff-related uncertainty. Shares in United Airlines fell in off-hours trading after the carrier said it would not

hit the rosy profit target it set at the start of the year. United did post better than expected adjusted quarterly earnings, with the airline saying it feels more confident in a travel rebound, anticipating less geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty in the second half of 2025. Canadian convenience store giant Alimentation Couchetard has abandoned its $47 billion bid to buy Japanese 7-11 operator Seven & I. It ends a years-long pursuit by the Canadian operator of Circle K Stores, which could have turned the company into a global convenience store powerhouse. In a joint letter to Seven & I's board, Couchetard's founder and chief executive said the Japanese

company's leadership hadn't cooperated in meetings and withheld information needed to close the deal. Semonai said a special committee for the deal consistently engaged constructively and in good faith to explore the deal. It added that while it was disappointed, it was not surprised by Kouchetard's decision. Coming up, how policymakers are rethinking tough banking regulations established after the 2008 financial crisis. That story and more after the break.

No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. The US and UK are rethinking bank regulation. After nearly two decades of strict rules following the 2008 financial crisis, policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic are looking at ways to cut financial red tape and boost growth. Earlier this week, Britain's Treasury Chief Rachel Reeves used an annual speech to bankers to say the government would roll back various post-crisis regulations and take other steps to encourage more risk-taking in the UK's key finance industry.

Joe Wallace covers banks for us from London. He says that while the era of extremely tight financial regulations might be coming to an end as memories of the crisis fade, many risks remain. The one thing that's been happening here in the UK is that four of the big domestic banks, they have been arguing that the government should abolish a really central part of post-financial crisis British regulation called the ring fence, which requires the bigger banks in the UK to separate off their retail banking operations, things like deposit taking and payment services from investment

banking, the kind of cliched casino. The idea being that when those two parts of the business co-mingle, because banks know that the government will rarely want to see a retail bank go under, there's an implicit understanding that the government would also step in to bail out an investment bank and that in turn could encourage Undue risk taking in the investment bank We are exclusively reporting that new details in the probe into last month's Air India crash are shifting the focus to the senior pilot in the cockpit a Black box recording of dialogue between the flights two pilots indicates

It was the captain who turned off switches that controlled fuel flowing to the plane's two pilots indicates it was the captain who turned off switches that controlled fuel flowing to the plane's two engines. That's according to people familiar with US officials' early assessment of evidence uncovered in the crash investigation. They added that the first officer who was flying the Boeing 787 Dreamliner asked the more experienced captain why he moved the switches to the cutoff position after it climbed off the runway. WSJ South Asia correspondent Shan Li says the first officer expressed surprise and then panicked while the captain seemed to remain calm. So this is an update from what we learned in the preliminary report that was released last week

because last week the report did say that the switches were turned off and they did have a brief summary of a dialogue between the two pilots but they gave no indication of which pilot was the one that actually asked the question and which one responded. So with these new findings that we've learned this week it gives just more clarity about what possibly went on in the cockpit in the seconds leading up to the crash. Because at this point, there's consensus that there wasn't a mechanical or any sort of design malfunction that led to the crash. A preliminary report from the probe by Indian authorities didn't answer whether turning off the switches may have been accidental or deliberate. An Air India representative said the airline continues to cooperate with the investigation.

And finally, while President Trump is known for loving his diet coke, he says he's pushing Coca-Cola to go back to using cane sugar in its original namesake soda. His health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has criticised Coke's use of sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup. US Coke bottlers switched the recipe in the 1980s in a cost-cutting effort. But Mexican-made Coke with sugar in a glass bottle has long been popular with Americans. A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said the company appreciated President Trump's enthusiasm for its brand, adding that the company will share more details about upcoming offerings soon.

And that's it for What's News for this Thursday morning. Today's show was produced by Kate Bullivant. Our supervising producer was Daniel Barg. I'm Azhar Sukri for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.