ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Global markets and political leaders from around the world today have been reacting to President Trump's sweeping tariffs with ire, dismay, threats of retaliation and confusion. In another part of the program, we'll look at how financial markets are responding. First, let's hear how the world is taking in Trump's assault on the global trading order and why the White House's list of targeted countries and territories is causing bewilderment. We'll start in Europe.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: I'm Rob Schmitz in Berlin. The 27 member states of the European Union export more goods to the United States than any other country in the world. So after President Trump announced his wide-ranging global tariffs, European leaders reacted with anger and with threats of retaliation. Italy's right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni called Trump's decision wrong. And in Germany, the economy minister Robert Habeck said the EU needs to put pressure on the Trump administration.
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ROBERT HABECK: (Non-English language spoken).
SCHMITZ: Habeck said, "to simply submit or resign ourselves to these tariffs with the kind of cowardice we saw with the Big Tech bosses at Trump's inauguration is not a path Europe will go down because it won't work," he said. "We should respond to this day of chaos with European determination." Big talk, but ING economist Carsten Brzeski says Europe may lack the firepower to hurt the U.S.
CARSTEN BRZESKI: But the problem for Europe is that Europe is more depending on trade with the U.S. than the other way around, so which puts Europe in a position of at least a weaker partner in any kind of negotiations.
SCHMITZ: Brzeski says Europe could opt for what he calls the nuclear option, though, and that would mean the EU going after U.S. companies that sell retail services in Europe, companies like Amazon or Apple that make tens of billions of dollars a year here. The EU is already poised to punish both Meta and Apple with hefty fines for violating the bloc's Digital Markets Act. And European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned this morning that more damage to U.S. companies might be on the way.
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URSULA VON DER LEYEN: (Non-English language spoken).
SCHMITZ: "Trump's universal tariffs for the entire world is a severe blow to the global economy," said von der Leyen this morning. "I deeply regret this decision, and we should be aware of the immense consequences. The global economy will suffer massively, and we are preparing countermeasures to protect our businesses if negotiations fail. The cost of doing business with the United States," she warned, "will now drastically increase."
JOHN RUWITCH, BYLINE: I'm John Ruwitch in Beijing. China is America's third-biggest source of imported goods after the EU and Mexico, and President Trump's new tariffs were met with anger here. The government urged the U.S. administration to withdraw them immediately and said they violate World Trade Organization rules.
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GUO JIAKUN: (Through interpreter) We firmly oppose this and will take firm measures to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests.
RUWITCH: That's foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun speaking through an interpreter. Trump hit China with a 34% tariff. That comes on top of 20% already imposed earlier this year and lingering tariffs from his first trade war. Professor Wu Xinbo of Fudan University in Shanghai says he expects strong retaliation from Beijing. And then, he says, China should wait to negotiate.
WU XINBO: If at some point, Trump finds this double-edge sword hurts the U.S. economy as well, then it may be willing, you know, to sit down to talk. By then, I think China will be in a better position to negotiate.
RUWITCH: Some of Trump's highest tariffs were reserved for countries in Asia that have benefited from manufacturing diversifying away from China in recent years due to the first trade war and geopolitical tensions. Vietnam was hit with a 46% tariff, Thailand got 37% and Indonesia 32%.
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PRIME MINISTER SHIGERU ISHIBA: (Speaking Japanese).
RUWITCH: In Japan, a U.S. ally and major trade partner that faces a 24% tariff now, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called the action extremely disappointing.
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ISHIBA: (Speaking Japanese).
RUWITCH: Ishiba said, "Japan has requested a review of the tariffs by the U.S. government." Taiwan was slapped with a 32% tariff, which the government there called highly unreasonable. At the same time, though, it got a bit of a reprieve. The Trump administration exempted microchips from the tariffs. Most of the world's cutting-edge chips are made in Taiwan, and they account for nearly half of all the island's exports to the United States.
Across the region on Thursday, stock markets mostly fell on the tariff news. Many governments had tried to negotiate with the Trump administration to stave off the tariffs. But Jack Zhang, who runs the Trade War Lab at the University of Kansas, says it didn't work, and it's not clear what the White House's goals are.
JACK ZHANG: Foreign diplomats and executives are like, what do they want? Like, and who decides? And I don't think there's an answer.
RUWITCH: That, he says, is the scary part.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: I'm Jackie Northam here in the U.S. There's growing concern about a global economic downturn due to President Trump's unconventional thinking on international trade. But adding to the concern is the confusion about what countries the president is targeting. Take, for example, Israel, a very strong ally of the U.S. It was hit with an additional 17% tariff. That despite the fact that Israel pledged to cancel all tariffs on American imports earlier this week. You have many countries on the list that could hardly be described as economic powerhouses whose policies are threatening the U.S., but they import far less from the U.S. than they export to America - places like Guyana, which faces 38% U.S. levies now. It's a similar figure for Iraq. There are many more examples like this.
But some of Trump's targets get even more baffling. Take Heard Island and McDonald Islands - this is a group of islands in the Antarctic. They're uninhabited except for penguins and seals and, consequently, had no exports to the U.S. But the islands are facing 10% tariffs. So too with Svalbard and Jan Mayen, two Norwegian territories. Jan Mayen is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean and a former whaling station. No one lives there permanently, and its economy is zero, but it's now subject to 10% tariffs.
Then there's the French territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. This is off the coast of Newfoundland and Canada, population of about 5,000. It exports fish to the U.S. It's now facing a 50% tariff. That's more than double what France was hit with. Lesotho in Southern Africa - which in March Trump described as a country nobody has ever heard of - it's one of the poorest countries in the world and exports mostly diamonds and textiles to the U.S. It also faces 50% tariffs, the highest figure on Trump's list.
Also curious is what countries were left off the list - Russia, which does little trade with the U.S. anyway, thanks to sanctions. Also, Canada and Mexico were spared, but preexisting tariffs on most Canadian and Mexican goods will remain. And today, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced measures to mirror U.S. tariffs on automobiles.
SHAPIRO: That's NPR international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam. We also heard from John Ruwitch in Beijing and Rob Schmitz in Berlin. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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