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--:-- Scott Simon: China's response to President Trump's massive tax on their exports, a tariff of 125% on U.S. goods. China's countermeasures go into effect today.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Scott Simon: The raging tariff war between the U.S. and a key trading partner, China, is escalating. We'll give you the view from China.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Also, if you're feeling a little anxious about the economy, you've got something in common with some of America's most powerful CEOs. We'll tell you what's making them nervous.
--:-- Scott Simon: Plus, a look at the Trump administration's efforts to deport foreign nationals who are in the U.S. legally. So please stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend.
--:-- Scott Simon: This message comes from BetterHelp. It's only human to ask others for advice, like turning to your barista, hairdresser, or a taxi driver for life advice. But when you're looking for help about relationships, anxiety, depression, or other clinical issues, they may not have all the right answers. Instead, get guidance from a licensed therapist online with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: This message comes from NPR sponsor Adobe. Introducing the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio, now with AI-powered PDF spaces. Need to turn 100 pages of market research into five insights with a click? Templates for a sales proposal that'll close that deal? Or an AI specialist to tailor the tone of your market report? You can do all that with the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio. Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with Acrobat.
--:-- Scott Simon: This message comes from NPR sponsor AARP. Where do you see your career in 12 years? What are you doing now to help you get there? The sooner you start enhancing your skills, the sooner you'll be ready. That's why AARP has management, finance, and small business reskilling courses, all to help your income live as long as you do. Because the steps you choose to take today will help you love what you do in the future. Learn more at aarp.org slash skills.
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--:-- Scott Simon: The world's two largest economies are in a pitched trade battle. The U.S. and China have ratcheted up their tariffs on each other's exports into dizzying triple digits.
--:-- Piers John Rewits: I'm Piers John Rewits, joining us from Beijing.
--:-- Scott Simon: How did things get to this point?
--:-- Piers John Rewits: Well, it started with those reciprocal tariffs on Liberation Day. Trump imposed tariffs on countries from around the world, of course, and China was hit with a 34% levy. Beijing was less than pleased about it. So two days later, China matched that with a tit-for-tat 34% tariff on U.S. imports. Trump didn't like that. He added 50% on top of it. China responded with 50%. Trump added more. China responded. So by the end of the week, the base tariff on Chinese imports into the United States was 145%. And U.S. products entering China now get hit with a 125 percent tariff.
--:-- Scott Simon: It was a dizzying upward spiral. And these are crippling numbers. And a lot of people are certainly wondering any end in sight.
--:-- Piers John Rewits: Yeah, there's no end in sight to the acrimony at the moment. But Beijing did something kind of interesting on Friday when they increased tariffs that last time to 125 percent. They said they were done playing the tit-for-tat game. So with tariffs at that rate, they said U.S. products are no longer competitive in China. And if Trump continues to raise tariffs on Chinese goods, it would be a, quote, joke. And China just wouldn't match them.
--:-- Scott Simon: Now, China's not going to roll over. Officials in Beijing said they will continue to protect their rights and interests. So perhaps it's a dual signal, you know, restraint on one hand on the tariffs, but also kind of a don't mess with us signal.
--:-- Piers John Rewits: Experts do say there does come a point, you know, when raising tariffs further just doesn't do anything. And these tariffs are already sky high. Victor Gao is with the Beijing-based think tank, the Center for China and Globalization. In my best judgment, it means China-U.S. trade will grind to a complete halt, meaning there will be no more trading between China and the United States.
--:-- Scott Simon: John, is that what you hear from companies and exporters too?
--:-- Piers John Rewits: Well, there's a lot of confusion and caution now. Things have been moving at such a high speed. A few weeks ago, your colleague, Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep was here. He went to a city called Yiwu, which is famous for trading, and talked to a woman there named Nicole Zhang who sells hairpins and claw clips for the hair.
--:-- Scott Simon: So she's saying that she had an order from February, which she previously told us was for Target. The deposit still hasn't been paid on that. Everybody's just waiting to see what happens. She's putting on a brave face, though. She thinks this whole thing is going to be temporary. Will it be? I mean, do we know where we go from here?
--:-- Piers John Rewits: We don't. It's hard to imagine the world's top two economies not doing trade with each other. Trump says he's willing to talk and that China wants to do a deal but hasn't called him. China says it's open to talks, but they have to be conducted on the basis of mutual respect. And so it's unclear where things go from here.
--:-- Scott Simon: It doesn't seem like conditions are right for talks or a breakthrough. Maybe it'll take some economic pain from these terrorists before either side decides they want to get together and have these conversations.
--:-- Piers John Rewits: And I'm Piers John Rewits, joining you from Beijing. Thanks so much, Scott.
--:-- Scott Simon: Thanks, John.
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--:-- Scott Simon: President Trump's sky-high tariffs on Chinese imports are making many Americans nervous. Might have noticed some people stocking up on things, fearing price hikes are just around the corner. Or maybe like the CEOs of top American companies, you've been watching the convulsing stock market, wondering when things will settle.
--:-- Maria Aspen: I'm Maria Aspen, NPR business correspondent.
--:-- Scott Simon: Maria, thanks for being with us.
--:-- Maria Aspen: Good morning. Please catch us up.
--:-- Maria Aspen: Well, it was, as you noted, a pretty turbulent week as everyone tried to figure out what's going to happen with President Trump's tariffs. By Wednesday, the stock and bond markets were freaking out, to use the technical term. And then Trump abruptly backed down on some of his steepest tariffs, announcing a 90-day pause. But he did continue escalating a trade war with China.
--:-- Scott Simon: And even with the pause on some tariffs, investors and businesses soon realized that they still have to face new taxes of 10% on almost everything they import.
--:-- Maria Aspen: So as all of this was happening, CEOs of the country's biggest companies had to go out and talk about all of it in public on their previously scheduled earnings calls with analysts. Here's one example of how that went from Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf yesterday:
--:-- Charlie Scharf: It is a volatile time. It is a time of unknowns. Again, we're trying to be as clear as we can about what we think today.
--:-- Maria Aspen: So businesses are facing a lot of unknown unknowns. As is everyone right now.
--:-- Scott Simon: How does this ripple through the business world?
--:-- Maria Aspen: Well, first of all, we'll probably just buy less stuff, and that has a direct impact on consumer-facing businesses. Take airplane tickets, for example. Scott, if you or I get worried about a recession, we might decide not to buy tickets or to not take that summer vacation.
--:-- Maria Aspen: And in fact, that seems to be what's happening. Delta Airlines, for example, it had a great start to 2025. In January, it told investors that this would be its best financial year ever. But by Wednesday, Delta canceled that forecast.
--:-- Scott Simon: And this is what CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC.
--:-- Ed Bastian: We're in uncharted, unprecedented uncertainty when you look at what's happened and the pivot so quickly to this self-inflicted situation.
--:-- Maria Aspen: Now, Bastian said some of that uncertainty is affecting consumers, but Delta also sells a lot of tickets to business travelers. And when businesses don't know what to expect, they also tend to pull back on spending.
--:-- Scott Simon: And those business spending decisions affect us all, don't they?
--:-- Maria Aspen: Yeah, in a lot of ways. I mean, some are obvious. When businesses don't want to spend money, they don't hire. They don't open new offices. Maybe they have layoffs. And of course, that's a big deal. But there are also these more hidden decisions that still trickle down to consumers.
--:-- Scott Simon: For example, if big companies and private investors get worried about the future, they're going to take fewer risks. They'll cut back on investing with startups or lending to small businesses.
--:-- Maria Aspen: And if those startups and small businesses can't get money, they can't grow and produce new products and services we all might use.
--:-- Scott Simon: So these are the sorts of business decisions that can affect consumers and the entire U.S. economy months or years down the line, which means that all of this vague uncertainty can lead to a lot of potential long-term consequences.
--:-- Maria Aspen: And there's Murray Aspen, thanks so much for being with us.
--:-- Scott Simon: Thank you so much.
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--:-- Scott Simon: The Trump administration's move to deport immigrants who are in this country legally is getting a lot of legal pushback.
--:-- Adrian Florido: I'm Adrian Florido, NPR.
--:-- Scott Simon: Adrian, thanks for being with us.
--:-- Adrian Florido: Thank you, Scott. What did the judge say?
--:-- Adrian Florido: Well, she said that the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, had the authority to order someone deported based on his determination that that person is a threat to essentially the foreign policy interests of the United States and that she had no authority to challenge that decision.
--:-- Scott Simon: This is based on a rarely used law enacted during the 1950s Red Scare that allows the Secretary of State to order someone personally deported if that person's presence in the U.S. puts the nation's foreign policy goals at risk.
--:-- Adrian Florido: The Trump administration has said that fighting anti-Semitism around the world is one of its goals. So when agents from the Department of Homeland Security came to Rubio with a file on Mahmoud Khalil's activism, Rubio said he determined that his protests were anti-Semitic.
--:-- Scott Simon: And he said if he allowed Khalil to stay in the country, it would send a message that the U.S. tolerates anti-Semitism, which would then undermine its attempt to fight it everywhere else in the world.
--:-- Adrian Florido: And that is why he said Khalil had to be deported. And what did Mahmoud Khalil's lawyers say?
--:-- Adrian Florido: Well, that accusation was absurd. In court, they said that Khalil is not anti-Semitic, and they questioned what facts Rubio relied on to decide that his protests were anti-Semitic.
--:-- Scott Simon: But the judge said that the statute is very clear. As long as Rubio makes the determination himself, she cannot question it.
--:-- Adrian Florido: What about Khalil's rights to due process and freedom of speech?
--:-- Adrian Florido: Well, those are some of the big questions in this case. The only thing the Secretary of State has to do to kick someone out of the country is to determine that their presence harms U.S. foreign policy in some undefined way.
--:-- Adrian Florido: This is one of Khalil's lawyers, Bahir Asmi, after the ruling yesterday. There's no stopping at Mahmoud Khalil. There's no stopping at just pro-Palestinian protesters. Next, it could be LGBTQI activists under some pretext that that interferes with our foreign relations with Russia, racial justice activists, anyone.
--:-- Scott Simon: And that's why he and the rest of the legal team for Mahmoud Khalil are fighting so hard to appeal this decision. If they have to, they're going to go all the way up to the federal court system, through the federal court system, excuse me, to prevent Khalil's deportation.
--:-- Adrian Florido: For now, he's still in detention, though, as his lawyers figure out their next steps.
--:-- Scott Simon: And briefly, Adrian, the Supreme Court ruled on the case of Kilmer Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a Salvadoran prison. How does this fit into the question of executive power?
--:-- Adrian Florido: Well, legal experts are asking if the government is allowed to get away with something like this, what is to stop it from rounding up other people who, like Abrego Garcia, had legal authorization to be in the U.S. and expelling them without due process?
--:-- Scott Simon: It's why his lawyers are trying so hard to force the government to bring Abrego back.
--:-- Adrian Florido: And here's Adrian Florido. Thanks so much.
--:-- Scott Simon: Thank you, Adrian.
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--:-- Scott Simon: Technical Director Andy Huther, and Engineers Jay Sizz, Zach Coleman, and David Greenberg. Our Senior Supervising Editor is Shannon Rhodes. Evie Stone is our Executive Producer, and Jim Kane is our Deputy Managing Editor.
--:-- Scott Simon: Tomorrow on the Sunday story, the First Amendment is a cornerstone of U.S. democracy. NPR's Morning Edition co-host, Leila Fadl, will share what she's hearing from some who feel the right to free speech is changing under the Trump administration.
--:-- Scott Simon: And for more news, interviews, sports and music, you can tune in to Weekend Edition on your radio. Go to stations.npr.org to find your local NPR station. Please don't waste a minute. Do it now. Right now!
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