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Connect the World
Wall Street Futures Drop Even Lower after China Announces 34 Percent Reciprocal Tariffs on U.S. Goods; Trump: My Policies will Never Change; South Korean Court Removes President Yoon from Office; European Union Preparing First Countermeasure to Tariffs; Tsunoda: Ready for Red Bull Debut at Japanese GP. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired April 04, 2025 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: This is the scene in Washington, D.C., where the U.S. jobs report for March is out following a
tumultuous Thursday in the markets, it's 09:00 a.m. and 02:00 p.m. in London. I'm Christina Macfarlane. This is "Connect the World". Also coming
up, global reaction and fallout from President Trump's tariff plan, China announces how its hitting back.
Trump's trade war overshadows discussions in Brussels, where U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is meeting his NATO counterparts. And in South
Korea, the Supreme Court upholding the impeachment of President Yoon. But the stock market in New York is about to open in about 30 minutes from now.
These were the market futures you're seeing. We'll, of course, be keeping a close eye. Wall Street futures dropping there even lower this morning after
China followed through on its promised retaliation to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. And just a few hours ago, slapping 34 percent levies on
goods imported from the United States that coming as markets across the globe are in a day two tailspin.
You can see the major European indices here all sharply lower, and this is what happened in the Asian exchanges earlier in the day, all of them, of
course, in the red. And while global leaders express a mixture of shock and anger at the Trump tariffs, economists are shaking their heads in
disbelief.
One of them saying the formula the president used to determine the tariff rates for each country wouldn't pass muster in a ninth-grade economics
class. And they warned the tariffs could push the U.S. into a recession and drag down economies across the world. Well, one thing appears to be certain
today, prices on most imported goods are set to go higher in the United States and in any countries that retaliate.
And stock markets have lost trillions of dollars in value, even as the president and his advisers insist things are going well. Well CNN's Marc
Stewart is in Beijing, and we're also joined by Bill Lee, Chief Economist at the Milken Institute and Former Head of North America Economics at
Citigroup.
Great to see you both. Marc, I start with you. What a strong statement from China. Talk to us about the impact all of this is going to have, and how
swiftly this response came?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Christina, we were saying earlier, if this is what a trade war looks like, China is certainly firing back,
hitting back very hard. I think two important points to make. Number one, if we look at these tariffs, the 34 percent in addition to some tariffs
that already have been on the table, already in place.
They are going to not only target the American economy on a broad scale, but in particular, American farmers, the U.S. agriculture industry. China
imports a lot of soybeans of all things, from the United States. It is one of the United States top customers. China depends on soybeans to help for
food production for the agriculture industry. Pork is a very big commodity here.
This price hike, essentially is what it will be, really, could hurt American farmers in a very negative way. And China has also, over the
years, look for other sources to soybeans, so that certainly could create a big impact there. The other area that has caught my attention is the fact
that China has put some restrictions on American access to metals, precious metals that are used in manufacturing to make things like household goods,
to make electronics.
This at a time when President Trump really wants to increase domestic U.S. production of various items. This could also have an impact there. And
then, the other point to make is the timing of all of this. This is happening on a Friday night here in China, the start of a very important
holiday weekend, for China not to wait until Monday really says something about just how serious it is in all of this.
Whether or not this will bring Xi Jinping and President Trump to the negotiating table remains to be seen. But I go back to a point that an
economist, that an observer and analyst made to us yesterday, the question is, who is going to fold first? But that's a tough question to answer,
because, Christina, as we are seen in real time, the United States and China are really being strong toward each other in this whole dispute.
MACFARLANE: Yeah, absolutely.
[09:05:00]
Bill, we were just hearing from Marc, there talking about the. Industries that are going to get hit the hardest by this. In what ways do you expect
this to fundamentally reshape the relations between these two economies who have been so interdependent for so long?
WILLIAM LEE, CHIEF ECONOMIST AT THE MILKEN INSTITUTE: Well, Christina, one thing to remember is that China's domestic economy is not very strong right
now, and they really depend on exports to support their GDP growth and try to achieve that 5 percent target they're hoping for, and exports account
for something about a third to almost a half of their exports over the last year or so.
So, exports are very important to them, and the United States is the biggest export market for China products. So, I think the response from
China, the raising the tariffs is more like using a rifle rather than a cannon, in response to President Trump. And like every other political
leader, President Xi has demonstrated very quickly he's not going to get pushed around by an American President.
He has to appeal to domestic audience to show that he wants to maintain China's sovereignty and he will not allow Americans to push him around. So,
I expected that response, but one thing that's for sure is that the two largest economies in the world have to get together to agree on a revised
global trade framework.
WTO and the existing post-World War II trade framework doesn't work for China anymore, nor does it work for the United States. And negotiating that
is going to be on the table. So, I anticipate the two leaders to come together in negotiating table to try to get these tariffs down and to
really restructure the supply chains in the world in a way that benefits both China and the United States.
MACFARLANE: Yeah, you'd think there'd be some room for negotiation with just too much at stake here. Bill, can I just ask, as we also got those job
numbers out today, unexpectedly up, actually, unexpectedly promising. How do you expect that to play into the markets?
LEE: I think it shows that the U.S. really has a pretty large head of steel under the economy right now. So, all of this talk about uncertainty, and
for me, the uncertainty not so much about tariffs, but rather about whether or not President Trump is really going to be able to achieve the overall
agenda of smaller government, lower taxes, and more importantly, smaller regulation to be able to attract foreign investors into United States.
Those headwinds that are coming up are facing a pretty strong tailwind. So, I think the recession fears and calls of the sort that many economies are
coming out for the fear mongers, I think those are overstated, and it's going to take quite a lot to push the U.S. economy into a recession. So, I
think there's been very good news on the job front right now.
MACFARLANE: Yeah. Marc, when we consider where China is economically right now, I was reading a report from one analyst who said that Trump has
effectively raised the average U.S. tariff rates on Chinese products here by 69 percent because the average rate on Chinese goods was already at 15
percent.
How is the -- what is the prediction of here for China's economy in the year ahead, after this levy was placed on them? Oh, I think we have just --
I think we just lost Marc. So maybe Bill, you can pick that up for me if you heard the question.
LEE: Yeah, I think China's of GDP forecasts are in question right now. There's going to be a wide range of uncertainty because the China stimulus
for getting domestic consumption up really hasn't worked so far. President Xi is redetermined to be able to stimulate the economy through the supply
side, increasing manufacturing and especially the high-tech leading-edge manufacturing and the United States demonstrate 1930s that supply side
doesn't work.
You need to encourage people to spend on the demand side, and they won't spend unless they're confident their wealth is secure and their jobs
secure. And the state of the domestic economy right now is one where jobs are certainly not secure their wealth of the property market has certainly
had no signs being restored.
MACFARLANE: Bill, it's interesting to note that the U.S. tariffs included to China did include some exemptions, but the retaliatory tariffs from
China have got -- have had no exemptions. You talked about the possibility of negotiations earlier. Where do you expect the U.S. and China to come
together to try and work through in specific industries.
LEE: I think the need for China to get at least some U.S. tech products, and the desire for the U.S. to protect some of our farm exports, those
would be the points of negotiation right now, as far as I can see. But I think China, again, is going to have to do this quietly, because I think
it's very important for President Xi's domestic audience to show that he is coming to the bargaining table with strength and not in response to the
promptings of President Trump.
MACFARLANE: All right. Bill Lee, we really appreciate your thoughts on this, at this chaotic time, and our thanks to Marc Stewart as well. Now
U.S. President Donald Trump shrugging off the global market reaction to his tariff announcement. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think it's going very well. It was an operation like when a patient gets operated on, the
markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[09:10:00]
MACFARLANE: Mr. Trump's argument that tariffs will bring back American manufacturing and jobs, but already, tariff related layoffs have hit five
U.S. auto plants with temporary layoffs for 900 workers. None of this is going down well in Europe. The European Commission President says the EU is
finalizing its first round of countermeasures.
The German Chancellor warns Trump tariffs are fundamentally wrong and will cause harm around the world. The French President is calling the tariffs
brutal and unfounded. A short time ago, Emmanuel Macron insisted on European solidarity and suggested firms suspend investment in the United
States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: If the response to the tariffs put in place by the U.S. Administration is to make immediate concessions or to
announce investments to get exemptions. It's a very bad idea, because we have a strength. It's a market of 450 million residents. That's Europe. The
EU is 450 million consumers. It's more than the U.S. market.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: As CNN's Fred Pleitgen has been following all of this live from Berlin. Interesting to hear the comments there of President Macron, Fred,
kind of indicating that this retaliation could go beyond purely tariffs. And we have been hearing that Europe are readying for this quote, big
bazooka option. What are the chances, though, of negotiations happening before any actual retaliation?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think negotiations is sort of first tool in their tool kit that they want to use
first. If we look at what we're hearing from Brussels, but if we're looking, we're hearing from the Germans here as well. And one of the
things, by the way, that I'm also keeping an eye on right now is the German stock exchange, the Cetara tax, which has been absolutely tanking so far.
They're already calling this Black Friday here in Germany. That's because, on the one hand, of course, the European Union and the European member
states say that they do have all their tools at their disposal to fire back at the U.S. But of course, there are some key industries here in Europe
that really do fear that things could go very badly for them.
First and foremost, the backbone of Europe's largest economy, the German auto industry. They've already been facing really hard times with sales
dropping around the globe. They've already been layoffs and restructuring programs here in Germany. And now to get hit by these tariffs, and one of
the things, Christina, that we have to keep in mind is that for automobiles, of course, as we know, the tariffs are 25 percent and not 20
percent like on other goods coming from the European Union.
So definitely, as far as that industry is concerned, they are hoping that it's going to be negotiations and not that kind of retaliation that we've
been hearing could be possible from the European Union. It was quite interesting, because earlier today, I was listening to one of the heads of
the German trade association and industrial association.
And he was saying, look, they understand there needs to, of course, be a common European response, because, of course, this is a market with 450
million, many of whom are very wealthy consumers and therefore a lot of economic power. But at the same time, they say any measures taken need to
be very flexible, and they need to be able to take them back very quickly if there is some sort of agreement that can be reached with the Trump
Administration.
So those are the things that are being discussed right here. And it was quite interesting to hear from Brussels as well, where they were saying
that they are already getting ready some of these countermeasures, some of these tariffs against U.S. company. But the same time, they are saying that
negotiations need to come first.
One of the reasons, Christina, that the European Union believes that all of this is so unfair towards them is that they acknowledge that, yes, they do
have a trade surplus with the United States when it comes to goods. However, they also say, as far as services is concerned, the big internet
companies, for instance, the big social media companies like Meta, for instance, Google for instance, as well.
That there's actually pretty big trade deficit that the European Union has with the United States. And they believe that that sort of evens things
out. And so, if you look at some of these counter measures that they believe that they could do here in Europe, some of them, they say could
target exactly that services sector, where the U.S. is so strong, and where U.S. companies are so strong.
But again, right now, the EU is saying that they are looking at all of this, and certainly, if we heard there President Macron of France, if we
look at the Germans other countries as well, they are saying that any response, response coming from Europe needs to be a coordinated response by
the European Union in order to have that leverage against the United States of this gigantic single market that Europe does have, Christina.
MACFARLANE: Yeah, it needs to be a coordinated response, Fred. But how soon does it have to come? Because, you know, we've seen China move already, by
all accounts. This is now coming a fast-moving trade war. So, is that upping the pressure on Europe to have to move soon?
PLEITGEN: Well, I think it certainly does. I think that the European capitals and the European Union also understand that if there is going to
be a response, that it does have to come very quickly. But at the same time, they also do realize that all of it does have to remain very
flexible, that if an agreement is reached that then potentially measures can get taken back as well.
[09:15:00]
One of the things that we've heard from European capitals, and once again, actually, we heard from the government spokesman here in Berlin, of the
German government saying that they are not looking for a trade war with the Trump Administration. They're not looking for a trade war with the United
States. Of course, the economies of Europe, especially the German economy in Europe, they are very export oriented.
Export is extremely important, and certainly especially these high-end goods that are made in Europe. You're not talking about German automobiles,
but for instance, goods from luxury goods, for instance, from Italy, if you're looking at clothing, if you're looking at food from France, for
instance, all of these things are upmarket things that, of course, they want to export to an up market like the United States.
And so therefore the European Union say they do understand that they need to remain nimble, but at the same time, they do need to bring that force to
bear, to have that leverage in a not too long period of time. So, I think there is a certain pressure on Brussels right now.
I think they realize right now they do have the backing of most of the member states to strike back hard at the Trump Administration, but at the
same time, they also do understand that they need to remain nimble and that the response does need to be flexible as well to be able to take that back
if an agreement is reached, Christina.
MACFARLANE: All right. Fred Pleitgen there, appreciate it for now. And I just want to let our viewers know that Donald Trump has, in fact, been
posting on social media in the last few minutes, declaring that his policies will never change, saying he's standing by his tariffs and touting
the strong job numbers announced last hour, saying, quote, this is a great time to get rich, richer than ever before.
Well, we will dissect those comments in the hour ahead. Still to come, now, though, we are following America's top diplomats as he tries to balance the
shock of President Trump's new tariffs with NATO allies meeting in Brussels. Plus, protests and celebrations in the streets of Seoul after
South Korea's Constitutional Court officially removes President Yoon Suk Yeol from office.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACFARLANE: A short time ago, America's top diplomat acknowledged that markets are crashing after President Trump unveiled a slate of tariffs on
almost every country that trades with the United States. But Marco Rubio says financial markets will eventually adjust to the new situation.
His remarks at NATO Headquarters came after China said it would respond to the tariffs with 34 percent tariffs of its own, on all imports from the
U.S. starting in April. Well, CNN's Alex Marquardt is following the story for us live from Brussels. And Alex, a lot of convergent issues playing out
at one time there in Brussels. Rubio said he doesn't think it's fair to say economies are crashing. What more did you make of those remarks?
[09:20:00]
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, little surprise, Christina, that Marc Rubio was defending his boss's tariffs and
he was pushing back on a question about economies around the world crashing. He said, that's not happening. But then he rather surprisingly,
acknowledged that the markets are indeed crashing.
And he went on to sort of explain that, that's because stock markets around the world are comprised of businesses who have production practices that
are not in favor of the United States. And so that's why the U.S. is trying to push this readjustment on the world.
He insisted that we have to reset the global order of trade, and he said that those markets will stabilize, businesses will stabilize once the
businesses and the markets actually learn the new rules. So, he put the onus really on the rest of the world to sort of figure out what the Trump
Administration is doing, and then he thinks that everything will readjust.
This was very much a part of the conversation here at NATO. Of course, the issues that the NATO Foreign Ministers came here to discuss had nothing to
do with trade or the economy, but it could -- There was no way that this wasn't going to be part of the conversation even, even if not official, it
was happening on the sidelines.
And I spoke with the Canadian Foreign Minister, Melanie Joly, just yesterday, who said that it's very difficult to have these NATO
conversations about defense, about Ukraine and other things, while there's a trade war going on, she said that they are putting maximum pressure on
the Trump campaign to withdraw these tariffs.
But at the same time, the goal here at NATO was to talk about those NATO specific issues and project a feeling of unity, Christina.
MACFARLANE: Yeah, and one of those NATO specific issues was, of course, the Russia-Ukraine war, which he did address -- Rubio did address during his
briefing in Brussels. Can you tell us more about what his position was on that and those efforts for negotiation -- negotiation?
MARQUARDT: We've heard this growing feeling of frustration from the Trump Administration over what the Russians are doing, or really what they're not
doing. President Trump himself has accused Russia of dragging their feet. And Rubio did reveal that before coming here to Brussels, he sat down with
the top Kremlin ally and top Putin aide, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of their sovereign wealth fund, who was in Washington earlier this week.
And he said that in his meeting with Dmitriev, that he told the Russian that these talks can't go on forever. They don't want to have negotiations
after negotiations, and that Russia needs to decide and communicate to the U.S. whether they are indeed serious about peace. This is a little bit more
of what Rubio said in answer to a question I asked him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We're not interested in, and I'm not accusing them of this. I'm just telling you what we're not interested in is
negotiations, about negotiations that we're not going to continue this forever. So, none of it was threatening. I think it was more an explanation
of, this is our timeline, and at some point, it will be clear whether you want peace or you don't want peace, and that time is coming. It's pretty
short.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: So, a bit of a warning there that the clock is ticking. And in terms of a time frame, we asked him specifically what he was thinking about
that, and he said that it's weeks, not months. And so, for now, he said that there are no more rounds of talks planned. Of course, we've had seen
several rounds in Saudi Arabia, both with Ukrainians and with the Russians.
But Rubio also warned that the pressure is growing on the Russians, that it's not just the threats from the administration to apply more sanctions,
but from the U.S. Congress as well. So very much telling the Russians that they need to make clear to the U.S. and to the Ukrainians that this is
something that they want to work on and achieve in a short amount of time, Christina.
MACFARLANE: All right. Alex Marquardt, appreciate your reporting there from Brussels, and now the search for a new president is underway in South
Korea. The country's constitutional court has upheld the impeachment of previous President Yoon Suk Yeol. CNN's Mike Valerio has the details.
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're pretty much in the center of the Old City. For anybody who's ever been to Seoul, this is right in front of
Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanghwamun Gate. It's been here for centuries a gathering point, and this has been a gathering point for people who are
rallying against the now Former President of South Korea in Seoul, but a lot of people are starting to leave.
It's a far cry from the thousands of people who are cramming in close to the Constitutional Court, and all the streets and alleyways that had not
been closed down by police. So, people here are having, their after-lunch sort of victory celebrations. And now what happens next is that we have all
on our phones read the throwing in the towel statement.
So, to be so to speak of the Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, where he apologized and said a word of thanks to his supporters. Now we did speak to
an anti-Yoon demonstrator. Listen to her reaction, what she felt when the verdict came down earlier today.
[09:25:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIM NA-YOUNG, ANTI-YOON PROTESTER: It's hard to describe, honestly, excited, happy, but the moment the Constitutional Court said he was
impeached, I started bawling. I cried for four minutes, and I couldn't talk, and it was just such a -- it was such a heavy feeling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALERIO: And this is a very visceral moment for millions of South Koreans, because this is all about martial law. This all goes back to December 3 of
last year, when the now Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, to try to solve a political crisis, sent troops, members of the military, to the National
Assembly a couple kilometers away from where we're standing, the heart of South Korean democracy in the name of, from his point of view, resolving a
log jam, resolving a political crisis.
But those gathered around us, certainly the majority of South Korean said, sending in the military is not how a democracy functions. You don't send
troops to get rid of a political log jam and solve a crisis. So, where we go from here later in the evening, down one of these main avenues. This is
where we're going to see a rally of anti-Yoon supporters, those who are thrilled with today's decision, 07:00 p.m. local time by City Hall.
We're now headed towards elections within the next 60 days. That brings us around to June 3. The country is going to need to elect somebody who can go
toe to toe with the Trump Administration after 25 percent tariffs levied against South Korea yesterday.
MACFARLANE: All right, coming up, the European Union is weighing its response to Trump's tariffs. I'll speak to the EU's Rapporteur for U.S.
trade, just after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACFARLANE: Welcome back. I'm Christina Macfarlane in London, and you are watching "Connect the World". Wall Street futures plunged after China
announced 34 percent retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. That follows President Trump's tariff announcement, impacting most countries that the
U.S. trades with, which sent global stock markets into a tailspin. Wall Street suffered its worst day in nearly five years on Thursday.
[09:30:00]
And that was the opening bell. The U.S. market is open, and we will give those markets a few minutes to settle as trading gets underway, the
reaction from China to the tariffs is one factor sending markets tumbling there. Beijing announcing a 34 percent retaliatory tariff on all imports
from the United States.
Meantime, we have fresh U.S. data showing the labor market remained strong in March. The U.S. economy added a stronger than expected, 228,000 jobs as
the unemployment rate changed only slightly. Well, CNN's Matt Egan is live for us in New York. Matt, walk us through the numbers that we're seeing
here.
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yeah. Well, look, this is a jobs report that painted the picture of a pretty healthy labor market, for now, at least,
right. This showed that even though some of the initial rounds of tariffs started to kick in, in March, this jobs market just kept chugging along
228,000 jobs added.
That blew away forecast by almost 100,000 it's an acceleration from January and February, each of which will revise lower. You mentioned the
unemployment rate, it did tick higher to 4.2 percent but that was expected, and it actually mostly happened for good reasons, because more people had
entered the labor force.
And looking at some of the sectors, we saw government lost jobs, as expected, because Elon Musk and DOGE are cutting federal spending and
workforce, but other sectors, leisure and hospitality, retail, healthcare, all of them growing jobs in a very significant way. Now here's the catch
up.
This is just a snapshot in time, as you can see on that chart showing an acceleration in hiring in March. This is just a snapshot in time. It shows
what the jobs market looked like in March. But we now know that this trade war escalating in a historic way this week, right, with the President
United States spiking in tariff rates to levels that we have not seen in more than a century.
And you noted China firing back with pretty aggressive retaliation. More countries could do that as well. The more retaliation we see, the more
damage to U.S. jobs, the more damage to world growth. And so there we are hearing more and more concerns from economists and from investors.
And I think that we're seeing it on our screens right now, with these drops in the market. More concerns about the damage, the economic damage that
this trade war could do. JP, Morgan, last night came out, and they upped their recession probability. They previously thought there was a 40 percent
chance of a U.S. and global recession.
They now see a 60 percent chance. Look at the end of the day, this economy, this jobs market, has been very resilient. It's bounced back from COVID,
survived the inflation crisis, but this is a new test, and this may be the biggest test yet.
MACFARLANE: Yeah, certainly our 2.5 trillion wiped off global markets so far. Of course, we are having those conversations about possible recession,
aren't we? Matt Egan, for now, thank you.
EGAN: Thank you.
MACFARLANE: And we've seen China's reaction, and we are still waiting to see what European Union may do. Just a short time ago, the French Finance
Minister said the EU is not looking at reciprocal tariffs, and instead looking to target individual firms. I want to cross over now to Germany.
Bernd Lange is the Chair of the European Parliament's International Trade Committee. He's been the standing Rapporteur for the EU, U.S. trade since
2014. A good person for us to be speaking to right now. Welcome to the show. So, we did see, of course, China breaking a public holiday just a
couple of hours ago to retaliate with that 34 percent tariff, exactly the same levied on them by the United States. What are the chances of the EU
doing exactly the same?
BERND LANGE, CHAIR OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT'S INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMITTEE: Thanks a lot for the invitation, and we are, of course, looking
quite intensively to the tariffs set by President Trump. For us, they are unjustified, because we have clear rules where we both working with and in
average, the tariffs between European Union, United States are 5 percent and put it the volume of trade on its only 2 percent because a lot of
products around about 70 percent are tariff free.
So therefore, we are really not happy about this decision, and we are analyzing the effect quite closely. First, we look to the illegal tariffs
on steel or which will in office since 12 March.
[09:35:00]
And we are preparing liberalization list of products which will come into force on the 14 November. On the decision from Wednesday, I guess we will
try first to talk to each other, to negotiate, before getting some countermeasures. And I guess this would be the appropriate way and not
doing this similar to the Chinese one.
MACFARLANE: You mentioned that you're deliberating on steel and aluminum, given the speed of China's response? Is there a concern here that the EU
could risk getting left behind and what is rapidly becoming a fast-moving global trade war? Do you have any concerns about the speed with which you
need to respond?
LANGE: Of course, tariffs and escalation is not good for the economy, and President Trump named it the day of liberalization. I would say it's a day
of inflation, because the price really increased, and we saw just before. And this is, of course, a danger, and we want, really to avoid this.
But as normally, it takes two for -- and we want to have a negotiation process. And this was so far not possible. We are trying. We are discussing
several elements where we could negotiate, but at the moment, there is no answer on the United States.
MACFARLANE: Can you talk to us a little bit more about what the response is that you are preparing and the way in which you're doing it. There's been a
lot of talk that the EU as a bloc is going to focus on the service industry when targeting the U.S. Can you give us more detail on that?
LANGE: Of course, I would like to say everything here, that's for sure. It's also part of the negotiation process. But first we will have a list on
countermeasures, radiation towers for the steel this list is more or less ready. We have a lot of steel products on. We have some agricultural
products on, some textile products on, so that the damage we are faced with are more or less on an equal level.
So, this, as I mentioned, we will analyze the effect on 20 percent and of course, we are creating second list, if there are services on, I have no
clue, but legally, it's possible we have our defensive legislation, the so- called enforcement legislation, where we could really put goods and services on our countermeasures.
But I would not put it on the first point of such a risk, because we want to deescalate and not escalate. But at the end of the day, it's totally
clear that the interests of U.S. companies in the European market services are quite big. And this, I guess, everybody should have in mind. And by the
way, there is also a trade surplus in services from around about 100 billion euro.
MACFARLANE: Yes, and we will wait to see if those negotiations ahead of any moves bear fruit for you. But for now, Bernd Lange, we really appreciate
you joining us, giving us your thoughts on this unprecedented moment. Thank you.
LANGE: -- pleasure --
MACFARLANE: All right. Breaking news into CNN, British comedian Russell Brand has been charged with rape and sexual assault, among other charges.
London's Metropolitan Police issued a statement announcing the charges related to four separate women.
In recent years, Brand has been the subject of media investigations and a documentary program about sexual assaults. Brand had previously maintained
his innocence. We will be back after this quick break. Stay with us.
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[09:40:00]
MACFARLANE: An exciting weekend ahead for 24-year-old Formula One driver, Yuki Tsunoda, he will be making his debut racing for Red Bull in his home
Grand Prix in Japan. Tsunoda says he's been itching for the chance to show what he can do at a top team. For more on the big race weekend, Amanda,
say.
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yeah. I mean, what a weekend for Yuki Tsunoda, not only two races into a season getting the call to step up from
racing balls where he's been for this is his fifth season in Formula One, to be the teammate of the four-time World Champion Max Verstappen.
Knowing that the guy he's replacing has been kicked out after just two races. He is then making his debut in the hottest seat on the grid, really,
at his home race Japan. I've been fortunate enough to go to this race in Japan. The fans are nuts. Their passion is real.
MACFARLANE: Yeah.
DAVIES: So, it's an incredible moment for Yuki Tsunoda. I have to say, the eyes of the paddock are very much watching. It's been an interesting first
and second practice session, six in the first practice session, 18th in the second.
MACFARLANE: Oh --
DAVIES: But it's very much a learning experience where we're hearing from U.K. who's a great personality, a great character, just a couple of minutes
in "World Sport".
MACFARLANE: Yeah, well let's hope the pressure isn't getting into him yet. And obviously you can hear more about that with Amanda just after this
quick break. Stay with us.
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[09:45:00]
(WORLD SPORT)
[10:00:00]
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