'This is bananas!' CNN's Kate Bolduan gobsmacked by immediate impact of Trump policy
CNN's Kate Bolduan was gobsmacked by China's escalation of president Donald Trump's trade war.
China announced retaliatory tariffs of 84 percent on U.S. imports Wednesday matching Trump's additional duties of 50 percent, bringing his so-called reciprocal tariffs to 104 percent on Chinese imports, and the tit-for-tat escalation of the president's trade policy has rattled global markets.
"There is this lingering question that people at home are asking when they look at their 401(k)s and what world leaders are asking [is] what will happen next?" said CNN's Marc Stewart. "Well, as far as this U.S.-China relationship goes, it's very murky right now. China yesterday made it very clear that it didn't think that the United States was being sincere, genuine in its approach to this very serious matter, and for that reason would not necessarily sit down for negotiation talks at this point, despite what the White House would want. I go back to the whole TikTok debate for China. It does not want the United States to tell it what it can and cannot do. This whole trade issue is yet another reflection of this ongoing theme."
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Producers for "CNN This Morning" displayed a graphic onscreen showing the dual 104-percent and 84-percent tariffs, and Bolduan admitted to having trouble processing the situation.
"I'll put it in Kate terms, but, like, this is bananas," she said. "What we're looking at 104 percent tariff on Chinese goods coming into the United States, and China's response, 84-percent tariffs on American goods heading over to China. Just what that is going to look like and what that's going to do to the market? It's impossible."
Stewart agreed there would be widespread fallout to a trade war between the world's two largest economies, but he was at a loss to predict what that might look like.
"For these two economies to be fighting like this, it is a disruptor not only to their individual economies but around the world," Stewart said. "That is why we are seeing, perhaps China talking to places such as the European Union, forming new economic alliances in Latin America and Africa as a way to fight back. This is monumental."
"Monumental is a great word for it," Bolduan replied, "much more eloquent than my bananas, I'll say that ... This is now going to change the game yet again for today because just at midnight, the reciprocal, if you will, tariffs were setting in and now you have China's response."
"Look we saw the market futures reaction in real time," added CNN's John Berman. "We were wondering what caused that about 1-percent drop as we were asking there. That's what was going on right there – quite a morning already."
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