Trade war latest: Trump yells ‘BE COOL!’ as China warns tourists, students of U.S. travel risks

Bessent is striking a confident pose in the face of China’s new retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.

“I can tell you that this escalation is a loser for them,” Bessent said in a Fox Business interview.

“They are the surplus country,” he said. “Their exports to the U.S. are five times our exports to China.”

“So they can raise their tariffs, but so what?”

— Kevin Breuninger

China issued an alert warning its citizens and students of the potential risk of traveling in the U.S. and attending schools there.

“Recently, due to the deterioration of China-US economic and trade relations and the domestic security situation in the United States, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism reminds Chinese tourists to fully assess the risks of traveling to the United States and be cautious,” the ministry said in an alert.

China’s Education Ministry issued a similar alert to students studying in the U.S.

In 2024, approximately 1.6 million Chinese tourists visited the United States and more than 250,000 students enrolled in U.S. schools.

– Dan Mangan

Google is trying to determine its response to tariffs that will increase the cost of goods imported to the U.S., the search engine company’s cloud CEO, Thomas Kurian, said in an interview with CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa on Tuesday.

“The tariff side is so fluid,” he said. “I don’t want to comment on it, because it’s changing by the minute. We’re working similar to every other company to look at what we should do.”

Google has taken steps to lower the cost of sending requests to its artificial intelligence models, Kurian said. In addition to renting out Nvidia graphics processing units, the company also offers its own Tensor Processing Units.

“We co-engineer the model and the infrastructure,” he said. “We’re able to do an exceptional job with quality and cost and latency, and the customers who use it love it.”

— Jordan Novet

Pharmaceutical stocks are reeling after Trump reiterated that he is planning to impose “major” tariffs on drug imports with the stated goal of bringing more manufacturing back to the U.S.

Amgen and Merck shares were down about 2%, while AbbVie shed 3%.

Trump’s remarks at an event in Washington did not provide many details on how these levies would be structured, but Bank of America analyst Tim Anderson speculates Trump will use a “Section 232 Investigation.”

If this is true, Anderson said it could take some time to execute, based on past examples. With this strategy, an investigation is launched to determine if importing specific goods is a threat to national security. If it is, then action can be taken.

Medical products were excluded from the “reciprocal” tariffs announced April 2. This was in keeping with long-standing trade agreements that have exempted drugs from tariffs.

— Christina Cheddar Berk

Canada’s 25% auto tariffs took effect on U.S.-produced vehicles and many parts in American cars and trucks.

The new levies differ in important ways from Trump’s tariffs implemented last week.

Canadian officials purposely carved out individual auto parts from the tariffs and are taking into account the United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement, or USMCA, trade deal with the new levies. There’s also a remissions process that could allow companies some relief from the duties, according to Canadian officials.

Canada’s response includes 25% tariffs on vehicles from the U.S. that are not compliant with USMCA — or CUSMA, as Canada refers to it — as well as non-Canadian and non-Mexican content of USMCA-compliant fully assembled vehicles imported into Canada from the U.S.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada’s new levies are expected to generate 8 billion Canadian dollars ($5.6 billion), which will be used to help workers and companies affected by Trump’s tariffs. Vehicle imports from the U.S. totaled CA$35.6 billion in 2024, according to the Department of Finance Canada.

Read the full story.

 — Michael Wayland

The European Union voted to approve retaliatory countermeasures against 25% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on steel and aluminum.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said collection on the duties would start April 15.

The tariffs were set to target a wide range of goods, including poultry, grains, clothing and metals, according to a draft document seen by CNBC in March.

The EU has not released a final list of affected products and declined to comment when asked what it would include.

The EU also faces tariffs of 20% on almost all U.S. imports.

— Jenni Reid

Trump Media shares popped on the heels of Trump using his initials — DJT — at the end of a social media post telling people, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”

DJT is also the stock ticker symbol for Trump Media, which owns the Truth Social app that the president uses.

Trump often signs his Truth Social posts “DJT” when the topic of those posts does not relate to stocks or the market.

— Dan Mangan

Trump is urging people to relax as trading restarts after four straight days of U.S. stock market declines.

“BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well,” Trump wrote on Truth Social three minutes after markets opened in the red, again.

“The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” he wrote.

In a follow-up post, he insisted, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump is pressuring House Republicans to immediately pass a massive reconciliation bill that enshrines the president’s campaign wish list of tax breaks and spending cuts.

“It is IMPERATIVE that Republicans in the House pass the Tax Cut Bill, NOW!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Our Country Will Boom!!!” he wrote.

Trump has repeatedly urged Congress to pass what he calls a single “big, beautiful bill,” claiming it is essential to the success of his economic agenda.

Senate Republicans over the weekend approved a framework for the bill.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump’s tariffs on China are already hampering Christmas sales.

About 87% of Christmas items sold in the U.S. were imported from China in 2024, amounting to roughly $4 billion in goods, Reuters reports.

Orders for those year-end items typically get finalized by mid-April, producers told the news service. This year, the U.S. orders aren’t coming in.

“So far this year, none of my American customers have placed any orders,” Qun Ying, who runs an artificial Christmas tree factory in China, told Reuters. “Of course it’s about the tariffs.”

Read the full report by Reuters.

— Sara Salinas

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says her state is already hurting from Trump’s tariff regime, even as she expresses support for the president’s goal of reshoring U.S. manufacturing jobs.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it: These last few days have been really tough for Michigan,” the Democratic governor said in a speech on the economy.

The Great Lakes State is highly dependent on the steady flow of goods from trading partners that fuel its auto industry, which comprises 20% of the state’s economy, she said.

Whitmer described a cascade of economic consequences as a result of Trump’s tariffs, as carmakers stockpile parts, suppliers face higher costs and dealerships raise prices.

“It really is a triple whammy: Higher costs, fewer jobs and more uncertainty,” she said.

Whitmer has been discussed as a possible contender for the 2028 presidential cycle.

— Kevin Breuninger

Sen. Elizabeth Warren moved to force a vote on a resolution to repeal Trump’s tariffs by canceling the emergency declaration used to justify them.

“By putting across-the-board tariffs with virtually every nation, on virtually every product, with no planning and no rhyme or reason to the numbers, is just creating economic chaos,” she said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Warren said the emergency law was designed for far greater scenarios, calling for more Republicans to join in the bipartisan legislation.  

“I think tariffs are a very important tool in our economic toolbox, but they have to be used in a way that is targeted,” Warren said.

Warren added that her most serious concern about tariffs is price increases and inflation, creating an environment for businesses to raise costs.

– Laya Neelakandan

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says a recession in the U.S. is “a likely outcome” of the Trump tariffs.

He was asked by Fox Business News’ Maria Bartiromo whether he personally expects a recession.

“I think probably that’s a likely outcome,” he replied.

— Erin Doherty

Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith said the company currently sees demand holding up, despite tariff uncertainty.

“We would like more certainty, more clarity, for sure,” Smith said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “So far, we’re not seeing anything at this point.”

The company will report earnings on April 30 and has thus far not lowered its forecasted guidance, Smith added.

Airline stocks dipped after Delta said the company won’t expand flying in the second half of the year because of the shifting trade policies.

– Laya Neelakandan

Walmart pulled its first-quarter operating income outlook to help it “maintain flexibility to invest in price as tariffs are implemented.”

“Clearly, our environment has changed, so that makes this really exciting for us,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said ahead of an investor presentation in Dallas. The remark drew a laugh from the room of investors, bankers and reporters.

“It’s clearly a fluid environment,” he said. “And while we don’t know everything that’s going to happen, of course, we do know what our priorities are, and we know what our purpose is, and we’ll be focused on keeping prices as low as we can. We’ll be focused on managing our inventory and our expenses well.”

“We’ve learned how to manage through turbulent periods,” he said.

— Jacob Pramuk and Melissa Repko

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., says that the tariffs are a “high risk move” by Trump that should have congressional oversight.

“I’m not anti-tariff across the board,” he just said on CNBC, noting that China and other nations with adversarial trade relationships with the U.S. should have tariffs.

“But I don’t really think a trade war with the world is a smart way forward,” he says.

Bacon has introduced a bipartisan bill to curb the president’s authority over tariffs. He says that he likely has the support of a “handful of Republicans” in the House on the measure.

“I’m not trying to tell the president how to negotiate, but he has to come to Congress and request approval, when he wants to do tariffs,” he says.

— Erin Doherty

Bessent is calling for China to come to the negotiating table over tariffs, singling out the fentanyl issue as a potential basis for reciprocity.

“I think it’s unfortunate that the Chinese actually don’t want to come and negotiate, because they are the worst offenders in the international trading system,” Bessent told Fox Business.

“They have the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world, and I can tell you that this escalation is a loser for them.”

Bessent said Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have “a very good personal relationship, and I am confident that this will be resolved at the highest level.”

“A very good start would be for them to make a gesture on the precursor fentanyl, because distributing drugs in China is punishable by death. Why don’t they apply the same standards to the people who are exporting these chemicals to the US?” Bessent said.

—Jeff Cox

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said Trump’s shifting trade policy is the “wrong approach” and is hurting domestic leisure and corporate bookings alike.

The carrier said it is too early to update its 2025 forecast, which Bastian in early January said was going to be the airline’s “best financial year in our history.”

Bastian’s comments are a stark change from the optimism many CEOs had before the Trump administration took office. Bastian said in November the Trump administration’s approach to regulation would likely be a “breath of fresh air.”

In addition to market turmoil, concerns about higher prices from tariffs and mass government layoffs, airline CEOs have noted they’re seeing declining international travel demand into the U.S., particularly from Canada, which threatens to drive up the $50 billion deficit in international tourism spending.

— Leslie Josephs

Trump is urging CEOs to move their businesses to the U.S.

“This is a GREAT time to move your COMPANY into the United States of America, like Apple, and so many others, in record numbers, are doing,” Trump posted on social media.

“ZERO TARIFFS, and almost immediate Electrical/Energy hook ups and approvals. No Environmental Delays. DON’T WAIT, DO IT NOW!”

— Christina Wilkie