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00:00 Josh
Well, India and the EU announcing a trade deal today, boosting their economic ties and rebuffing President Trump’s tariffs. Yahoo Finance’s Washington correspondent Ben Wershkul is here with all the details. Ben.
00:09 Ben Wershkul
Yeah, yeah, Josh. So good afternoon. This is a this is a pretty significant trade deal between Europe and India that that was announced overnight. It’s a significant change if it’s ratified in the months ahead. They’ve announced that they have this deal and now they have to work through the ratification process. The the terms here are that India is opening its market to European cars, which which is a significant change, and both sides are lowering their tariffs on over 90% of of of what they trade with each other to to create what they’re describing as a free trade zone, um of 2 billion people. If you if you add up both sides of this. Um, and this is the third kind of notable trade pact we’ve seen since this new year began with non- US, without US involvement. Um Europe also has a new breakthrough with Latin America. That could be on ice for a legal review, but but there that would be another kind of massive free trade zone they’re trying to create with between Europe and Latin American countries. And of course, there’s been a deal between China and Canada for for a couple limited goods, but Chinese EVs would would come into Canada, canola oil would go to China, which is a significant first step potentially between those two countries.
01:21 Ben Wershkul
In the meantime, this comes as Trump himself isn’t announcing any new deals and is sort of casting doubt on his previous deals. The the back and forth he’s had today is around South Korea. He posted on True social last night that South Korea, the government there isn’t living up to their deal and threatened an additional 10% tariffs on top of the 15% that’s currently on the country. He backed off a little bit of off that a few minutes ago as he traveled to Iowa to say he thinks they’re going to work something out there. So that that’s the latest on the South Korea side.
01:53 Josh
And Ben, for you, President Trump said to focus on the economy in Iowa shortly. What are you listening for there?
02:00 Ben Wershkul
For sure. Yeah, so he just landed in Iowa a couple minutes ago. He’s going to be visiting with local businesses, law makers and then giving a speech that’s scheduled for 4:00 p.m. This this is a speech. This is his kind of he he’s promising to kind of travel somewhere in the country once a week to focus on this affordability message. What we’re expecting there today is is his usual message on that with a farm focus considering this is Iowa and and and the farm economy is so important there. Trump offered a little bit of a preview of his message before he left, talked about how the economy is doing great in his view. So we have a lot of positive news to share. That’s that’s the message he wants to give. This comes of course as Americans are quite dour on the economy in poll after poll after poll. We had a new one from the Conference Board today that showed Americans faith in the economy is is at a sort of more than a decade low. So Americans are very unhappy with this and these farmers are especially unhappy with this. It’s been a tough year in the farm economy, um largely because of the the back and forth over trade. Um Trump has offered a $12 billion bailout. China has begun buying soybeans again, but farmers will often tell you that they’re far from whole. Trump is being greeted as he as he lands in Iowa just a few minutes ago with a new letter from the Iowa Corn Growers Association. It’s focused on the ethanol issue, but it makes the point that farmers are having a tough time. They’re selling their product, corn farmers at least are selling for less than they’re they’re making. So they’re they’re losing money and and in their words, they’re at a breaking point. So this message there, I think will be especially notable on this farm side.
03:07 Josh
Great stuff, as always. Thank you, Ben.