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This summer, healthy habits could lead to big prices during Symbiotica's summer giveaway.
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Symbiotica's liposomal glutathione and vitamin C are a powerful antioxidant duo that support natural detox, Hello and welcome to World Business Report from the BBC World Service.
I am Busy Atibayo and in this edition, the US tariff deadline has finally arrived arrived.
And we've got reaction from three continents.
We're taking you to Lesotho, Switzerland, and Taiwan.
And after all that great tension, we'll take a trip to Edinburgh in Scotland, where the world's biggest arts festival, the Fringe, kicks off today.
Well, let's get into it right away.
And of course, we've been following the tariff talks closely here on World Business Report and today's The Deadline.
The White House has published a list of new tariffs for imports from about 70 countries that haven't yet reached a trade deal with the United States.
And most of the measures are due to come effect in seven days, leaving the door open for more negotiations.
Goods from countries where the U .S. enjoys a trade surplus will be taxed at 10%.
And where the U .S. has a small deficit, the rate there is 15%.
But many countries even face higher rates, as much as up to 41%.
Sands. We'll be bringing you three case studies across three different continents, Switzerland, Lesotho and Taiwan, each reacting in their own way to Washington's new tariff news.
But first, our North America business correspondent Erin Delmore is with us.
Thanks for joining us, Erin.
Tell us what's the latest on the ground in the US where you are?
Well, Bissi, this morning we are absorbing market reaction to President Trump's slew of tariff announcements affecting so many different countries.
And markets here have opened in the red.
Just a little bit ago, the Dow was down some 600 points, now down about 500 points.
And both that index and the S &P are hovering at just over a percentage point down, the Nasdaq about 1 .6%.
So obviously, investors are not liking what they're hearing right now.
There is a little bit more news in the U .S., to be sure.
There was a jobs report that came out that showed unemployment ticked up.
The U .S. didn't hire as much as expected.
And in fact, in June, which is last month, the numbers were revised very, very sharply downward from closer to one hundred fifty thousand dollar thousand job adds to just fourteen thousand.
So there's a lot to take in in the U .S. today.
But make no mistake, this is also a sizable reaction to President Trump's tariff announcements here.
And we're seeing reaction from countries around the world.
I know that you'll be covering that in depth.
Absolutely. Now, you've talked about the market reactions, of course.
But what about US businesses so far who are doing businesses, you know, doing business with countries that have been hit the hardest?
You know, they had their eye on this August 1st deadline.
And a lot of them that I've been talking to have really hoped that it's not as hard a deadline as it looks to be.
President Trump and chiefly his Treasury Secretary Scott Besant have intimated that if countries keep negotiating in good faith.
Talks can continue and these rates can actually come down further.
But let's be super, super clear here.
A tariff is a tax on imports.
So when we say U .S. tariffs on China or Lesotho or on Switzerland, that means that when those goods come in from those countries into U .S. borders, the U .S. importers pay a tax.
That's what a tariff is.
And so those businesses are trying to figure out now, do I need to absorb that cost?
Do I pass it on to my customers or Or can I pressure my suppliers to give me a more favorable deal and try to absorb some of that cost themselves?
That's the conversation going on in U .S. businesses right now.
And I guess we'll be hearing more from those businesses and, of course, the consumers in the coming days as the tariffs come into effect.
Many thanks, our North America business correspondent Erin Delmore.
Now let's go to Switzerland, which now faces the highest U .S. tariff rate in Europe at 39 percent.
and the government there says it regrets Washington's move, especially after months of constructive talks.
The announcement has caused shockwaves in the Swiss business community.
It is really, it was a shock for us and it is a shock for our export industry and the whole country.
We are really stunned.
And the tariffs are not based on any rational basis and are arbitrary and it is impossible to explain what does it mean and why this decision is made so there is no rationality.
Deputy Director of Association of Swiss Tech Companies, SwissMIM, Jean -Philippe Kohl there reacting to the tariffs.
Well, let's get more reactions.
And Simon Ivernet is co -chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Trade and Investment.
And he joins me now from Dubai.
Simon, thanks for joining us on World Business Report today.
You're not in Switzerland at the moment, but of course, you've been interacting with the people there.
Tell us what's the mood like there?
It sounds like this new tariff rate really caught people off guard. It certainly caught people off guard. The negotiations apparently had been going well until three or four weeks ago and then suddenly dried up.
And then the Swiss were not getting any sort of reads of Washington in terms of what the outcome would be.
I think there was an expectation that they would be put in the category of countries which would get 15%.
Obviously, that hasn't happened.
I think the key thing looking forward is whether or not this is just a prelude to the talks being concluded or whether or not the Americans really do have a much more serious problem with Swiss trade practices.
I lean towards the former explanation.
But when you're talking about, you know, America having a problem with Swiss trade practices, I mean, from what we understand and from what you just mentioned, Switzerland had initially put forward a deal a few weeks ago.
So what happened then?
Why do you think the talks suddenly went quiet?
I think there's two possible explanations.
One is that whatever the Swiss put forward was so utterly inadequate, the Americans thought it's hopeless carrying on this negotiation.
I don't think that's the case.
I think what's actually happened is that the Americans had bigger fish to fry.
There were other trading partners who they had a bigger commercial stake with that they wanted to conclude the negotiations with.
Let's not forget the American trade negotiating team is actually quite small.
They were trying to deal with dozens and dozens of countries.
And at some point, I think they just did triage dealing with the bigger players first, like the EU, Japan, Korea and so on.
And smaller players like Switzerland and Singapore will come later.
And that's why perhaps that explains why the government says this is just a temporary raid.
So how long do you think it would take before we know where exactly we're going with tariffs in Switzerland?
I think we will see the 39 percent come into effect.
This will put a fire under the negotiators in Bern.
They will get over to Washington pretty fast. I would not be surprised if there is a deal sometime in August which sees Switzerland's tariffs revert down to the levels of the EU.
And then let's talk about the industries which will feel the pinch the most. We're hearing about watches, machinery, pharmaceuticals.
Yeah, so Switzerland's exports to the US are really concentrated in five sectors.
like 20 % of their exports is actually in gold.
They melt a lot of gold and ship it off.
And this is a very special sector.
It's not a big part of their manufacturing sector.
Another commodity they refine and roast and sell is actually Nespresso capsules.
Again, not a big threat to the Swiss economy.
The pharmaceutical sector is a much bigger deal, and so is the watch industry.
The watch's case, I mean, The tariffs will be passed directly onto the customers.
And these are luxury watches, which will become even more scarce and rarer.
So I'm less worried about that.
I think the attention in Switzerland is focused on the pharma sector, which is incredibly profitable, as well as being a huge exporting sector.
That is where the negotiations, I think, will focus the most. And what sort of support is the government actually giving to these sectors?
You've talked about the farming, manufacturing.
manufacturing? So I think what will happen is, because the government I think expects this negotiation to be concluded, I would not be surprised if the signal sent to Swiss businesses, if this goes on longer than a couple of months, then we will be there behind you.
But let's get through this in the short term.
Don't freak out, will be the message.
But what if it's not short term?
What if Washington insists that this is going to be it?
What happens then? Yeah, then the Swiss will, and they will do this anyway, they ship about a sixth of their exports to the United States, and they'll be asking hard questions about whether that share needs to come down dramatically and whether or not they need to diversify their exports further.
This quiet reflection will take place, and I suspect you will see greater attempts by Switzerland to negotiate free trade agreements with other countries so as to replace the lost customer orders from the United States.
Right. Simon Evenette, co -chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Future on Council on Trade and Investment.
Thanks for your time.
Thank you. And in Africa now, Lesotho's government says it's disappointed with the US setting a 15 % tariff on its goods, even though that's down from the original 50 % proposal, but it's still higher than they hoped.
The earlier threat had forced about a dozen factories to shut down with thousands of garment workers losing their jobs as American buyers had cancelled orders, adding onto the economic pressure the country was already under.
I don't know what to say about Trump.
He's giving us problems on top of our problems. We are hopeless.
There is a serious state of hopelessness amongst the youth Because really there is nothing tangible that the government has done or said to address the problem.
Government, please, please talk to America.
Please. We are dying.
We are going to die.
We don't know how we will survive this one.
Those were residents of Lesotho's capital Masero speaking to the BBC earlier this week.
But Tebo Kesi, a Lesotho -based economist, takes a more measured view despite the strain on the country's economy.
With my analysis, I realized that most countries, they were giving that blanket 15 percent, which was also awarded to the likes of EU.
So in that way, I think it's fair.
No one will have more and added advantage than others.
You know, I felt it's a fair deal.
Could you just give us a picture of the kind of impact it actually had when the initial 50 percent threat was announced?
One, the U .S. buyers stopped placing orders, and most factories, they begin to put workers on short term.
And most workers, you know, they are at home, you know, because of that uncertainty.
So this is the status of the situation.
And as you know, that if so many workers remain at home, it means the transport sector is negatively affected.
Even other sectors like retail, people who used to serve the workers with food, it means they are beginning to lose, especially the hawkers, you know, who used to sell veg after hours.
So in the absence of the workers, it means that those sectors were negatively affected.
So now we're going from 0 % to 15%.
Yes, it's a significant drop from the initial 50%.
But isn't that still a lot, especially for some of these businesses that you've mentioned?
Yes, it is too much, but taking into account that Lesotho is not the only one which has been hit by this 15%.
So it means the countries are at par.
No one will have more advantage against one another.
mother. How is the economy able to withstand the shocks coming from these tariffs?
I think it's not only the shocks that is having a direct bearing to the economy.
The USA was terminated and there were a lot of ongoing projects under USA, you know, PEPFAR, the health sector.
That part was having a negative impact to the economy because most of our health professionals, they are now at home and the risk of having HIV pandemic increasing.
They are very high.
And is the government able to deal with this?
It's becoming difficult, you know, because more than 40 percent of the national budget of Lesotho emanates from SACU revenue pool.
So with the latest developments between the U .S. and South South Africa, South African exports are going to decline thereby affecting SAKU revenue pool.
And this is where the likes of other SAKU member states like Eswatini, Botswana, Namibia, you know, we used to get a share to the SAKU revenue pool.
So if that pool declines, it means the contribution of SAKU revenue pool is going to affect our national budget negatively.
What solutions do you see?
I think with the limited resources that we are having, I think we have to prioritize agriculture because we are having arable land, we are having water.
Only technology due to climate change.
We have to find appropriate technology to harvest water and do farming at large scale because with food, you can't go wrong.
I'm Tebo Kesi, Lesotho -based economist there.
And now we head to Taiwan, where the government says the 20 % reciprocal tariff on Taiwanese goods is temporary and plans to continue negotiations with Washington.
Here's the reaction of Taiwan's President Lai Ching -te.
So far, the negotiations have achieved some interim progress.
The tax rate has been reduced from 32 % to 20%.
However, the 20 % tax rate was never Taiwan's target to begin with.
We will continue negotiations and strive for a rate that's more favorable for Taiwan.
The U .S. government has also expressed its willingness to engage in further discussions with Taiwan on this matter.
Taiwan's President Lai Ching -ting there.
We also had from Wen Taishu, whose research fellow at the Institute of Economics Academia Seneca in Taipei.
This is to me, it's a bit surprising because we kind of thought that we cannot get a similar number to Korea or Japan where they get 15 percent.
Right. But then the second thought here is that this is temporary.
So the government and the president says that this is temporary.
So I guess it's kind of right when they say that, because when Trump announced the deal with Japan or Korea, that also comes with the conditions, like how much Japan is going going to invest in the U .S. But then for this 20 % that's announced for Taiwan, there is no such condition yet.
So that means that the government of Taiwan is still talking with the U .S. government and there's some kind of deal that can happen, similar to what Japanese or the Koreans have offered, that we're going to invest in the U .S. to what degree.
And so with that, I think the tariff can be lowered.
What sort of deal are you expecting?
What sort sort of deal do you think would be right?
The deal usually would be because Taiwanese economy is very concentrated in the electronics and especially the semiconductor, right?
And so a while ago, people have known that TSMC announced they're going to invest in the US quite amount of money to beautify factories in the US.
And so that is a big deal.
Perhaps the US government want to push TSMC to have more, but I guess it may be difficult because they They already promised quite a bit.
So I guess what they might do is to push other firms in Taiwan.
So, I mean, there are other also leading firms for building servers and AI servers, for example, and also other semiconductor firms. So they will push the other firms to invest there.
Now, are you concerned that this could push Taiwan to become more economically reliant on China again?
I'm not very concerned about that.
right now, I guess the situation here is that from the Taiwanese point of view or from many countries in Asia, right, their main incentive to do business in China is that they want to export to Europe, to UK, and to the US.
But then if China doesn't have a good relationship with the US and is facing high tariffs, if you build stuff there and then you want to export from China to the US, it's even more expensive, right?
And so in that situation, I don't think people are actually push toward China.
In fact, what's more important is that the U .S. tariff on Taiwan is less important than the U .S. tariff on China.
Because when the U .S. tariff on China is high, that means that business do not want to set up their factories.
They even want to move out of China.
And that is indeed actually beneficial for the countries surrounding China.
Because, you know, we have been having some kind of China shock, not just the U .S., have this China shock.
You know, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, we all have this China shock.
We have our factories is moving to China for two decades already but this trend is reverting because the China -US relationship gets really sour.
So are you saying that your country is not willing to sell to China?
Of course we are willing to sell to China.
My point here is that trade is one thing right but FDI is another thing so trade is also important so of course if we can sell to China our country of course firms you know they don't have that nationalism stuff they don't care that much you You know, whenever money is, they will go for it.
So, of course, from the trade side, they will sell to China.
But what my point I just mentioned is that from the investment point of view, they don't want to invest in China.
And that's in the long run.
It's more important than trade.
This U .S. tariff on Taiwan is indeed bad for Taiwan.
It would increase the trade between Taiwan and China a little bit.
But because the U .S. tariff on China is even higher and that can encourage investment outside China and in our own countries, or in Southeast Asia.
And so that, to me, is not a very big concern.
In fact, it's actually pretty good.
That was Wen Taishu, Research Fellow, Institute of Economics, Academia Seneca in Taipei.
It's time now to bring in Randeep Samel, who's Fund Manager at M &G Investments, and he joins me now.
Randeep, I mean, it's been a day.
In fact, it's been a week of tariffs on World Business Reports.
And we've heard how the markets are reacting.
Of course, the markets are down.
But then I like us to begin with the jobs data, even though our North America business correspondent Erin touched a little on this earlier.
We've seen just some 3 ,000 jobs added in July, well below expectations.
But in your opinion, how worrying really is this?
this? Yeah, hi, BC.
I mean, there's a couple of ways of looking at it.
The markets are down this week.
But overall, I mean, if you look across the markets, Germany is up nearly 20%.
The FTSE 100 is up 11.
Even the S &P in the US is up 7%.
So the markets have been strong this year.
We did see a huge leg down in April, when President Trump first announced the Liberation Day tariffs.
But slowly but surely, as these trade deals have been started to come through, they have been not Not as bad as expected.
Now, we've mentioned some cases there, Lesotho, Taiwan, Switzerland, that still need to be done.
But as your previous caller said, these are relatively small countries in the grand scheme of things when we're looking at global trade.
What we don't want now is the investment community to start to get worried and stop that investment process.
That's why this news report on the payroll numbers is a little bit frightening to markets.
And that's why we're are seeing right now, the S &P down a percent and a half, France down 3%, Germany down two and a half percent, that if businesses start to lose confidence and these trade deals aren't got through, they will pause investments.
Pausing investments means that jobs aren't created and job growth hasn't happened.
And this is the first site we've seen of that, where, like you say, 73 ,000 jobs created in a market size of the US is relatively small.
Now, we need to see whether this is just a one -off or whether this is a long -term pattern.
And let's do away with tariff talks now.
Let's talk about Nintendo, which has more than doubled its revenue in the first quarter.
It has. I mean, I'm not a Nintendo gamer, but the Switch 2 is out and it's turned out to be very popular.
Released on June 5th, it's sold more than 6 million consoles, and they are currently running out of supply.
The demand is quite simply too strong.
And it's also the most expensive console at $450 each that Nintendo has ever produced.
So in this section of the market, the consumer certainly isn't shying away and tariffs aren't having an impact whatsoever.
What they need to do now is up the supply, i .e. get more manufactured to meet the demand.
And let's talk about Amazon results.
We've seen profits slightly weaker than expected And cloud computing is not as strong as Microsoft. It is.
I mean, we think of Amazon as the home delivery business and Amazon Prime.
But in the background, what's really powering Amazon is a business called Amazon Worldwide Services, AWS.
It was the first cloud computing platform.
Today, it still is the world's largest, but it's growing at 17 percent.
Now, that is a very strong growth number, except when you compare it to Microsoft Azure, which is growing at 39 % or Google Cloud growing at 32%.
And that's why the market has just taken a bit of a pause on Amazon.
The shares are down 8 % now.
And just try to understand why it's not quite growing as fast as its main competitors.
Randip Sumel, Fund Manager at M &G Investments.
Many thanks for your time.
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Now, away from all of the tariff talks, let's take you to Edinburgh in Scotland, where the world's biggest arts festival, The Fringe, kicks off today.
It's now in its 78th year, and over the next month, Actors, musicians and comedians will put on tens of thousands of shows across the city.
More than 60 countries are represented and Edinburgh is expecting over two million visitors.
Louise McLean runs a signature group which owns 12 pubs and restaurants across Edinburgh.
And she joins me now.
Louise, thanks for joining us on the World Business Report.
You're there in Edinburgh.
Tell us, what's the mood like in the city?
Lizzie? The moods, it's always so buoyant in Edinburgh for The Fringe.
So as a resident, as a local, tongue in cheek, we're always like, oh Lord, brace, brace.
You won't be able to get a parking space.
You won't be able to drive around the city because we swell.
The city swells with visitors.
And you know, when you go to concerts and people say the atmosphere's jumping, it's not like that, but the atmosphere's electric because of the number of people in the city wandering around, taking pictures, asking for directions and there to enjoy everything the city has to offer for the three weeks of August. And when you have those people coming in their droves to the city, I presume it's good for business, isn't it?
It's brilliant for business.
We regard August to be the cream of our year.
That's when we don't really like staff to take holidays.
We need our A -teams on their A -game.
We need these customers served quickly but they need to be served well.
what we find is the tourism economy is hugely important for our business both domestic and international an american tourist will spend 1250 pounds per visit and a domestic tourist will spend 250 pounds per visit so it's it's not we need the right balance of everybody coming in um and and our doors are open we really really do make an effort we don't put our prices up there's no nonsense of that what we just do is knock it out of the park serve customers quickly serve them well And what's it like, you know, this year?
What are you anticipating?
You know, you're expecting to make more, much more sales than it's ever been.
We're tracking at the moment about 11 % up on sales year on year in our like for like growth forecast, which in the headwind of everything else we've got, because, you know, the British economy is rather depressed just now.
Now, the consumer confidence is quite low and hospitality is feeling that in our tills.
But for August, it is a time to make hay while the sun shines.
I'm pleased to say the sun is trying to shine as we speak.
And so it's a great time of year to just knock out of the park with every customer that comes in because September things slow down.
I mean, I wish some of your listeners could see Edinburgh from the 31st of August into the 1st of September.
It's like a mass exodus.
And then we're in the slow run up to Christmas and Christmas is also very, very buoyant.
But any person in Edinburgh, any business in Edinburgh is grateful for the Edinburgh Festival.
And that will be a great place to leave it.
Lewis McLean, Director at Signature Group, wrapping up this edition of the World Business Report with me, Busy Adebayo.
Ed Butler will be back for a later edition.
And don't forget, you can catch a podcast of World Business Report are always available by searching for BBC World Business Report wherever you get your podcasts.
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