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Who could get a tariff refund in the US?
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
Four years later, what is the economic cost of war for Ukraine?
And Panama takes back control of ports operated by a Hong Kong-based group.
OK, let's talk tariffs.
The US President Donald Trump's new 10 tariff is now in force and there's talks of raising them to 15.
At a time when many Americans are already worried about prices, how are they taking this?
Here's Joanne Hsu, Director of the Surveys of Consumers at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.
It's only been a few days since the Supreme Court ruling and it's unclear what this is going to do to the tariffs on the table.
We've already have two different announcements, one of 10%, one of 15%.
And most likely consumers understand that we have quite a bit of uncertainty right now.
So does that kind of stop and start trade policy actually change how people spend, do you think?
Well, there are two main ways that tariffs have influenced consumers, both in terms of their attitudes towards the economy, as well as their spending behavior.
So, first of all, from our surveys it's loud and clear that the top factor on consumers minds is the cost of living.
So if tariff developments are going to reduce inflation, reduce the burden of high prices on consumers, clearly that is going to be something that they welcome.
At the same time, the second major factor that tariff policy injected was a sense of uncertainty.
When there's uncertainty around policy,
And if you recall, last spring, last summer, there were different tariff policy announcements seemingly every other day for a period of time.
And that was something that weighed on consumers.
There's a broad recognition that when there's policy uncertainty, it makes it difficult for businesses to plan and makes it difficult for consumers to plan as well.
Now Joanne, there's been a lot of chat about tariff refunds, but when we talk about possible tariff refunds, that money doesn't go straight to consumers, does it?
When people are talking about refunds, they've been mainly talking about it in terms of businesses, given all the lawsuits that have been going on regarding those tariffs.
For consumers.
I'm not sure they really care at the end of the day, the details of that refund situation.
What they really want to see is some relief on their cost of living.
So you don't think consumers are going to rock up to a business and say hey, I want a refund for that tariff that I had to pay.
I think there's so little clarity at this time on what any refunds are going to look like.
And we're still waiting for new data to come in to find out how much awareness there is among consumers about the implications of the Supreme Court ruling, their thoughts about possible refunds.
But certainly what they want to see is some relief on the cost of living front.
That was Joanne Xu from the University of Michigan.
Now, exactly four years ago today, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides have been killed.
The economic cost has also been huge, particularly in Ukraine.
The country's finance minister, Serhii Machenko, says keeping business going is important to the war effort.
Our strong army depends on our strong economy because all of our resources which we mobilize internally we channel towards support of our security and defense.
So to defend our nation, practically all of our revenues we share to the, to the military command.
That's why it's important to have a strong economy.
It's only Ukraine's economy which helped us to withstand these four years of war.
Of course we are grateful for support of other nations to help us, but definitely Ukraine's taxpayers are doing their best, helping our army.
And he explained the challenges facing the economy. have lack of electricity at this moment it's of course have impact on our for people for ukraine for business of ukraine because it creates additional costs to create to generate electricity for business it's also increase the price of their products Our national bank estimates that this year we can lose 0.4% GDP because of lack of electricity.
And that's why it's a challenge right now to restore our capacity to produce or to increase our capacity to import.
That was Ukraine's Finance Minister Sergei Machenko.
Tatiana Kagatina runs a small consultancy business and volunteers to support the Ukrainian army while navigating energy blackouts, rising costs and the everyday challenges of keeping her business afloat under four years of conflict.
I should admit that this year, this winter was the most difficult during all these four years.
And it's really very hard because people, first of all, people are exhausted.
So all world talks about Ukrainian resistance, but we are exhausted.
It's true.
So we will keep going.
But if we compare ourselves from the beginning of war and now, I mean, we...
We do not have such, let's say, stock of energy.
With pain in my heart, I should admit that part of business died in Odessa, especially restaurants.
Because of blackouts.
They just I mean can't work because you can't work in the generator, because your average cost will increase at least for 30, 40 percent.
That was Tatiana Karkatina, who runs a small consultancy business in Ukraine.
Now IBM's share price fell sharply down more than 13 in one day after an AI company called Anthropic said its new tool, Cloud Code, can automatically update and modernize old computer systems.
Written in COBOL.
Fiona Sincotta, Senior Market Analyst at Citi Index.
A lot of tech there, Fiona, but why would that be a problem for IBM?
Yeah, so basically the work that this AI plugin can do is a big part of IBM's consulting and system modernization revenue.
So basically, if AI can do work faster and cheaper, it means that investors really worry that IBM could earn less money in the future.
I guess a way to think about it is if a robot suddenly does a company's job that they charge millions for, then there are questions over how valuable that company is.
Listen, I'm worried about it myself.
Yeah.
Another Czech one for you.
Netta, it signed this multi-billion dollar deal to buy AI chips from US chipmaker AMD.
Investors love that one.
Yeah, AMD is trading around 7% higher today.
And I think this is interesting because the deal has happened at a time when investors are actually a little bit nervous about the amount of money being invested in AI.
We've already seen Metastrike, a similar deal with Nvidia to buy millions of AI chips.
And OpenAI has also agreed to a similar deal with AMD.
So lots of deals and lots of money highlighting the huge demand for these processors.
There you go, Fiona Sincada.
Thank you so much.
China has blocked exports of key rare earth minerals to 20 Japanese companies it says are linked to Japan's military.
These materials are tiny but vital components used in everything from electric cars to fighter jets.
Beijing says the move is aimed at curbing what it calls Japan's remilitarization, after Prime Minister Sanai Takeichi pledged to ramp up defence spending.
Tokyo has called the restrictions completely unacceptable and is demanding their withdrawal.
Now the authorities in Panama have taken control of two ports in the Panama Canal that have been operated by the Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK.
Hutchinson for more than two decades.
The move comes as rivalry between the U.S. and China escalates over global trade routes.
The president of Panama, José Raúl Molino, has described it as a temporary measure until contracts are awarded under a new international tender.
The executive branch, under powers granted by the national constitution, has issued an occupation decree to ensure continued port operations.
This measure respects property rights and does not constitute expropriation, but allows temporary use of the assets until their value is determined for any further action.
The Hutchinson subsidiary that ran the ports has denounced the move as an illegal takeover.
Also, the Boston Globe newspaper has announced that it will not go to print for the first time in its 153-year history due to a winter blizzard that has crippled large parts of the US East Coast.
More than 80 centimetres of snow has fallen in parts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, including Boston.
And that is it from World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
Have a great day and thanks so much for listening.
Hi, this is Jannat Jalil from the Global News Podcast.
As a full-scale war in Ukraine enters its fifth year, we're reflecting on what this all means for Ukraine, its Western allies, Russia and the world order.
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