Trump's Tariff Talks, China's Tariff Response, SCOTUS Probationary Workers
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New tariffs are now a reality, and President Trump says trade partners are lining up to talk. We're doing very well in making, I call them, tailored deals, not off the rack. These are tailored, highly tailored deals. Which countries want to negotiate? I'm Leila Fadl, that's A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News.

Now, China is not willing to talk over the 104% tariffs on its goods. We will not tolerate any attempt to harm China's sovereignty, security, and development interests. How is China retaliating? And the Trump administration gets another partial victory from the U.S. Supreme Court. The court has ruled the federal government can proceed with firing 16,000 probationary employees, at least for now. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day. ♪

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President Trump's sweeping new tariffs took effect shortly after midnight on nearly all U.S. trading partners. Now, those tariffs will mean U.S. businesses will pay extra to import products into the U.S. And for some of those major trading partners, that new tax is steep.

from an added 20% on goods from the European Union to an extra 46% on goods from Vietnam. And they will likely mean higher prices for consumers. But Trump has opened the door to changes. Here's what he said yesterday. And we're doing very well in making, I call them tailored deals, not off the rack. These are tailored, highly tailored deals. Right now, Japan is flying here to make a deal.

South Korea is flying here to make a deal and others are flying here. Daniel, Kurt Slavin is NPR's White House correspondent. So Daniel, what is the White House saying about how long these tariffs will last?

Well, the White House's messaging on this has been confusing. There were several days there where you'd have one administration official saying these tariffs are not negotiable, that they're going to stick around a while. And then you'd have another official saying Trump was open to negotiation. But yesterday, the White House seemed to have settled on the idea that, yes, these tariffs are negotiable. They've said that about 70 countries have reached out for some sort of talks.

And yesterday, Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt insisted that these tariffs have always been open to negotiation. The entire administration has always said that President Trump is willing to pick up the phone and talk. And the president met with his trade team this morning, and he directed them to have tailor-made trade deals with each and every country that calls up this administration.

to strike a deal. And that's a narrative that fits with an image Trump really likes to project, which is that he's a master dealmaker. But he did say yesterday it's a long list of countries and it could take some time to get through. All right. So long list, which countries have reached out?

Well, Trump has said he's spoken to leaders of multiple major trading partners, including Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. But one country that has not reached out, according to Trump, is China. Now, there's been some back and forth on retaliation with them, but as a result, the tariff on Chinese goods is now at least 104 percent. So that more than doubles the cost of a lot of consumer goods from them.

And if China's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products stays in place, that could very much hurt some U.S. businesses like farmers who send a lot of crops there. Yeah. Is Donald Trump getting any pushback from within his own party?

Well, not only that, there's been pushback from within his own team. Elon Musk has openly opposed these tariffs. He's the head of Tesla and SpaceX. And yesterday on social media, he lashed out at top trade advisor Peter Navarro in several really insulting posts. At one point, he called Navarro, quote, dumbfounded.

Dumber than a sack of bricks. Now, on Capitol Hill, things are much more polite, but Republican anger is starting to show. U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer faced the Senate Finance Committee in a hearing yesterday, and several Republicans really pressed him on the tariffs. They asked, for example, when and how the tariffs might go away.

Now, in addition, there have now been bipartisan bills introduced in both the House and the Senate seeking to restrict the president's tariff authority. Those bills, they're unlikely to pass, but they do have a little Republican support, and that represents some cracks in what's usually a very unified GOP. That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleiman. Thanks a lot, Danielle. Thank you.

China has swiftly retaliated by increasing its levies on U.S. goods to 84 percent, up from 34 percent. We're going now to NPR international correspondent John Ruich in Beijing. So, John, what more can you tell us about Beijing's reaction?

Yeah, Beijing really came out swinging today once again, as it had promised. As you say, you know, China announced that it was adding a 50 percent tariff on top of its other tariffs on U.S. imports, matching Trump's latest two escalations step for step. This takes the base tariff rate on U.S. imports into China up to 84 percent. Now, that's different than

the base rate on U.S. base U.S. rate on Chinese imports to the U.S., which is 104 percent. And that's because Trump imposed 20 percent tariffs earlier in the year and China responded differently. Since then, though, it's taken the gloves off. Here's foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian speaking through an interpreter earlier today. We will not let anyone take away the Chinese people's legitimate right to development.

We will not tolerate any attempt to harm China's sovereignty, security and development interests. We will continue to take resolute and strong measures to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests. So in addition to the tariffs that were announced today, Beijing once again blacklisted a handful of U.S. companies, putting them on export control lists or unreliable entity lists. Other countries are choosing to negotiate or offer concessions. Why is China taking this path?

Well, China's casting this whole thing in kind of stark black and white terms. It's essentially right versus wrong. Beijing projects itself as a champion of free and fair trade now and of multilateralism. And it accuses the U.S. of engaging in selfish and irresponsible protectionism, even blackmail in this case.

You know, President Trump said yesterday China wants to make a deal and he's waiting for them to call. Well, China's leadership has also flagged that it's willing to negotiate, but not under duress. The foreign ministry spokesman, Lin Jian, said the U.S. must adopt an attitude of equality, mutual benefit and respect. I mean, ultimately, I think the Chinese leadership believes that China can tough it out and that in the long run, this trade war is going to damage the U.S. more than China does.

It's worth noting, of course, that China isn't the only country taking the path of retaliation. The European Union is planning to put sanctions on a range of U.S. goods, from steel to non-alcoholic beer. You said China believes it can tough it out, but with tariffs in these ranges, these numbers, I mean, it's going to be painful. Yes, there absolutely will be pain from these tariffs and from the retaliation, you know. And that actually sorted the point, according to Guo Shan, who is a partner at the Beijing-based research firm Hutong Research.

She says tariffs are basically so high now that meaningful negotiations are impossible until one side or the other cries uncle in caves. It's a strategy escalate to de-escalate. Escalate to de-escalate is what's happening. She says Beijing has been preparing for this since the first trade war back in 2018 and

And leadership's confident. You know, China's been doubling down on policies to strengthen its self-sufficiency. Policymakers feel like they have a lot of ammunition for economic stimulus if they should need it. The currency's been allowed to weaken. The government's been propping up share prices, et cetera, et cetera. So China's been expanding its trade also with diplomatic and diplomatic relations with other countries. What other reactions have we seen outside of China?

Well, Asian stocks fell sharply today. Some governments in the region are trying to position their economies to cushion the blow. India, for instance, cut benchmark interest rates today. Governments haven't said a whole lot. They're working quietly, trying to negotiate to get these tariffs lowered or dropped. That's NPR's John Ruich in Beijing. John, thanks. You bet. President Trump has set out to drastically reshape the federal workforce. And yesterday, he got some help in the effort from the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a brief unsigned order, the court said the administration is free to move forward with the firing of 16,000 probationary federal employees. But the decision wasn't a total victory for the administration, since, for now at least, the court made no ruling on whether the firings themselves were actually legal.

NPR's Nina Totenberg has been following the case and joins us now to break it all down. Hi, Nina. Hi, Layla. Okay, so let's jump in here. This is only the latest case in which the Supreme Court has taken a so-called emergency action at the behest of the Trump administration. And lately, they're winning more than they're losing, right? Yes. On Friday, the court allowed the Trump administration to cancel millions of dollars in education grants.

Then two days ago, the court threw out a lower court action temporarily barring the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members, though there was a caveat that required all the deportees to have a hearing before a federal judge on their individual deportation orders.

And yesterday, the court threw out a lower court order that barred the administration from firing 16,000 probationary employees. The court said that the plaintiffs in the case were not the employees themselves, but nonprofit groups who failed to show that they themselves would be hurt by the firings. Okay, let's drill down on this latest one. What does probationary in this context mean?

It means the fired employee has to be on the job for a year or less, or in some cases more, time that includes people who are serving in a job that they were promoted to, for instance. Okay, so the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to get rid of that lower court order, and it did. So what happens now? Do these fired employees have any recourse left?

Yes, but it's going to take time, and therein lies the rub. The employees have to first challenge their firings at the Merit Systems Protection Board, which is the federal agency charged with protecting civil servants. And for the most part, the most efficient way to do that is systematically with a class action that says, essentially, we are representing all of these similarly situated fired employees, and we as a class should be reinstated.

But in order to be certified as a class, they have to go before an administrative judge at the Merit Systems Protection Board. And so far, there have been more than 10,000 cases filed since October, including 20 class action suits. And I would presume that when the dust settles, there will be lots more class actions. A lot of suits. Can the Merit System Protection Board actually act quickly? Yes.

The MSPB system is meant to be fast, with cases finalized in 120 days and the judges' decisions become final in 35 days unless there's some intervening action by the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Initially, any appeal would be taken by the MSPB board, but the agency didn't even have a quorum until two days ago, and the two board members there for the moment might well cancel each other's votes out. And in any event, the law allows a relatively quick appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and in that setting, for sure, there will be thousands of employees who do have legal standing to sue and have been harmed.

NPR's Nina Totenberg. Thank you, Nina. Thank you. And that's a first for Wednesday, April 9th. I'm Leila Faldin. For your next listen, consider this from NPR. We here at Up First give you the three big stories of the day. Our Consider This colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you in less than 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Roberta Rampton.

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Since Donald Trump took office in January, a lot has happened. The White House Budget Office ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans. The impact of the Trump administration's tariffs is already being felt in President Trump's efforts to radically remake the federal government. The NPR Politics Podcast covers it all. Keep up with what's happening in Washington and beyond with the NPR Politics Podcast. Listen every day.