Search
AI-powered search, human-powered content.
scroll to top arrow or icon

{{ subpage.title }}

- YouTube

What if Japan & South Korea sided with China on US tariffs?

Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.

If China, Japan, and South Korea formed a united front, what kind of leverage would they have in negotiating against US tariffs?

Oh, if that were to happen, they'd have incredible leverage because China's the second-largest economy in the world, Japan's the third. This would be a really, really big deal. Except for the fact that it's not going to happen. Their trade ministers did just meet, and they've had some interesting coordinated statements. They do a lot of trade together, and they want to continue that. But the fact that the security of South Korea and Japan is overwhelmingly oriented towards the US, and they would not want to undermine that, means that they will certainly not see China as a confederate to coordinate with against the United States, not least on trade. The American response would be belligerent. So no, that's not going to happen.

Read moreShow less

President Donald Trump, seen here on the South Lawn of the White House in February, is set to unveil his "Liberation Day" tariffs.

REUTERS/Craig Hudson

Trump’s tariff plan to take effect

T-Day has arrived. On Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on US trade partners will take effect immediately after a Rose Garden announcement.

The plan remains uncertain: As implementation nears, the exact details, scope, and exceptions are still being debated. The administration is weighing whether to impose different tariff rates on each trading partner, target specific countries, or enforce a blanket tariff — possibly as high as 20%.

Read moreShow less

President Donald Trump speaks from the Oval Office flanked by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the day he signed executive orders for reciprocal tariffs, Feb. 13, 2025.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Opinion: Searching for signals on ‘Liberation Day’

Now in its third month, Trump 2.0 has sustained a breakneck pace. In recent days, the administration announced 25% tariffs on automobiles, conceived of secondary tariffs for nations buying oil from Venezuela (and potentially Russia and Iran), and reiterated its interest in “getting” Greenland.

Market participants have held their breath for Wednesday – “Liberation Day” – as the administration is set to unveil global tariffs, the lynchpin of its America First trade policy.

As the zone has flooded, predicting the current administration’s next moves has become an Olympic-level sport. Details of a group chat between senior administration officials that leaked last week – the so-called Houthi PC small group – provide allies, adversaries, and watchers with revealing insights into the administration’s foreign policy blueprint.

Read moreShow less

President Donald Trump holds an executive order about tariffs while flanked by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in the Oval Office on Feb. 13, 2025.

REUTERS/File Photo

Viewpoint: What to expect from Trump’s tariff “Liberation Day”

As in other parts of his agenda, President Donald Trump has wasted no time pursuing his goal to rebalance trading relationships and revitalize US manufacturing by imposing tariffs on imports. Also, like other parts of his agenda, the tariff rollout has been chaotic, with some new measures announced, then delayed, and later reimposed.

Despite the concerns of business leaders and investors about the economic impact of these measures – which have prompted a stock market sell-off – Trump remains committed to his approach. He argues that any short-term pain will translate into long-term gain as businesses move their operations to the US and plans to announce a sweeping new round of tariffs on April 2. We asked Eurasia Group expert Nancy Wei what to expect from what Trump is billing as a “Liberation Day” from an unfair global trading system.

Read moreShow less

Public Health nurse Lauri Bidinot demonstrates how to give a measles shot to a young girl at Southwestern Public Health in St. Thomas, Ontario, on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.

Geoff Robins/The Canadian Press via ZUMA Press

HARD NUMBERS: Measles on the rise, Tariffs drive steel layoffs, US consumer confidence drops, Tesla targeting investigated

572: Cases of measles in Ontario have risen to 572, an increase of over 100 in the last week. Forty-two people are in hospital, including two in intensive care. The outbreak is concentrated in the southwestern part of the province, including the Waterloo region. In the United States, Kansas now has 23 reported cases, and the Texas outbreak continues to grow. There are now 17 states with outbreaks of the potentially fatal disease, the highest level of cases in a single year since 2019.
Read moreShow less

Volkswagen export cars are seen at the port of Emden, Germany, beside a VW plant.

Fabian Bimmer/File Photo

Trump hits global auto sector hard with new tariffs

On Wednesday, ahead of what Donald Trump is calling “Liberation Day,” when the administration plans to unveil a series of “reciprocal” tariffs, the president signed an executive order levying 25% tariffs on automobiles and auto parts made outside the United States. The tariffs will come into effect on April 2.

Read moreShow less

South Korean flag.

Photo by Karl Hedin on Unsplash

HARD NUMBERS: Korean exportation of children, Auto tariffs announced, US soldiers killed in training accident, Trump cuts billions from state health care funds, Survival kits for Europeans, Azov fighters get lengthy sentences

170,000: A report released Wednesday by the independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Korea pointed blame at Seoul for human rights violations related to a decades-long adoption program. Lack of oversight, according to the report, led to the “mass exportation of children” — to the tune of at least 170,000 kids — by private firms that were driven by profit. South Korea has been the global leader in sending children abroad for adoption since the 1950s but has worked to tighten its adoption processes.

Read moreShow less
- YouTube

Three big shocks facing the global economy - Zanny Minton Beddoes

According to The Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, 2025 is shaping to be a historic turning point defined by three massive global shocks. “Each of which is big enough for our grandchildren to have a chapter in their history books,” she warns on GZERO World with Ian Bremmer.

The first is geopolitical: the United States, once the architect of the global alliance system, is now actively challenging—and possibly undermining—it. The second is economic: the U.S. has abandoned free trade in favor of escalating tariff wars, threatening the global trading system that has defined the past 80 years. And the third, perhaps most transformative, is technological: the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, which is reshaping industries and economies faster than governments can respond. The combination of these three forces, Beddoes argues, creates massive uncertainty with the potential for severe damage.

Read moreShow less

Subscribe to our free newsletter, GZERO Daily

Latest