Economist Laurie Laird says a trade war is underway as China strikes back with tariffs and the EU and UK prepare to respond.
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00:00China has hit back with additional tariffs of 34%.
00:05Trump has come out and said, China, basically, it's panicking.
00:09But do you think we can expect further retaliations from other countries?
00:15And now, has China's retaliation sparked a trade war?
00:20I don't know when, you know, kind of a trade skirmish becomes a trade war.
00:25My feeling is if it's not now, it's maybe tomorrow or the next day.
00:30If we're not in a trade war now, we're pretty darn close.
00:33And I do think that China acting first may give other countries cover
00:39to begin announcing their retaliatory tariffs.
00:43The European Union has made it very clear that they are preparing some retaliation.
00:48I thought we'd see something.
00:49I thought we would have already seen something from the EU.
00:52I suspect we'll see something next week.
00:54The UK is playing it a little more coyly.
00:56I think the UK feels that somehow Keir Starmer, the prime minister,
01:00can charm Donald Trump in some sort of way.
01:03But I do think China was the first to break,
01:05and we will see other retaliation coming to the fore.