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narrator: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... brett: you know as somebody coming out of college, it can be very nerve wracking, not knowing what to expect, whether you'll like your job or not, whether you'll make friends, whether you'll fit in, and here i feel like it's so welcoming and such an inclusive place to work, you just feel like you're valued. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation, the judy and peter blum kovler foundation, upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad. announcer: and now, bbc news. >> it is 7:00 in london. this is the world today with mary mcsherry. president trump doubles down on 25% terrors on steel and aluminum imports. the eu and canada hit back announcing their own strike on u.s. goods.

meanwhile president trump complains of a massive trade imbalance with ireland as he meets the ireland taoiseach in the oval office. >> caitriona perry live at the white house where the taoiseach will return later for more talks with president trump and to present the traditional shamrock. >> the u.s. fentanyl crisis, a special report on the impact of the drug on the streets of the u.s., but will the trade war stop its sales? also coming up, food for thought or perhaps temperament? could dishing out fish be the perfect way to raise a well behaved child very warm welcome to the world today with me, mary machinery. the trade war between the u.s. and the rest of the world continue to spiral today with

president trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum coming into effect in the last couple of hours. president trump said we are going to win the financial battle. he is referring to eu retaliatory tariffs. pres. trump: the european union treats us very badly, they have four years. i had it out with them in my first term, did well but we had to solve all the problems and we did but european union has been very tough. and it is our turn. we get a turn at that also. they have not been fair. they sue our companies and when massive amounts of money. they sued apple, won $17 billion, and they use that for other reasons, i guess, to run the european union. they are doing what they should be doing perhaps for the european union but it does create ill will. as you know, we will be doing reciprocal tariffs, so whatever

they charge us, we are charging them. nobody can complain about that, it doesn't matter what it is. if they charge us 25 or 20%, 10%, 2% or 200%, then that is what we are charging them. maryam: we will have more on the meeting in the oval office between the irish taoiseach and president trump in a moment with my colleague who is there. the tariffs imposed by the u.s. that we've been talking about now me and a blanket tariff of 25% will apply to all steel and aluminum imports into the u.s. with no exemptions. we are seeing reaction from around the world. candidate has retaliated, announcing levies on more than $20 billion of u.s. goods, earlier the european union also hit back, announcing its own tariffs on $28 billion worth of u.s. goods starting next month. the canadian industry minister said that tariffs would affect

north american industry, supply chains, and consumers will ultimately pay the price. >> make no mistake that the decision from the u.s. will increase costs for consumers. when you are talking to our american friends, you need to be clear, this is not an increase of the price of construction or the price of the car, not an increase in the price of the defense industry. it will put thousands of jobs at risk, and i would add unnecessarily. and it will weaken north america's economic and national security. maryam: we also heard from the european commission president who set higher tariffs are in no one's interests. >> we deeply regret this measure. tariffs are taxes, they are bad for business, and worse for consumers. they are disrupting supply chains. they bring uncertainty for the economy. jobs are at state, prices up, nobody needs that on both sides,

neither in the european union, nor in the united states. maryam: the chinese foreign ministry also criticized the united states of breaking international trade rules. >> china always believes there is no way out of protectionism, and there will be no winner in the trade war or tariff war. this is a universal consensus of the international community. what the u.s. has done seriously violated wto rules and the rule-based multilateral trading system, and is not conducive to resolving issues. we will take all necessary measures to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests. maryam: the prime minister sir keir starmer said he will not retaliate but is working on a trade deal instead. >> on the question of tariffs, like everybody else i'm disappointed to see global tariffs in relation to steel and aluminum but we will take a pragmatic approach.

we are negotiating an economic deal which covers and will include tariffs if we succeed. we will keep all options on the table. maryam: that was sir keir starmer. our north american correspondent told me more from washington. >> president trump is not backing down. in fact, his administration has said nothing will stop him from expanding it even further. he played the clip of him in the oval office with the irish prime minister, and he really late into the european union. donald trump has always been critical about the eu in the sense that he thinks the eu was set up to quote take advantage of the u.s. there is a trade deficit there but disagreement about how big that exactly is. donald trump claims 300 $80 billion but eu estimates put it at $250 billion in 2023.

the eu commission hit back last month, saying it is the world's largest free market and it has been a boon to the u.s. nonetheless, donald trump believes that america is being taken advantage of. as you have been saying, he will announce retaliation to those tariffs that the eu has announced. if he is concerned in any way about the impact that this could all have on the american people, he said last night to a roundtable of business leaders, that this was just a transition period. maryam: that is nomia iqbal from washington. what exactly are tariffs? they are taxes placed on goods imported from other countries, so the countries bring those goods in pay the tax to the government. they usually calculate it as a percentage of a product value, and business often chooses to pass on some or all of the cost to customers.

let's speak now with the professor of geopolitics and strategy at imd business school. thanks for joining us. first of all, what do you make of the response we have had from canada, the eu, the spiraling of this trade war that some economists are saying is going to damage economies around the world? simon: the retaliation was anticipated. president trump signaled he would act. europeans and canadians said they would, too. the question is whether president trump it's back even further and tariffs widen and get higher and that is the key question. the downside risks are clearly there. we have every reason to be legitimately concerned about the state of the world trading system. maryam: the downsides are there, but for president trump, the upsides are that if he sticks to the plan eventually after a bit of pain and father, american

companies would start coming back to america, building their factories there, doing business, and that will boost the economy. is he wrong? simon: he is right to say there will be pain, cost increases, cost of in the united states as a result of these measures. this will hurt him politically. what he is taking a gamble on is that american firms will ramp up their investment in a climate of such policy uncertainty, and taking another gamble on foreign firms looking at investing in the united states, wondering if it is a safe place to invest given all of the anti-foreign sentiment. he is taking a serious gamble on this strategy, and that is why many people are not convinced it will revive u.s. manufacturing. maryam: so what will it do, if u.s. manufacturing is not revived in the way that he is hoping, what are the consequences of this trade war? lay it out for somebody watching who may not understand. simon: americans in the united

states will have to pay much more for the goods they import from foreign countries. at the moment, steel and aluminum products, products made from them. president trump has big plans to widen the scope of that in april. there will be a cost of there. it will also hurt the american firms that buy parts and components and commodities from abroad. their costs will go up. their competitiveness on the international markets will go down. all of this president trump seems to ignore. furthermore, he seems to believe this will generate lots of jobs with american firms if they do expand, more likely to use robots than they are human beings. so the employment effect will be very minor. maryam: who is going to benefit from this trade war? simon: no one. maryam: no one at all? where will countries invest if they don't want to invest in america because they are worried about america changing its mind? simon: the american economy is

very large but let's not forget the americans only by 15% of the world's goods. there's another 85% of the world's expenditures to be met through imports and exports. there will be plenty of other opportunities for countries to invest in. i think one of the key mistakes that president trump is making is assuming that americans have too much leverage. there economy is not the giant that it used to be when he was growing up as a young man. maryam: why do you think he is pursuing this? if you think what you say is true, surely he is surrounded by people who know how economies work. simon: he may be surrounded by people who know how economies work but whether he is listening to them seems to be a different story. he seems to have a mindset of how the american economy worked in the 1960's when he was a younger man, when it was a manufacturing giant, when there

were not cross-border supply chains, fantastic trade in services and tech. he is locked in literally the wrong century of how the world works. i think it is very difficult for him to accept that the ties we have across borders now are so intense, wrecking them only hurts, does as much harm to yourself as it does to anyone else. maryam: good to talk to you and get your analysis. so grateful. thank you so much. as the tariff retaliations continue, the irish leader micheal martin have been meeting president trump at the white house. let's get more from caitriona perry who is there. tell us more about what has been happening. and at the white house today. caitriona: this is the annual greening of washington, at least the political side of this city. there are several meetings scheduled every year, a tradition that dates back more

than 70 years now at this stage of the taoiseach of the day presenting a bowl of shamrocks to commemorate st. patrick's day to the president of the day. this time the taoiseach is micheal martin, the president is donald trump, and while there are warm relations, it comes at a time when all you been discussing about this trade war looming between the eu and the u.s.. micheal martin not here to represent on the people of ireland, but here as an eu leader as well. they had a meeting here at the white house earlier. before that, the taoiseach was at the vice president's residence for breakfast, then they all moved to capitol hill for a lunch hosted by the speaker of the house of representatives mike johnson. they will be back in about an hour or two time for a presentation of that bowl of shamrocks, celebration for the irish-american community. the fountain is green behind me on the lawn, but very serious

talking happened, as well. one of the first remarks that president trump said was there was a massive trade deficit between the u.s. and ireland, something that he sees unfair. he said ireland is taking advantage of the united states. let's have a listen to some of what he said. pres. trump: we do have a massive deficit with ireland. ireland is smart, they took our pharmaceutical companies away from presidents who didn't know what they were doing. it is too bad that happened. tremendous job. the irish are smart. you are smart people. you took our pharmaceutical companies and other companies, through taxation, proper taxation. they made it very good for companies to move over there. we had presidents and people who were involved in this that had no idea what they were doing and they lost big segments of our economy. it is ireland, 5 million people. it has the entire u.s.

pharmaceutical industry. you mentioned housing and you mention other things. i have property in ireland, as you know, i love it, it does great. i would like to see the united states not have been so stupid for so many years, not just with ireland but everybody. caitriona: ireland is not home to the entire u.s. pharmaceutical industry but it is home to many of the big american pharma companies, the third largest exporter of pharmaceutical products. however, the taoiseach pushed back at these remarks from president trump talking about that trade deficit when it comes to goods, manufacturing and services, ireland is on the other side and has a trade surplus with the united states from an american perspective, deficit from the irish perspective. this is what the taoiseach had to say. >> we are investing a lot more

in america now. people may not realize but ryanair, one of our biggest airlines, the two of them together by more boeing airplanes than anybody else. that is a little-known fact. it doesn't turn up in the statistics but big aircraft companies, irish companies have done great work with boeing. huge investments. there is a lot of irish companies here, about 700 irish companies based in america. we discussed this morning. a lot of them are creating thousands of jobs in america. it is only fair and correct. that is the way it should happen. it's a good relationship we have, an historic one, happened over time. we have added value to american companies, increased their value. i understand where you are coming from fully, but i think it's a relationship that we can

develop and that we will endure in the future. it will change. you are doing things. caitriona: i mentioned that the meeting happens every year, a position that ireland really treasures, having that sort of access to an american president, you're in, you're out. but today's format was different in that most of the meeting, journalism or there asking presidents of president trump and the taoiseach. they have very little time behind closed doors, just the two of them. i was speaking to someone who has been in the room previously in the first trump term with the taoiseach of the day, former ambassador dan mulholland. he spoke about what the experience was like. >> i remembered that in 2020, the start of the covid pandemic, and the scene that every journalist in washington crowded around was around us were about half an hour, very uncomfortable. in the past, these things were done very differently.

you had two minutes of pleasantries in front of the media, and then they were shunted out, as you know from past experience, and then the real meeting started. this time, there was more or less a meeting in public, a very long press conference. that is very difficult for the visiting taoiseach. the oval office is donald trump's home turf, and it is donald trump's show. it was hard for the taoiseach to get much headway in putting forth his views. but i think he came out of it in good shape. obviously, i hope, i assume that when the media left, he would have maybe spent more time trying to explain the nature of the trading relationship between ireland and the u.s. to donald trump because that would have been his key aim. caitriona: president trump at one point saying ireland was

taking advantage of the united states. how challenging is this given the place that we find ourselves, in a trade war at the moment with retaliatory tariffs coming from the u.s. and the eu, which of course ireland is a member? >> we are protected by the eu because they have the weight and the muscle to be able to go toe to toe with donald trump, which a country like ireland doesn't have. if you look at what has happened with canada and mexico, the same pattern will repeat itself with european union. tariffs will give pause, the eu is retaliating but not until april, so there is time for negotiations to take place. i would guess eventually there is some kind of deal between the eu and the u.s., which is good for ireland, because of all the eu countries, we probably have the biggest percentage of our exports going to the united states. caitriona: the former irish ambassador to the united states speaking to me earlier.

president trump saying that ireland was taking advantage of the u.s., but that he wasn't upset at ireland for doing so, more angry and past administrations who had allowed the situation to develop, where companies, particularly pharma companies were in ireland. he said he intended to bring those back to the united states. lots more still to come between the two men as the taoiseach will be back later to present that bowl of shamrocks to president trump. maryam: fantastic. thank you very much indeed. around the world and across the u.k., this is the world today on bbc news. ♪

maryam: let's move to the war in ukraine. secretary of state marco rubio says the united states will speak to moscow today to discuss its proposals for a 30-day cease-fire agreed on tuesday in saudi arabia with ukraine. speaking about russia, mr. rubio said the ball is truly in their

court. the kremlin spokesperson said he didn't rule out the possibility of a phone call between president putin and president trump. he also said the kremlin would wait to be briefed on the details of the deal by u.s. officials before commenting, adding it was studying statements. ukraine agreed to a 30-two cease-fire on tuesday after talks with u.s., the first official meeting between the two countries after the public clash between mr. zelenskyy and donald trump. but russia's attacks on ukraine continue. a woman was killed overnight during a missile strike in president zelenskyy's hometown. the deputy prime minister said four people, all syrian nationals, were killed in odessa when russia attacked a cargo ship. president zelenskyy rolled out territorial concessions in any talks to end the war with russia. a senior research fellow and had a foreign policy at the new eurasian strategy center think tank.

he says the russians will look at the deal very seriously. >> they are not going to sign it straightaway but they will look at it, in my view, very seriously. let's remember from the outset, the russians have said they are not just interested in a cease fire. they want a comprehensive peace settlement. they know the route to that peace settlement is through initially a cease fire. but what i think they will want to do is attach some conditions to this cease fire. in particular, they will want to talk to the u.s. about broader questions of european security. they will keep that channel open. at the same time, they have a record of fighting while talking. i would expect them to probably try to string out these negotiations for a while, and also include in their list of requirements the need to hold elections in ukraine. that is extremely important.

here there is a bit of consensus between washington and moscow. they both feel it is time for president zelenskyy and his team to go. because of martial law in ukraine that was introduced immediately after russia's full-scale invasion three years ago, ukraine has not held parliamentary and presidential elections. these are now overdue. an interesting question arises, if a cease fire goes for more than 30 days, and the russians might be interested in that, they could use the peace process in fact as a way of achieving their broader aims. promoting some internal change in ukraine itself, possibly destabilizing ukraine from within, then talking about this broader security issue. principally about the u.s., american military presence in europe. what they want to know is, is president trump committed to keeping nato together? will they have u.s. forces on the ground in europe?

maryam: the former philippines president rodrigo duterte day has arrived in the netherlands face charges of crimes against humanity for his war on drugs. a spokesperson from the hague confirmed the plane he was traveling and had landed. the court said there was reasonable grounds to believe mr. duterte committed the crime against humanity of murder as an indirect co-perpetrator. he is the first asian former head of state to face these charges at the international criminal court. the pakistani military says it has freed more than 300 hostages from a passenger train seized by militants. a spokesperson said 33 rebels were killed during the military's assault which ended a short while ago. he added 20 one civilian hostages and four soldiers were killed by the liberation army before the military operation began. the media wing of the liberation army has released some footage. it shows the moment that it's

militants attacked the express train in pakistan. the bbc wouldn't normally show footage like this release by militant groups, but the remote nature of the attack makes coverage very difficult. the u.k. has expelled a russian diplomat and their spouse in a tit-for-tat move against a similar action by president putin's government earlier this week. the foreign office has also summoned the russian ambassador for talks with russia accused of pursuing increasingly aggressive and coordinated campaigns of harassment against british officials in moscow. narrator: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... bdo, accountants and advisors, funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation, the judy and peter blum kovler foundation, upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad.

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