BBC News Review 特朗普的关税

From BBC, learning English. This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.

In this program, trumps Tariffs. Hello, I'm Beth, and I'm Neil.

In this program, we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.

You can find

all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode, as well as a worksheet, on our website, bbc learning english dot com.

So let's hear all about the story.

US. President Donald Trump has started imposing tariffs on imports into the USA.

Tariffs make imports more expensive, a cost which is often passed on to consumers, who have to pay more for imported products.

Now, donald Trump has imposed 10% tariffs on all Chinese imports into the US.

He says the Chinese tariffs are a response to the economic situation between the two countries and to help stop drugs coming into the U-S, which he partly blames on China.

Now, china has said that in response, they will add tariffs onto some American goods.

Trump has also threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, but these have been suspended.

That means delayed for 30 days.

So let's have our 1st headline.

This is from MSN China announces TIP for tax tariffs as US levies come into effect.

That headline again, from MSN China announces TIT for TAT tariffs as US levies come into effect.

So this headline says, china has announced its own tariffs as the US tariffs come into effect.

That means, start in China. And we're interested in this expression, TIT for tat.

It's a funny little phrase, beth, but what does it mean?

Tip for tat. Okay, so this expression describes the following situation Someone does something bad to someone else, so that person then does something bad in response.

It's retaliation, yes? So it's something done intentionally to punish others because they've done something unpleasant to you.

So it's used in this headline to mean that China has imposed tariffs on us goods, simply because Trump has imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, they've announced their own tariffs in retaliation.

It's tip for tat. Now, this expression reminds me of being a child.

Beth, if my sister pushed me around, I pushed her back.

It was tit for tat. And Neil, I noticed that you didn't make me a coffee this morning like you normally do.

I think it's tip for tat, because I forgot to make you when yesterday.

Absolutely. We ve had tit for tat, which describes an action done as retaliation, e.g.

you at the last biscuit, so I'm going to eat your piece of cake.

That's tick tat. This is learning English from the news.

Our podcast about the news headlines.

Today, we're talking about the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump.

Donald Trump 1st talked about imposing tariffs on other countries in his election campaign.

And our next headline is about that.

And this is from CNN As trump's tariff pledge comes due, he vows to follow through on key campaign promise.

And that headline again from CNN As trump's tariff pledge comes due, he vows to follow through on key campaign promise.

This headline is talking about trump's election campaign promise to impose tariffs.

He said he's going to do it, and now he is doing it.

He's following through on his promise.

And follow through on is what we're looking at.

Neil, what can you tell us now?

If you follow through on something, you do something until it's completed.

E.g., if you promise to help someone, and you follow through on your promise, then you help until your help isn't needed anymore.

Now, follow through one is most commonly used with promises, or things you say you're going to do.

E.g., my manager has said, I might get a pay rise soon, and I hope she follows through on it.

Good luck with that. It's also possible to change on for with or to drop the preposition completely, if it's obvious what you are following through on.

So you promise to make me a cake, and I hope you follow through.

Now, neil, this is a serious story about economic tariffs, and you're talking about cake.

Imposing tariffs and making cake are quite different things.

They are. But it demonstrates how we can use follow through for everyday things, as well as serious topics like tariffs.

We ve had follow through on fulfill a promise, E.G.

he said he'll give me

his prone curry recipe. I hope he follows through on it, because it's so tasty.

This is learning English from the news.

Our podcast about the news headlines today,

we're talking about Trumps tariffs. Now, according to some, the threat of tariffs has actually worked.

Trump has threatened governments like Canada and Mexico into doing what he wants.

Since Mexico and Canada were threatened with tariffs, both

have agreed to stricter border security and are taking bigger steps to address drug trafficking, specifically the drug fantenel.

And this is exactly what Trump wanted.

So our next headline comes from the Telegraph in the UK, and it is, trumps Tariffs are already bearing fruit.

And that headline again, trumps Tariffs are already bearing fruit.

And that is from the Telegraph in the UK.

Now, this headline says, trumps Tariffs are bearing fruit.

And that's the expression we're going to look at.

What do tariffs have to do with apples?

Bananas? Another fruit bet? Well, literally, if a tree bears fruit, meaning produces fruit, then that's a good thing.

But in this headline, the expression is used metaphorically, if something bears fruit, then it produces successful results.

Yes. So according to the headline, trumps tariffs are already producing successful results for Trump.

That's because since the tariffs, mexico and Canada have agreed to what Donald Trump wanted, so his tariffs are bearing fruit.

Now we can use bare fruit in other situations.

If you study hard, you want that effort to bear fruit, you want good results.

Yes. Now, a note on this verb bear It is irregular.

So the past simple form is bore, and the past participle is born, e.g.

practicing for interviews. Bore fruit. She got the job.

Now, a similar expression to bare fruit is pay off.

And at the moment, we can see lots of headlines saying that Trumps tariffs are paying off for him.

They've achieved what he wanted in Canada and Mexico.

The bearing fruit, we looked at bearing fruit, getting a positive result.

E.g. Finally, my hard work at university is bearing fruit, and I've got a job.

That's it for this episode of Learning English From The News.

Will be back next week with another news story.

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