Correspondent and early start coanch coanch coanchor Christine Romans. White house officials are saying that they do not expect a deal today and what happens next . You know, its looking grim. It looks like it was not a bluff, jim and poppy. President trump jacked up tariffs on thousands of goods, dishwashers, frozen fish, baseball caps. Right now about half of the products china sells to the u. S. , about half of them now carry an import tax. So how did we get here . Three rounds of tariffs last year, first the u. S. Put tariffs on all foreign steel and aluminum, including from china. Then in july the u. S. Singled out beijing, slapping tariffs on 50 billion worth of high tech chinese exports. China hit back right away with tariffs on 50 billion in u. S. Goods, mainly ag products and that has been devastating for american soybean growers in particular. The biggest round was in september, 200 billion in chinese goods, luggage, handbags and hats, beijing hit back with 60 billion in u. S. Exports in response. That 200 billion nut in september that was originally taxed at 10 , today at midnight tonight it became 25 . Remember it is u. S. Importers, not china who pay those tariffs. Now, experts warn this will have consequences. That trumps tariffs will disrupt smaller american companies. One Analysis Finds it could cost the equivalent of 900,000 jobs and raise prices by 767 per year. Higher costs for everything you put in your shopping cart. The trade war is not over here. President trump says he has started the paperwork for 25 tariffs on everything else, 325 billion more in chinese exports. That would be everything that you shop for at walmart and target and wherever youre going to spend your money. He also has this date, the 18th of may, to decide whether to impose auto tariffs if he declares that car imports are a National Security risk. This is remarkable, its going to hit especially some of his basin credibly hard like farmers. Already hitting his base hard. I dont get it. Help me understand why. The president had a tweet storm this morning including something he fleeted about buying soybeans and giving them away to impoverished nations he then deleted. Its unclear if he knows already that americas farmland you know, heartland is going to be hurt hardest by this. He did say one thing that has resonate this had morning, you dont pay tariffs if you make it here. That i think is the core of what hes trying to do here. You know, he says make it in the United States. I think on the autos, you mean, the early indications are that the president sees autos as another big part of the u. S. Trade deficit. Between autos and china that is where their tariffs lie. You convince americans to pay double for their tshirts and everything else, you know, and then you can make it in america, but until you do that you have a problem. The 325 billion that he hasnt put on yet, thats going to be things like sneakers and pants. Those are things people will feel right away. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Poppy, its a great point, whether its clothes, tvs, refrigerators, washing machines, make them here, absolutely. Sure. Consumers would have to be prepared to pay a lot more for all those products. Totally. Thats the essential question. There are no Simple Solutions here. President trump is showing no signs of diffusing this tense, increasingly tense standoff with china. Joe johns is at the white house this morning. So the president appears to think he has an upper hand because the u. S. Economy is strong right now. Does that hold, i suppose, is the question and are there concerns in the white house that he is overplaying his hand . Reporter well, thats been the continuing argument from white house staff including some of his economic advisers at the u. S. Economy is very strong, that tariff war here between the United States and china would benefit the United States and hurt china more. So as you look at the tweets this morning its clear what the president is trying to do. Number one, hes blaming china and xi for the breakdown in the negotiations that occurred over the weekend. The president and others have said that china essentially was seeking to change some of the language that the United States had an understanding had already been negotiated and agreed upon, but hes doing a couple other things, too, i think. He is essentially trying to tell the American People that there is really no rush here because he says the tariffs are going to benefit the United States. So what happens next, thats anybodys guess, of course, the president did say last night that he got a nice letter from president xi and he was asked if there would be a call between him and president xi anytime soon. He didnt say when that might occur, however, the suggestion is it could occur today. Thats not on the schedule, nonetheless i talked to one adviser who suggested its possible. Back to you, jim. Well, got a lot of nice letters from kim jongun, that didnt lead to a nuclear deal. Youve got to negotiate and make an agreement. Joe johns, thanks very much. Lets speak now to National Political correspondent for the New York Times alex burns and chief economist at moodys analytics mark zandy. I want to ask you first, set aside the idea that somehow tariffs make us money, you you and i pay for it, 767 a year for an average family of four. Lets talk about what china will do you in retaliation. What kinds of u. S. Products it will target and how will that hurt u. S. Companies selling those products in china . Well, the chinese have already raised tariffs on most of the products that we ship to them that we sell to them, about a little over 100 billion a year. What they could do is they could increase the percentage of the tariffs. So most of the tariffs are now at 10 . They could raise them to 25, they could go even higher to 35 . They could make life difficult for a lot of american companies. The most obvious would be the most visible would be apple. So apple produces a lot of iphones in china, they could make life very difficult for them and other american companies. You know, they could manage their currency, the r b, they could allow the r b to fall in value visavis the dollar and that would offset the tariffs on them. I suspect if the president keeps pushing her they will do them. Mark, let me read you from page 496 of the president s own, as jim stated at the top, the president s own economic report, the economic report of the president talking about the tariffs. Offsetting these benefits are the costs paid by consumers in the form of higher prices and reduced consumption. There is a lesson here, mark, isnt there, in history and this moodho moodholly act, it precipitated and made the Great Depression prolonged and worse. Is there anything in history that else it us this is a good idea . No. No. Tariff wars are a really bad idea. They put the burden on us, the american consumer, the american businessperson. I mean, tariffs have increased, they have doubled since the trade war began a little over a year ago. That 35 billion increase in tariffs is born by us when we go to the store to buy things that come from china when businesses buy things to use in their production processes. Its borne by us and, you know, now that the tariffs are going to have a higher percentage and if the president follows through and increases what were imposing a tariff on, all chinese imports, thats going to hit us as consumers more directly. You were talking about apparel very clearly, consumer electronics. So American Consumers are already paying, they just dont really know, its kind of a stealth tax, but its going to be become a very obvious tax not too far from now if this continues. Alex burns, lets stipulate here that china is a bad actor. Puts undue burdens on u. S. And foreign businesses operating in china, makes it very difficult by design, steals u. S. Intellectual property left and right. We know that. What the president is demanding here is china in effect fundamentally change its economic model here. The president believes he has an upper hand. Xi is pushing back here. Is there an awareness in the white house that the president s tactics here might not work and then what happens next . If china doesnt yield, is the white house, is the president , prepared for just a trade war that threatens the economy . Oh, i think theres very little doubt at this point that the president is prepared for a trade war, that he believes in the concept of trade wars, in some ways hes enthusiastic about the idea of pushing things about as far as he can. Talking to a lot of republicans over the last few months and sort of business sector donors to both parties, there has been this confidence that to be candid im not sure where it came from that at the end of the day theres going to be a deal. The president wont take things over the edge and i think today were seeing a lot of that confidence may have been misplaced. There is politically speaking there is a short term long term tension here. In the long term a lot of people like the president really taking it to china for all the reasons you have just described. There is a big constituency for a president or for a politician who would say you do of to fundamentally change the way you do business globally but short therm that comes with a lot of pain is this tune whats really interesting too, alex talking about the politics of this, it was just a week or so ago that joe biden said china is not that big of a threat. Essentially, im paraphrasing here. You have joe biden leading by a lot in the new monmouth poll this morning. It sets up an interesting contrast between how former trpt joe biden now 2020 contender sees china and how the president sees china and how hard the president is going to go against china and what joe biden would do and what hes going to say in response. And a big i think thats dead on and i think its a big contrast between essentially how they see the nature of competition with china. Sure. Biden i think remarks were inarticulate. What he was clearly trying to convey was the sense that china has a whole bunch much problems with their economic fundamentals that over the medium to long term will work to our benefit so lets not freak out. Right. He has had to sort of defend those comments and explain that he wasnt trying to play down different kinds of threats that the chinese pose right now. The president s argument is very much the opposite of that, that the chinese are coming for us guns blazing and we have to fight hard and fight hard right now. What we havent heard from joe biden and a lot of the democrats is what they would do differently to challenge china on the same unrelying complaints. They are going to articulate that especially when you have Chuck Schumer telling the president to go hard on china. Schumer has been essentially a zero cost china hawk for a long time talking about currency manipulation, unfair trade practices, but this is what it might look like to actually take those subjects on. Thank you both very much. Still ahead, the president s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is now taken on a new role, he is planning to trip to ukraine to dig for information that could help President Trump in 2020. Are you comfortable with that . We will explain. Its really fascinating. Also former fbi director james comey has clearly strong feelings about the current attorney general when it comes to the handling of the Mueller Report. Ahead, why comey thinks william barr is behaving less than honorably. We have to be able to repair the enamel on a daily basis. With the new pronamel repair toothpaste more minerals enter deep into the enamel surface. You have an opportunity to repair whats already been damaged. It s amazing. Whats hmm. Exactly. Damaged. And doug. Liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. Nice. But, uh. Whats up with your. Partner . Oh. Well, we just spend all day telling everyone how we customize car insurance, because no two people are alike, so. Limu gets a little confused when he sees another bird that looks exactly like him. [ loud crash ] yeah. Hell figure it out. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty morning. What are you doing . Isnt it obvious . Nah. Were delivering live market coverage and offering expert analysis completely free. Were helping you make sense of the markets without cable or a subscription from anywhere you are. I get that. But what are you doing here . Nice pajamas. Really . I say pajamas. Pajamas, pajamas, whichever. Good. Yahoo finance live. Stream free anywhere. Welcome to the show. Lets make finance make sense. This morning President Trumps personal attorney Rudy Giuliani with a new 2020 tactic, go after joe biden, involving ukraine and bidens son. According to the New York Times giuliani is planning to trip to ukraine to dig up alleged dirt. He is also looking to get information on the origin of the special counsels investigation into russias interference in the 2016 election. Cnn reporter Michael Warren has the details on that story, we also have shan wu. Michael, first to you. What are you learning about what giuliani is up to here, whats his intention . So Rudy Giuliani is the lead attorney for President Trump, he says starting back in november he started speaking with some people, some ukrainian former officials, current officials, over skype and even in person in new york in which he says he was getting new information that he was learning about connections between democrats and certain ukrainian officials, somehow this had to do with the origins of the fbi investigation. He also said he learned some details about joe bidens son Hunter Bidens position on this ukrainian natural gas firm. Now, both of these stories the details of which we have known bits and pieces over the last couple of years, there are a lot of holes in Rudy Giulianis sort of story that this is somehow corrupt. But he says now the New York Times reporting that hes going to ukraine to follow up on these things. We dont know for sure who hes going to be speaking with. He tells cnn last week that he had been speaking with the prosecutor general in ukraine who seems to be on his way out. We expect he could be speaking with him again if he does travel to kiev. Could be clear joe bidens son is no longer on the board of that ukrainian gas firm. Thats correct. Shan wu, legality here, im just curious, the president s personal lawyer going to ukraine. From a legal standpoint is that okay . Is that seeking foreign help, electionrelated help here . It certainly sounds like it. Obviously its going to be much more obviously for example, biden to become the nominee, but this raises a host of concerns legally. Is there a National Security problem . Is he discussingclassified information that he learned from his client . What about the fara issues, the foreign agents registration act, he formerly supposedly was a lobbyist for the ukraine. To your question, jim, on the obstruction start, giuliani is quoted in michaels article as saying hes, quote, meddling in an investigation. Its quite astounding that a former prosecutor like him is so blatantly acting this way and frankly cries out for him to be subpoenaed and this would be tomorrow i can b after the obstruction questions. The broader intention here, michael, i imagine, is to score political points in the run up to the election as you still have questions hanging over the president , the president s son, et cetera, related to the mueller investigation. So there is a political intention i imagine. Absolutely. Of course now that the Mueller Report has been completed, there is sort of those ends and ties have been sort of tied up, and now the whole sort of trump apparatus is sort of focused now on 2020, trying to sort of work on the president s behalf. Rudy giuliani remember is not just a lawyer, he is a former mayor, he is a politician and i think he very much thinks of himself as playing all of these roles on behalf of the president. Absolutely. Certainly not just a legal role. Michael warren, thanks very much for your reporting and, shan, please stay with us. Poppy . It is such a fascinating story. We will see where it goes. At the same time former fbi director james comey is attacking the current attorney general William Barrs character and his credibility when it comes to barrs handling of the Mueller Report. Watch this. I think he acted in a way thats less than honorable in the way he described it in writing and described it during a press conference and continues to talk as if hes the president s lawyer. That is not the attorney generals job. Shan wu is back with us, sabriis a breen nasa sabrina sadiddiqui ao joins us. From a legal perspective is he right . I think he is right. Comey, whatever his other shortcomings may be, has been pretty darn accurate in terms of his legal analysis and i think almost every former prosecutor from doj agrees with him on this point, that barr has unnecessarily reached out, hes acting very blatantly, so i think hes spot on. Sabrina, what about the credibility issue here, though, when it comes to james comey and his actions during the 2016 election, holding that press conference and essentially assailing Hillary Clinton as a candidate, but then not moving forward with charges and publicly reopening the investigation just days before. Is there a credibility issue here for him in making these claims, at least in the court of Public Opinion . Well, there certainly have been criticisms of former fbi director james comey, that he has crossed the line and engaged in territory that is clearly political and thats some of the criticism that you saw of attorney general william barr, that he put his own right. He drew his own conclusions from the Mueller Report and was speaking in a way that was clearly designed in this case to protect the president , to absolve him of any wrongdoing and those were his interpretat