The path to hurting Iran's government runs through China

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Transcript

00:00Dan, this latest news began, as it often does, with President Trump posting on Truth Social.

00:05On Monday, the president issued an ultimatum. Countries doing business with Iran risk paying 25% tariffs on all goods sent to the U.S.

00:14Broadly speaking, you know, what does that entail? Who would that affect? Which countries would be hit the hardest there?

00:20This is sort of a classic Trump tariff threat, if that's something we can use now.

00:28But it's like, take something very vague, kind of a bold round number, like 25%.

00:35You know, he's used 100% before. He's threatened the BRICS countries. He's threatened them for very vague things.

00:43And nobody really knows what that means. Doing business could mean a lot of different things.

00:47So it's almost any country that has any sort of economic relationship would be at risk.

00:53When you look at trading partners, China, the UAE, Turkey, Iraq, the EU, India, Pakistan, Russia, Afghanistan, Oman,

01:04those are the top 10 trading partners, according to official data.

01:08And of course, a lot of Asian countries are oil importers.

01:12So anything that happens in the Middle East regarding the price of oil is going to affect countries throughout Asia.

01:19And China buys about 90% of Iran's oil. So that's the key country to look at right now.

01:27Everyone's waiting to see the fine print here. Do you have exemptions?

01:31Do they stack against other tariffs? Do they not?

01:34There's all sorts of questions about what it means.

01:38But if it is 25% on top of current rates, then you're looking at blowing up the truce with China

01:46and also really setting back even further U.S. relations with India, just as Trump says, they're important strategically.