this is business briefing. i'm sally bundock. the road to china — uk prime minister theresa may has arrived hoping to drum up a free trade deal for britain after brexit. and just how great is the american economy? we weigh up the reaction to president trump's state of the union address. after one of the best januarys on record for global markets, profit taking is taking hold with japan's main stock market already wiping out its gains for the year. let us get started. we are focusing in more detail the uk prime minister's trip to china.

the uk prime minister theresa may has announced new education links with china as she arrives for a three—day visit to boost trade and investment after brexit. she has claimed her visit "will intensify the golden era in uk—china relations". but also stressed china must adhere to free and fair trade practices. trade between the two is already worth more than $80 billion and the uk's trade secretary, liam fox, says that exports to china increased by over 25% in the last year alone. but the talks are about more than just trade. the two sides will want to ensure that investment between the two countries is both fair and transparent. chinese businesses have been pursuing huge international expansion plans with investment in the uk more than doubling in 2017. with me is drjie yu, head of china foresight at london school of economics ideas. good to see you this morning. just tell us what britain may take away

from this three—day trip. what are your thoughts? obviously, it is an exploration trip, potentially exploring free trade deals and trading investment deals between beijing and london. that is the first thing. secondly, britain is looking to furthering its own service looking to furthering its own service economy looking to furthering its own service economy in china. the next development stage of the chinese economy is what they are looking for, how to develop a world advanced service economy. that is what theresa may will try to sell to the chinese business community. how will she be received given the uk leaving the european union, what is on china's agenda? two things, the chinese will be wondering what exactly is the clarity of the present plan theresa may has. secondly, china sees a huge

opportunity. china wanted to negotiate with the european union on free trade, it was not able to do that. it will probably be able to do that. it will probably be able to do that with the uk. what about the issue of fair trade, as it were. there is a lot of talk about unfair subsidies for things like steel, that it had a huge impact on the uk economy. that is just one example. to what extent will she make any inroads when it comes to the issue offair inroads when it comes to the issue of fair trade? i think it is more rhetoric rather than substance. she addressed that issue to her domestic audience, allies in the west. on the other hand, china is not really in condition mode with the british economy. china is manufacturing while britain is services. we seeing it strategically in areas like rail infrastructure and that kind of

thing, what does china want in terms of what uk what has to offer? firstly, a safe and secure home for its own money. uk is mostly open for business. also for the technology. certain advanced technology china could not buy in continental europe could not buy in continental europe could get it from the uk. interesting. thank you drjie yu of your time this morning. we will keep a close eye. any announcement on news we will bring you on the bbc. now to talk about the other big event that has been going on in the last couple of hours. president trump set out what he say are the economic achievements of his administration in the so called state of the union address before the joint houses of congress. he said millions of newjobs had been created, and small business confidence was at an all time high. since the election, we have created 2.4 million newjobs, including...

applause. including 200,000 newjobs in manufacturing alone. applause. after yea rs in manufacturing alone. applause. after years and years of wage stagnation, we are finally seen rising wages. when it came to the economy he very much stayed on message. yogita limaye joins from new york. you are listening as well. he really made the economy look big, did he?l lot of what he said is factually correct. you do have unemployment at ai7 correct. you do have unemployment at a 17 year low. you have jobs correct. you do have unemployment at a 17 year low. you havejobs being created is, in particular, in the manufacturing sector. wage growth, he talked about that as a success,

but actually that has been a big problem area for the economy, because wage growth has been quite slow. it is going up but it is going up slow. it is going up but it is going up really slowly. all of that is something we expected him to do. the important thing we had on the economic front were really about the infrastructure push and about drug prices. the infrastructure push is something we have been expecting to bea something we have been expecting to be a big focus for 2018. i think today in the speech there were some details 1.5 trillion infrastructure plan. he talked about how he wanted that to be funded. he wanted a federal, state, and local government funds, along with the private sector where needed. as far as drug prices are concerned, where needed. as far as drug prices are concerned , we where needed. as far as drug prices are concerned, we heard about this a lot when he was campaigning, that he thinks drug prices are too high in the uk. he said it is bothering him and he wanted brought down. in the

first year of the presidency we did not see any action on that front. the present very clearly said it is a top priority for his administration. i wonder whether we might see some sort of a reaction there from the healthcare sector. thank you very much indeed. what did he have to say about foreign trade. last week with the tariffs slapped on still prices coming in from asia to the us on the part of the white house administration. this is what he had to say about trade. the era of economic surrender is totally over. from now on we expect trading relationships to be fair and very importantly reciprocal. applause. we will work to fix they'd trade deals and negotiate new ones. and they will be good ones, but they will be

fair. and we will protect american workers and american intellectual property through strong enforcement of our trade rules. so, how was that recevied in asia where trade with the us is very important? our asia business correspondent karisma vaswani joins me now from the scentre of singapore's financial district. good to see you. he stayed very much on message, didn't he? we saw this last week in davos that the world economic forum. yes, those that seem to be the president's favourite words when it comes to trade. he talked about making trade fair, free, and reciprocal. to give him credit, he did pull out of some of those unfair trade deals in the first year in office, unfettered from his perspective, the transpacific partnership agreement. a lot of people in the aftermath of

that speech said they were pleased he did not go as far as many expected him to when it came to china and a trade war. a lot of a nalysts as china and a trade war. a lot of analysts as well saying that was the key thing missing from the state of the union today, although he did reference china with regards to the national security strategy. he did not come down as hard on china as many had thought. the day before the state of the union, the white house did release a statement on unfair trade practices in china and that went through in detail, the section that they have launched it against unfair intellectual property rights in china. with regard to actual action on unfair trade, besides saying what we have heard before, there was very little in terms of specifics. ok, thank you karisma vaswani, giving us the perspective from asia. let us have a look at the financial

markets to see how they are faring today. as i have already mentioned, a loss of profit taking. this is australia and hong kong behind me. that is the night before on wall street. the other main markets on wall street much lower. let us look at the commodity prices. the price of oil has dipped quite a lot, over 196. of oil has dipped quite a lot, over 1%. other commodities also headed lower. it is the 31st of january, of course, people having had the most euphoric start to the year on global financial markets are nowjust taking in some profits. we have the federal reserve meeting concluding today in the united states. that is very much a focus for international markets. news briefing is coming up next. we will talk you through the stories making the headlines in the global media. see you in a moment. there are fresh calls

for the government to fortify flour with the b vitamin, folic acid to help protect babies in the uk from common birth defects. researchers from the university of london say higher doses of the vitamin do not cause harm, despite previous evidence. our health correspondent adina campbell reports. this is nice and warm. folic acid is crucial in the first four weeks of a ba by‘s crucial in the first four weeks of a baby's development, crucial in the first four weeks of a ba by‘s development, but crucial in the first four weeks of a baby's development, but awareness varies. i started to take folic acid six months before we started to get pregnant. my friends were not aware about folic acid. i don't the taking. they did not much about it. with my five—year—old, once i found out i was pregnant i took it. i did

not know you had to take it before conceiving. to ensure all babies have the best start in life, scientists and some charities have now renewed calls for folic acid to be added to flour in the uk, after a new study suggests higher doses of the vitamin are not harmful. it found there was no link between folic acid and neurological damage, with no need for an upper limit, and that previous evidence was out of date and flawed. two women a day have a termination of pregnancy on account of a diagnosis of a neural tube defect. if much of that or part of that can be avoided by fortification, that is a good thing. the department of health in england says it is now carefully considering conclusions from this latest research, while wales, scotland, and

northern ireland already support the idea. folic acid is already found in flower in more than 80 countries worldwide, scientists say this latest study offers more evidence of overwhelming benefits —— flour. adina campbell, bbc news. you are with the cabinet briefing from bbc news. here are the headlines president trump has appealed for political unity in the us in his first state of the union address. he urged congress to come together to support his immigration reforms but he also promised to be tough with america's foreign adversaries. joe kennedy, the great—nephew of president kennedy, gave the official response for the democrats. he condemned what he called the chaos of the last year. a government employee who caused panic in hawaii when he sent out a false alert for an imminent ballistic missile attack last month has been sacked —— earlier this month.

the british prime minister, theresa may, has arrived in china for a three—day visit to boost trade and investment after brexit. let us have a look at how the media is digesting some other stories. this is fox news. they wanted to give you two sides of the story. this is the online edition. trump calls for strength. the article looking at the president kicking off is addressed last night by calling on lawmakers of both parties to work in unity. the washington post website points to the conflicting messages in trump's address. he calls for unity, but also celebrates the results of his combative and deeply partisan first year. it talks about the guantanamo bay lines as well. that some of the press action.

the arab news reports on the warning from the international monetary fund to arab countries to urgently create more jobs or risk further economic protests. the top story in the daily telegraph: uk's former chief scientist says german car makers have "blood on their hands" for performing rigged experiments on monkeys and that this duplicity led to the deaths of thousands of britons. the metro takes a look at the reaction from women presenters over a report claiming there is no gender bias at the bbc. they're calling it the ‘farce' and the furious and the front page of the japan times has a story on how the japanese government is expected to approve basic research on growing human organs in animals — as well as producing human brain cells, eggs and sperm.