it is likely to mean retaliation by china. ageing listed some us goods from pork to steel pipes that it is ready to tax in return. —— beijing. stock markets have tumbled at fears ofa stock markets have tumbled at fears of a trade war. president trump says as much as $60 billion worth of chinese goods will be hit by new tariffs, import tariffs, import taxes, each year. he has not said how much, but did warn they could be up how much, but did warn they could be up to 25%, and more than 1000 products will likely be affected. we are waiting for a final list which could be in the next 15 days. us consumers will likely see the cost of goods obviously right sharply. it is aimed at tackling the huge trade deficit the us has with china. that is the imbalance are twin how much the us itself to china compared to how much china sell to the us. ——

between. $375 billion last year. any way you look at it, it is the largest deficit of any country in the history of our world. it is out of control. we have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on which, likewise, is hundreds of aliens of dollars. —— billions. that is on a yearly basis. that was donald trump. beijing did not take long to offer a response, saying it is ready to slap tariffs on american goods in return. steve mcdonald is in hong kong. 120 different products they say they are ready to tackle. the latest we are hearing from the chinese government is actually from the commerce ministry spokesperson who has just said the following. china will not

sit idly by and it is prepared to defend its own interests, that china does not want a trade war but it is not afraid of one. his comments come after these earlier measures announced. i should after these earlier measures announced. ishould make after these earlier measures announced. i should make it clear, these measures that we have heard an ounce from china, that is, it is threatening to stick its own tariffs on us fruit, nuts, pipes, ginseng, pork... —— announced. this is in response to the first round of paris from washington. so that is even before the announcement today was made. —— tariffs. china has plenty of measures up its sleeves. sorry to interrupt. finish, please circulate china has many measures up its

sleeve if it wants to ramp up the pressure. we will know china is serious when it starts cancelling boeing jets, or when it puts tariffs on heavy machinery from caterpillar, ipads, iphones, soy beans, all of these things it knows it can really hurt the us economy. people who voted for donald trump, some of those people are going to find their own products are going to be tougher to sell into china following the retaliatory measures from beijing. just giving you a picture of where beijing will impact. there's the

pork. 0ne beijing will impact. there's the pork. one of the obvious targets outlined at the moment. and now we speak to david collins. thank you very much forjoining us. david, thank you very much for joining us. we have some clarity he now, we know where he is not going. the fact that he is doing this is not much of a surprise, it is a bad thing, it is a bad move for the chinese economy and the american economy, you absolutely right that it is going to harm american consumers but behind all this there isa consumers but behind all this there is a point to be made that china has not always played fair in trade. and this is the problem, he was very clear that this is about the credit intellectual property and to all

extents intellectual property and to all exte nts a nd intellectual property and to all extents and purposes, that is a picture that we can recognise. how do you go about this if it is not by taking this very direct action? what he should be doing is using the world trade organization, the world trade organization was largely created by americans in the 20th century. we have a rules —based system that covers things like intellectual property, there is the agreement that is designed as for that purpose, there should be a claim brought by the us against china through that mechanism and by going to unilaterally, it is really vigil at justice going to unilaterally, it is really vigil atjustice and that is illegal under international law. —— vigilantes under international law. —— vigila ntes about. and under international law. —— vigilantes about. and then the us would win and sanctions of this nature would not be necessary and china would be told at stop doing it. -- vigilante. the picture we china would be told at stop doing it. —— vigilante. the picture we are getting is of a huge deficit in

terms of the disparity of trade going one way and the other, can we be terribly precise on these sorts of things? the language of deficit isa of things? the language of deficit is a red herring, we keep hearing that and it is generated by president trump but economist had told us this is not an issue, there is really nothing wrong with having a trade deficit that there is something wrong with being unlawful and stealing, as it were, intellectual property, which is possibly a bit of an exaggeration. what is going on in china is that it seems as though when american companies are investing in china, they are being compelled to disclose their intellectual property and u nfortu nately, wto their intellectual property and unfortunately, wto rules cannot a lwa ys unfortunately, wto rules cannot always address these issues and this is where you start to see some merit in president trump's action. some of theissues in president trump's action. some of the issues dealing with intellectual property could be handled under wto law, but some of it is in investment law, but some of it is in investment law and this shows that the system is maybe not entirely up to scratch the dealing with some of these issues. david collins, thank you.

let's return to our top story for much of this week. the revelations that personal data from 50 million facebook users was improperly used to try and sway the 2016 us election in favour of donald trump. well, on thursday, the european union's justice commissioner, vera jourova, spoke to our economic editor, kamal ahmed. she told him the scandal proves the eu is right to bring in tougher data protection laws, which come into force in may. but she warned that such protection is seriously lacking in the us. if it is that easy to manipulate the data, the mindset of millions of people, then we have a serious problem and of course, it is very topicalfor problem and of course, it is very topical for legislators. problem and of course, it is very topicalfor legislators. i problem and of course, it is very topical for legislators. i can problem and of course, it is very topicalfor legislators. i can tell you that now we have much stronger arguments to say it we did the right thing to adopt the general data protection regulation, which would come into force in may, so far made

on, they will be much stricter regulatory framework in the eu, which will serve as an efficient framework against this kind of beaches and fraud. i have just come back from washington and when i look at the american legislation, i do not see such a robust measure or legislative framework, so it will be interesting to look at the united states, whether they will come in the future with stricter rules. —— these breaches. at the moment, you do not appear to be satisfied that american data protection laws are as strong as the european union's data protection laws and also, they are not strong enough, you would like to see them do more. as i said yesterday the american television, i have a very strong feeling that the tiger got out of the cage, that something very serious has happened, something very serious has happened, something which should have opened

the eyes of all of us and in american society, i see that the people are more relaxed about the protection of their privacy and they are not imposing such a strong pressure as the europeans, and is strong pressure from europeans resulted in the stricter rules, which are coming into force in may. and i expect something like that in the united states. there we are, the justice commissioner laying out her case. now let's brief you some other business stories. venezuela's president nicolas maduro has announced he's wiping three zeroes off the country's currency, that's the bolivar, to try and restore confidence and control the world's highest inflation rate. the new currency, the sovereign bolivar, is coming in onjune 4th. the man who founded toys "r" us has died aged 94, a week after his company announced its bankruptcy. charles lazarus began selling toys in 1957 in large supermarket—style shops after he returned from world war ii military service. mps say proposals for a third runway

at heathrow airport shouldn't be approved without extra measures to mitigate noise and pollution levels. the commons transport select committee dis say that parliament should support the project, once economic and environmental concerns have been addressed. the bbc‘s transport correspondent victoria fritz has the details. it would be one of the biggest privately financed infrastructure projects anywhere in the world, but the transport select committee says there is no guarantee that passengers at heathrow would not pay the price of putting a new runway. heathrow‘s airport charges are the

highest in the world, mps are concerned that they could rise of the project were to run over budget. that would mean fewer passengers could afford the fares and fewer airlines could afford to land at heathrow. airlines like british airways have already urged mps to make a freeze on charges of condition for approving the plans. what the government and the airport are both saying is that they anticipate that this very costly scheme should not result in any increase in the real level of airport charges, and what the committee are saying is that the right ambition to halve, but we want to be sure that you have plans in place to deliver it. more information on costs and charges, air quality and noise are needed, the committee says, to protect the interests of passengers and the well—being of local communities. if the scheme goes ahead, over half a million people are likely to be under or near the flight path at 2030. the government will now be

expected to respond to the committee before the final plan is put to parliament for a final vote in july. coming up at 6am on breakfast, naga munchetty and charlie stayt will host with all the day's news, business and sport. plus, have you got yours yet? invitations to prince harry and meghan markle's wedding have been sent out. you're watching the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: eu leaders meeting in brussels have agreed with the british government that it was highly likely russia was responsible for the nerve agent attack on a former spy. president trump has named the right—wing hawk, john bolton, as the third new national security adviser injust14 months. he'll replace the sacked general hr mcmaster in april. buses have begun transporting hundreds of syrian

rebel fighters and their families out of a town in the former rebel stronghold of eastern ghouta, as part of an evacuation deal. now it is time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in media across the world. we'll start with the financial times, as it leads with the trade tariffs against chinese imports to the us announced by president trump. the times reports that eu leaders are preparing to expel russian diplomats in solidarity with britain's stance on the poisoning in salisbury. the guardian continues with its coverage of the cambridge analytica scandal, claiming that facebook shared information on 57 billion friendships from the social networking site. the japan times reveals that total cryptocu rrency losses in the nation due to hacking amounted to 662.4 million yen in 2017.

and it's good news for the younger generation, as the times reveals that scientists have found that growing older is no guarantee of growing wiser. and finally, it's time to check your letter box, according to the telegraph. it features a large picture of one of the invitations to prince harry's and meghan markle's wedding, which should be dropping on doormats today.