this is business live from bbc news with jamie robertson and david eades. president donald trump brands china "an economic enemy" — and china says it's not afraid of a trade war. live from london, that's our top story on friday 23 march fears of a trade war rattle global markets, as president trump hits china with sweeping tariffs — and beijing vows to "fight to the end". plus, cracking down on big tech — the facebook scandal has proved us right on tougher data regulation, a top eu official tells us. now the us must do the same. the now the us must do the same. european markets. hardly the european markets. the lower, hardly surprising bearing in mind what happened on the us market yesterday, falling sharply. we will

have more on european growth and hésfl't been hello and welcome to business live. we start in washington dc where president trump has stepped up his crusade to protect us industry from what he sees as unfair competition, announcing wide—ranging tariffs on imported chinese goods. the white house says it's a response to chinese theft of us intellectual property and technology. but it's likely to mean retaliation by china — beijing has listed a range of us goods from pork to steel pipes it will tax in return.

fears of a damaging trade war have sent stock markets tumbling. president trump says as much as $60 billion worth of chinese goods will be hit with new tariffs or import taxes each year. he hasn't said how much but warned they could be up to 25%. more than 1,000 products could be affected. a final list is due within 15 days. us consumers are likely to see the cost of those goods rise sharply it's aimed at tackling the huge trade deficit the us has with china — in other words, the imbalance between how much the us sells to china, compared to how much china sells to the us. that shortfall was $375bn last year. here's what mr trump had to say about trade when he announced the measures. anyway you look at it, it is the largest deficit of any country in

the history of our world. it's out of control. we have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on, which likewise is... hundreds of billions of dollars, and that's on a yearly basis. that's president trump. chris southworth, secretary general of the world's largest business organisation, the international chamber of commerce, is with us. some of those figures are our eye watering. we're waiting to see the list of products, but in terms of who will be hated his wide—ranging. there is concerned notjust for the two largest economies and everyone in those, but also the supply chains that reach far beyond those borders. it will affect everyone. how does that work was mag element if you're

manufacturing —— how does that work? if you're manufacturing, whatever happens within those two economies will impact on other economies. that is the nature of the globe. the trouble is, president trump is saying, you know, this is theft of oui’ saying, you know, this is theft of our intellectual property and we have to resolve that. he doesn't have to resolve that. he doesn't have any confidence it will be done any other way than taking china head on like this. there are genuine concerns around intellectual property and steel dumping. there is oversupply of steel, which is a general concern. the whale to do —— the way to deal with it is through multilateral organisations like the wta . multilateral organisations like the wta. -- wto. we multilateral organisations like the wta. —— wto. we have to find solutions to global scale, not between the two largest economies. mrtrump

between the two largest economies. mr trump would say, and i go along with him to a certain extent, that has not worked, and away i will do is to rattle a few cages, get eve ryo ne is to rattle a few cages, get everyone round the table in a few months and i might get a result. everyone round the table in a few months and i might get a resultm you want to rattle cages, i'm not sure this is the best way to do it. it only grinds discussions a halt in the wto and elsewhere. it adds political instability and uncertainly. it is a huge concern for businesses around the world. we have to make that system work. the us is the biggest user of the dispute system at the wto summit is not entirely true that the wto does not entirely true that the wto does not deliver services to the us. trump the businessman operating as the president — push harder and get what you can. the markets are pretty uncomfortable. it is the spin off really, isn't it was like this is not just a china—

really, isn't it was like this is notjust a china— us issue. really, isn't it was like this is notjust a china- us issue. not at all. 0nce notjust a china- us issue. not at all. once you push the button, where is the end of that piece of string from? it is not under trump's control. he has imposed those tariffs, and what china and the rest of the world do next is important. the global economy is fragile, and there is a lot of uncertainty already, so this will not add any value at all. where do you think beijing will hit us trade? what products will they try and affect? we are told it will try and affect products which are to do with trump's core support in the united states. what are we talking about? soya beans is the obvious area where you have agricultural producers in states with strong voting support for trump. it will probably be something like that. the big product

eve ryo ne something like that. the big product everyone is something like that. the big product everyone is aware something like that. the big product everyone is aware of is boeing aeroplanes. that won't necessarily be the starting point. is what you have said about nuts and fruit and wine, that is related to the steel and aluminium. we await the second i’ow. and aluminium. we await the second row. it is a gathering storm. chris, thank you very much. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. venezuela's president nicolas maduro has announced he's wiping three zeros off the country's currency — the bolivar — to try and restore confidence and control the world's highest inflation rate. the new currency — the sovereign bolivar — will come in onjune 4th. you said that with a flourish. the man who founded toys r us has died aged 94, one 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. the bank of england could be moving closer to raising interest rates again. it held borrowing costs steady at 0.5% at its meeting on thursday. but two of its nine—member

monetary policy committee voted for an increase. that was a departure from the unanimous vote at the last mpc meeting in february. more on our top story now — and china's president xi come out fighting against the us tariffs, saying they "set a very bad precedent", and are "not conducive to global interests". his response was to announce plans for retaliatory tariffs worth $3 billion on products. stephen mcdonnell has been following the story from hong kong. earlier i asked him whether the chinese tariff proposals would be significant. at the moment, those things that beijing has mentioned — fruit, nuts, pork, wine, steel tubing — do seem

to bea pork, wine, steel tubing — do seem to be a first shot across the bow, big—ticket items that they could really be targeting if you like to mmp really be targeting if you like to ramp up the pressure, so it does seem like this is beijing sort of dipping its toe in the water. although the letter it —— the rhetoric coming out is that they do not want a trade war but nor are they afraid of one. china has to try to secure its interest internationally, and at the same time, beijing is trying to build links to europe, canada, japan, australia and south korea, these other countries, in terms of multilateralism to oppose these tariffs, so it is a very interesting situation indeed. steven mcdonnell there. markets now, and some sharp falls in the asian markets. the dow was down about 700 points

yesterday. trade is really hitting these markets. hong kong's economy minister said today that hong kong would suffer from collateral damage, as he called it, as a result of these... a trade war if it really goes ahead. the european markets... all of them down, not a huge amount. this is as a result of economic figures out yesterday that were a little disappointing. indicating perhaps the european growth of the last year is beginning to slow a little bit and may not have the dynamism which it had over the last 12 months or 18 months. meanwhile, the fears of a trade war hit those markets. wall street also saw big losses on thursday. the romance between the white house

on wall street flourish for a year, but after three of the biggest drops in the dowjones‘s history in just three weeks, that relationship is very much on the rocks. with the stroke of the presidential pen, donald trump sent the index down 724 points, with all constituent companies ending the day in the red amid fears of retaliation from beijing. construction machinery giant caterpillar was hardest hit, followed by boeing, which last year and a 37 dale —— 30 $7 billion order for planes from china, and has estimated that it would sell the country $1 trillion of aircraft in the next 20 years. as reports of exemptions from steel tariffs for the eu came through, shares in the two largest american producers fell by 6.5% and 11% respectively. a raise in gains made following donald

trump's earlier announcement of sanctions supposed to protect the industry from foreign competitors. joining us is maike currie, investment director at fidelity international. thanks forjoining us. funny how the market numbers always look much bigger in red. can you put all that down to the trade war fears, the trump declarations?” down to the trade war fears, the trump declarations? i think the fears are playing a big factor. there are more things going on. one is the weaker data we have seen from europe. the bigger questions around whether global growth is slowing, and the big question around the tech giants, all the noise we have seen around facebook this week. the bigger issue is that the policies coming out of the white house are notably coming out of the white house are nota bly less coming out of the white house are notably less market friendly, and thatis notably less market friendly, and that is weighing on stock markets across the globe. i find it extraordinary that at the beginning of january, right up extraordinary that at the beginning ofjanuary, right up to extraordinary that at the beginning of january, right up to davos extraordinary that at the beginning ofjanuary, right up to davos in february, everyone was saying 2080 would be a good year. it will be

2019 people will have to worry about, and now we have really changed ourjune, haven't we? the mood in the markets is so... what is going on? the biggest factor is the change in monetary policy. we are on that routes to a new normal, and interest rates... we knew that in january. we saw no volatility in 2017 and the market digested political worries without a lot of jitters. all of that has changed this year. with interest rates going up, company borrowing costs get more expensive, and that impacts profits. we knew that interest rates would go up we knew that interest rates would go up injanuary. we thought the market had priced it all in and we were set for a good year, and yet, we have been completely thrown off balance. there have been left field events, like the facebook than the whole question around regulation, and the

tech giants, the company is leading this market are higher. some of these faults are significant, quite big. would you make a distinction between deep concern and panic? how often between deep concern and panic? how ofte n ca n between deep concern and panic? how often can you see significant falls and still say, ok, they have got a sense as to what is happening and they are not panicking yet. this is getting serious. we need to realise that we have had almost nine years of the market going up. at the end of the market going up. at the end of that, we always see this type of volatility, so things will get more jittery. i think investors need to know that economic growth might slow down. it is a risk that is not that appreciated, but there are still opportunities out there. the eurozone figures — were they worrying? we have had good numbers over the last few years. relative to the weaker growth we so a few years ago, they were relatively strong. the bigger picture is that the

impetus for the european central bank to put up interest rates has disappeared. that route to the new normal, what marriott draggy said, whatever it takes will continue. still to come — how safe is our data? and has it been facebook‘s worst week? our technology guru, rory cellanjones, will be here to talk about all that. you're with business live from bbc news. next has revealed an 8% dip in annual profits, and warned that 2018 will remain challenging. the clothing company trades from more than 500 stores in the uk and ireland, and becomes the latest high street chain to send out a warning signal. joining us is david beadle, vice president and senior credit officer at moody's. the odd thing is that we've actually

got a fairly strong figures coming out of the retail sector today. on the other hand we get tales of disaster on the high street. how can you square that circle? there are a number of different place —— things at play in the retail environment. the results of the 0ns figures out yesterday were broadly positive. but in line with our general expectations of moderate growth to continue overall. what it is being driven by though is online penetration. people are buying more things online. that to some extent is also being —— has also been fuel and food. the things we have seen hitting the headlines recently, fashion, electronics etc, those continue to be put under pressure. it is about the way that people shop. consumers want value and they wa nt shop. consumers want value and they want convenience. that is the key

point. it is not about consumers not consuming and not spending? this is true. we are expecting moderate growth to continue. so you have to look at the individual dynamics first segments of retail, and indeed the strategies and the success of fulfilling those strategies, of individual retailers. name—macro is doing a pretty good job. —— next. there are continuing to grow. profits are back a little bit in line with our expectations, market expectations. but fundamentally next isa expectations. but fundamentally next is a cash generative business with a strong balance sheet. we do not see anyissues strong balance sheet. we do not see any issues with them. elsewhere there are challenges for the likes of new look, for department stores etc. thank you very much indeed.

if you are interested in knowing which companies may be affected, smiths is one of them. you're watching business live. our top story — president donald trump brands china "an economic enemy" — and china says not afraid of a trade war. a quick look at how markets are faring. let's see what we are coming up with. not surprised to see them all down a bit. nothing too dramatic. larger falls down a bit. nothing too dramatic. largerfalls earlier in down a bit. nothing too dramatic. larger falls earlier in the day. that was in asia. that following on from the dow jones that was in asia. that following on from the dowjones and largely in relation to the looming fears of a potential trade war. 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 economics 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 monitor the data or the mindset of millions of people, then we have a serious problem. of course it is difficult for legislators. we have much stronger arguments to say we did the right thing to adopt the general data protection legislation which comes into force in may. there will be much stricter framework in the eu, which will serve as an efficient framework against these kinds of

breeches and fraud. but i have just come back from washington. and when i looked at the american legislation, i do not see such a robust measure, such a robust legends of fourie mark. it will be interesting to see if the united states will come in the future with stricter rules. at the moment you don't appear to be satisfied that american data protection laws are as strong as the european union pots data protection laws, and also they are not strong enough. you would like to see them do more? as i said yesterday to american television, i have a very strong feeling that the tiger got out of the cage, that something serious happened. something which i would have opened the eyes of all of us. in american society people are more relaxed about the protection of their

privacy. they are not imposing such a strong privacy. they are not imposing such a strong pressure as privacy. they are not imposing such a strong pressure as the europeans. this strong pressure from the europeans resulted in those stricter rules, which will come into force in may. i expect something like that in the united states. that was the european commissioner forjustice. let's get more on this with our technology correspondent, rory cellanjones what did you think of what she was saying? europe seems to be on the case, doesn't it? it's very interesting. for at least the last year, my inbox and probably those of companies, have been full of co nsulta nts companies, have been full of consultants talking about the general data protection legislation which comes into effect in may in europe. i suspect a lot of companies are going... and manyjournalists, to be honest suddenly this last week has put this right up the agenda. data protection. and what is crucial

about this particular measure is that it about this particular measure is thatitis about this particular measure is that it is intended to give users much more control over their data, the ability to go to companies and demand their data, to get it a raised if necessary, generally more control. the funny thing is over the last week, from a situation where a lot of companies were saying, this is too tough and will be incredibly expensive, there are no people saying, is it tough enough? she makes the point about the state of play in the us. it is very apparent that there is a distinction. she sees that as a real problem? here is one example. coming back to the cambridge analytica story, there is a court case going on in the uk at the moment where an american citizen is trying to find out what data cambridge analytica hold on him. he thinks he was one of those 50 million people who was basically marketed to buy cambridge analytica

after their data being spread from facebook. he has decided to do that in the uk, europe basically, because his case wouldn't work in the american courts. some data regulatory arbitrageurs going on. that will be a big thing. eu laws will prosecute companies even if they are acting outside europe, but they are acting outside europe, but they are acting outside europe, but they are actually affecting the date of people inside europe? it would be facebook in the states which had my data on it. yeah. we all know what power these huge american technology companies have, the facebooks, the googles, the apples to a certain extent. the whole point of this regulation is to say to us, yeah, you may think you are just an american company buying american laws, but if you are going to

operate in europe you will have to follow our rules. it is part of a stand—off between europe and america in lots of different areas. we saw european plans this week for tax on tech firms. quite a stand—off. european plans this week for tax on tech firms. quite a stand—offm european plans this week for tax on tech firms. quite a stand-off. it is afamiliar tech firms. quite a stand-off. it is a familiar trend, strand of dispute. cani a familiar trend, strand of dispute. can i ask you quickly about mark zuckerberg. he has spoken, he has apologised. and said regulation is good. clearly he has had to take a position. but that will go some way, wanted, towards directing the debate? yeah. i think there will be people who are slightly cynical about this. there is a long pattern of facebook, basically. there is a poster on the wall at facebook saying, "move fast and break things." he stood in front of this post at public events. that has some

up post at public events. that has some up over the years the approach of that technology company and lots of others. you do things and you ask for permission afterwards. yeah, a few things get broken along the way, what the heck, we will fix it. that is what has come to a head this week. he is kind of admitting that maybe they might need to be some more regulation. i think you will probably step back from that very quickly. thank you. that's it from business live today. until monday, goodbye. hello there. good morning. we have got another frost free start to the day. for many it is a damp start. a

lot of rain towards northern parts. gradually the rain will clear away. from any there will be sunny spells developing this afternoon. the rain this morning in northern parts is because of that area of low pressure. this area of low pressure will move its way in across the south—west later this afternoon. before we get there, the rain across northern parts will ease off. showers for scotland, northern ireland and the foreign north of england. sunny spells developing further south. you will hold on to be sunshine in the south—east. to the west, cloud and rain slowly moving into the isles of scilly and cornwall. temperatures 11 to 13 degrees. chillierfurther north. through this evening, this area of rain will continue to spread sporadically north and east. of cloud. that will prevent temperatures from falling too far. we could see frost in scotland and

northern ireland for the start of the weekend. 0ver northern ireland for the start of the weekend. over the weekend lots of fine and dry weather. more cloud on saturday. and temperatures around about the average for the time of the year. let's look at saturday. it sta rts the year. let's look at saturday. it starts off quite cloudy. rain for england and wales. by the afternoon any rain will be confined towards the far south—east. showers developing further north, particularly in western scotland and northern ireland. some could be wintry. temperatures getting up to nine to 11 degrees. sunday should be better for most parts. there will be some wintry showers in the far north—west of scotland. perhaps the odd shower developing here and there. they will be few and far between. for most it is dry and bright. temperatures again into double figures. about ten to 13. but then as we go into next week, if i run the air mass picture, you start

to notice from wednesday onwards we started to pick up a north—easterly wind. cold air over scandinavia moving into the uk. as we go up to easter, it will turn colder. there will be a cold wind. there is the risk of wintry showers and snow. still a little way off now. stay tuned to the forecast. bye—bye. hello, it's friday, it's nine o'clock. i'm chloe tilley — welcome to the programme. in an exclusive interview, double 0scar winning actor cate blanchett talks to us about her trip to bangladesh to meet rohingya refugees living in shocking conditions. i was unprepared for how many unaccompanied children there are. i mean, over half the people in these camps, temporary settlements, are children under the age of 18 who don't know where their parents are and who have witnessed the most unspeakable atrocities. you can watch that full interview with cate blanchett at around quarter past nine. we'll hear from the family of anna campbell — the young british woman killed last week in syria. we'll bring you new footage of the 26 year old, who travelled there to fight alongside kurdish forces.