hello. this is business briefing. i'm victoria fritz. first, it was aluminium and steel. and now, it's pork and wine. the game of tit—for—tat over tariffs rolls on between the us and china. and it's the first dip in almost two years. we take a look at why business confidence has worsened slightly forjapan‘s big manufacturers. hello. china's foreign ministry says new tariffs will be imposed from today on a series of products imported from the united states. it's a direct response to president trump's announcement of new taxes on steel and aluminium brought into america. some industry analysts had warned that such actions could spark a global trade war. there will be a 25% charge

on everything from pork to wine exported from the us into china, as well as new taxes forfruit, nuts, wine, and a range of other products. with me now is russ mould, investment director at aj bell. to this trade to this time and this escalation in the war of words. —— you following this trade war for some time. is this working? i guess what china has not done is gone for the really big, important stuff, it has not looked that soya beans, aircraft, if it fall?‘ has not looked that soya beans, aircraft, if it is“? “5 get '

- uts vast volumes into - uts vast volumes into china, 3st volumes into china, st: ifslumes into china,szzif£bins 7 f in wanted , st: if gbine sis: t 7 w,” in wanted to £2 if gbine s? t 7 w,” in wanted to £2 if saline 5.5 tv 5 .-5. would be the areas. i am sure those would be the areas. i am sure that they buy some american wine, pistachio nuts, but nowhere near as much as they buy aircraft and is beef, in particular. are we starting to see this filter down into real economic statistics or is it too early for that? we're getting the science, we have sentiment surveys where a score above 50 is deemed to be indicative of future growth, below 50 is deemed to be indicative ofa below 50 is deemed to be indicative of a slowdown or contraction. the korean indicator went below 50 for

the first time in two or three years at the taiwanese indicatorjust the first time in two or three years at the taiwanese indicator just slow down a little bit, so you do not wa nt to down a little bit, so you do not want to push the panic button but certainly one or two very, very trade oriented economies in asia, investors are looking at this going iam not investors are looking at this going i am not as happy with this as i would be if things had just been left alone. the wider threat is if things begin to escalate, if it is not just tit—for—tat, things begin to escalate, if it is notjust tit—for—tat, but tit—for—tat, tit—for—tat, then that is the problem. one thing that they do agree on is that the tariffs of the 1930s in america made an awful situation a lot worse, i'm not saying it caused the great depression but it certainly was a very big contributor in fact and that history lesson is one that most people have not forgotten. speaking in history lessons, it is interesting. we look at the financial markets and how they gauge risk and sentiments and they are not particularly good at learning from

history is. not in my 37 new career, no. has been a lot of nervousness about this, so what can we learn from this? the us hasjust had its first downgrade on the s&p 500, the uk it has a market down 8% in the first quarter, japan is down, germany is a very trade driven, exported in the economy. all of the big trade driven, exported in markets did have a very weak first quarter, so the risk of trade dislocation or trade being affected is certainly concerning markets at the moment. thank you very much. we are going to live there. enjoy the rest of your day off, while you have it. -- rest of your day off, while you have it. —— leave it there. in japan, confidence among the country's biggest manufacturers has slipped for the first time in two years. the bank ofjapan's tankan survey — a quarterly check of around 10,000 companies — has shown a dip in sentiment. this is mainly due to recent

strength in the yen and recent fears of a looming trade war. let's go to our asia business hub, where monica miller is following the story. should we have expected this sort of thing to come through, a bit of a trickle—down when it comes to those tariffs? we have spoken to analysts in asia who say that they were expecting this news to come out the way it has come out today. interestingly, tokyo stocks have been holding steady since opening a few hours ago. manufacturers are definitely souring on the state of the economy, this comes after roughly two years of positive sentiment. the quarterly cheque of about 10,000 companies shows they are concerned again over the strong yen, as well as a possible global trade walk that they are also looking at labour shortages, this is something that japan is looking at labour shortages, this is something thatjapan is dealing looking at labour shortages, this is something that japan is dealing with an older population in general are they having a hard time filling some

of these jobs. there they having a hard time filling some of thesejobs. there is they having a hard time filling some of these jobs. there is a they having a hard time filling some of thesejobs. there is a dwindling working age population, it is pushing the jobless rate at the new 25 year lows, so big manufacturers, as well as nonmanufacturing companies also not painting a rosy victory in the future. they say that they expect the business conditions to sour over the next three months. this is going to put more pressure on prime ministers shinzo abe and his economic policies, by now he is embroiled in a cronyism scandal. —— prime minister. his approval rating has dipped to 5a%, that is the lowest it has been since his re—election in 2012, so we have to see what happens to abenomics moving forward. we certainly will, thank you very much certainly a lot on his plate. one consequence of brazil's recent recession was a large rise in the number of people forced into earning a living as drug mules. when they got caught, the prison population soared to become the third biggest in the world. now, a jail in the north of the country is trying to give its inmates a chance

to escape the drug trade by turning them into entrepreneurs. and their rehabilitation has been so successful, the initiative will soon be expanded across the country. it's time to brief you on some other business stories. donald trump has threatened to terminate the north american free trade agreement if mexico doesn't do more to help secure its border with the us. in a series of tweets, the us president accused mexico of quote, "doing very little, or nothing" to stop the flow of immigrants into the us from latin american countries, and said that the us—mexico border is becoming more dangerous. three air france unions representing flight crew and ground staff have called for a new two day strike on april 10th and 11th. air france personnel are demanding a 6% salary increase from the nationalflag carrier. but management insists it cannot offer higher salaries withoutjeopardising growth in the competitive sector. a cyber security firm says millions of customers' credit cards and personal information may

have been compromised. this is at saks fifth avenue, lord and taylor and the canadian retailer, hudson's bay company. a spokesperson for hudson's bay, which owns the two us chains, says it's taken steps to contain the breach. let's have a quick look at the markets, this is what was going on in the us markets. a bit of an app day at the moment and then we saw something of a similar picture open up something of a similar picture open up across something of a similar picture open up across asia a little bit later on. china's stocks kicked off the second quarter with pretty modest gains, led by tech firms. beijing has pledged a bit more support for emerging industries after data show that factory growth in march was a little bit stronger. that's it for the business briefing. plenty more coming up a little later

on, see you soon. doctors are warning that the pressures usually experienced by the nhs in england over winter are likely to extend into the summer. the british medical association predicts that betweenjuly and september, a&e departments will see levels of demand usually associated with colder weather. andy moore reports. hospitals in the uk experienced one of their most demanding winters ever this year. nhs england says there was a perfect storm of bad weather, fluid emissions and a spike in norovirus. normally those problems ease as the warmer weather approaches but the british medical association says that may not be the case this year. using data from nhs england, the organisation says the worst case scenario could see pressure on health services this

summer, similar to those experienced in the winter of 2016. even in the best case scenario, 5.8 9 million people would attend a&e over the summer months. only 9.6% would be seen, admitted or discharged within four hours. if should target is 95% and that would mean a summer squeeze equivalent to the winter of 2015. the british medical association said its figures showed that the crisis over the winter months had been replaced by a year—round problem. the department of health said the nhs had been given an extra 2.8 billion pounds on top of a planned £10 billion a year increase in its budget by 2020. nhs england said the service was experiencing continued pressure after one of the coldest march months in 30 years. a spokesman said the needs of growing and ageing population showed why a ten plan made sense. —— ten year

plan. coming up at six o'clock on breakfast, all the day's business and sport. the team will also report on why an increasing number of teachers are having to provide basics, such as food and clothing, to support struggling families. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: the abandoned chinese space station, which has been in orbit around the earth since 2011, has broken up on re—entry over the south pacific. beijing imposes new import taxes on us goods as donald trump increases tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. and carlos alvarado has won a surprise landslide victory in the presidential run—off election in costa rica. with 90% of the votes counted, he took more than 60% of the votes. now it is time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in media across the world. we begin with thejerusalem post

and pope francis, who in his easter address on sunday, called for peace in the holy land after 15 palestinians were killed on the israeli—gaza border, saying the conflict there "does not spare the defenseless." the china daily reports on the brewing trade war between the us and china, saying proposed tariffs on certain chinese imports by the trump administration could suppress the risk appetite of stock investors and raise market volatility. the telegraph says the bbc is to insist half of all expert voices on news and current affairs programmes will be women by next year. in the ft, according to the organisation for economic cooperation and development, far fewer workers are at risk of being replaced by a robot in developed economies than previously thought. meanwhile, in the telegraph business section, the boss of luxury vehicle

makerjaguar says range rover and land rover car lovers will have steering wheels "for generations" and humans will always be able to drive if they want. this comes despite the company's new partnership with google's self—driving vehicles arm. and finally, like most other uk newspaper front covers, the independent has a picture of the infamous spitfire as britain's royal air force marks its centenary. so let's begin. with me is lawrence gosling, who's editor—in—chief at what investment. you are going to be taking us through those stories. let us with the jerusalem