this is the business briefing. i'm victoria fritz. high ‘steaks' as japan prepares to welcome president trump. they've ended their their beef over beef, but tough trade issues are still on the menu. plus, "we didn't have enough information" — us regulators defend their handling of the boeing 737 max, which wasn't grounded until the second fatal crash. and on the markets, fears of a technology cold war between china and the us push global shares down further. oil prices slump 5%.

we start injapan, where president trump arrives this weekend on a 4—day state visit. on the schedule, it's all pomp and ceremony — a sumo wrestling tournament, golf with prime minister shinzo abe and a meeting with newly crowned emperor naruhito. but behind the scenes, there is growing tension over trade and anxiety from japanese companies about what the president might do next. japan is one of america's biggest trading partners. us exports to japan were $75 billion last year. but japanese exports to the us were nearly double that — over $142 billion. that means japan's trade surplus with the us hit over $67 billion in 2018. president trump wants to rebalance that, and the two sides have begun talks on a new trade agreement.

japan's car makers are particularly nervous — they sold $51 billion worth of vehicles to the us last year. president trump has threatened to hit imported vehicles and parts with steep taxes, although he has postponed the move for six months. japan is already feeling the effects of the us trade war with china, its biggest customer. it's hitting the chinese economy, which in turn is taking its toll on japanese export figures, which have been falling all this year. ahead of president trump's visit, japan has relaxed restrictions on imports of us beef which have been in place since the mad cow disease crisis in 2005. a gift for the president, who on thursday was announcing billions of dollars of aid forfarmers struggling with the trade war. just last week we reached an

agreement with canada and mexico to lift major tariffs on american agriculture and we opened up the beef exports with japan— did you know that? right? that is a big deal. the first time ever with japan so deal. the first time ever with japan so beef is going to be starting to flow to japan and our folks that do beef, they are very much happy, they we re beef, they are very much happy, they were shocked to see that one but it is happening, it is happening fast. let's get more on this story from japan. professor seijiro takeshita is at the university of shizuoka. there is a lot of anxiety, isn't there, and not just there is a lot of anxiety, isn't there, and notjust the technology sector, spreading to carmakers and beyond? absolutely so and also to the farming goods inside of it as well, as you just reported. mr trump is putting a lot of pressure on japanese farming and i personally think it is a good idea to break japan's vested interest but having

said that, we have a summer upper house election coming up and this is one of the weak spots of the government really don't want to be touched so obviously, these negotiations are difficult for the japanese delegates. how do they go about addressing this trade imbalance that we were discussing in the introduction there? is there a way it can be done in a sort of more pain—free manner? way it can be done in a sort of more pain-free manner? at the end of the day, the conclusion is that mr trump wa nts to day, the conclusion is that mr trump wants to show his power and autonomy over political issues so i really think getting down to the actual nitty—gritty of these matters, be it automobile orfarming nitty—gritty of these matters, be it automobile or farming goods, nitty—gritty of these matters, be it automobile orfarming goods, is not really the agenda. so that is one of the reasons why the japanese manufacturers are really going on the sidelines with all their investments because you can't really determine what kind of rational argument would take place. this is one of the biggest negatives we are seeing, the anxiety and darkness

which is not predictable by these japanese delegates over here. certainly, it echoes of the comments we heard from the director—general of the wto, the effects are being felt in terms of the global economy. talk to me about investor sentiment and investor confidence. hasn't been held back as a result of the spread of the trade war between the us and china? very much though. directly a lot of japanese manufacturers in china and of course getting requests of price decline or possibly sell and as you suggest, if we are to see this trade war that would take place in both countries, japan will not be a simple bystander. it will be directly hit which is why one of the reasons why corporations are withholding investment and obviously, it would eventually affect the private consumption side as well, i believe. so certainly i can see a negative loop starting to appear on this. professor seijiro takeshita, thank you. let's go to the us now,

where aviation regulators have defended their response to the two boeing 737 crashes in which hundreds of people were killed. the federal aviation administration has been meeting with regulators from around the world to co—ordinate efforts to ensure the 737 max is safe. much of their attention has been focussed on fixes for the plane's software system, known as mcas. the head of the faa spoke to samira hussain. we are going to make sure that when the 737 max flies again that the mcas the 737 max flies again that the m cas syste m the 737 max flies again that the mcas system and the inputs that make the mcas system activate are refined ina way the mcas system activate are refined in a way that makes the aircraft as safe as possible. so, what went wrong? there were planes that crashed that were authorised to fly. something went wrong. where did it go wrong? these are active investigations. it would be inappropriate for me because the

question of what went wrong is in effect the culmination of a lot of work and a lot of work that still needs to be done. all we can do is look at the interim reports which we have with great detail and those interim reports have established to us interim reports have established to us the link that between the ethiopian and lion air accidents and the faa with boeing and with operators and with the international community, it is why here today, are examining the link, we will mitigate that link and we will do a safety analysis to allow the 737 max to fly again. in hindsight do you think the faa should have grounded the 737 max plans faa should have grounded the 737 max pla ns after faa should have grounded the 737 max plans after the lion air crash? after the lion air crash we did not have the information and data we needed to ground on aircraft —— lion air. the action we took after the lion air accident was sufficient to make sure that the world, we put out an international notice, could, if

it happened again, could handle it, that the cruise and operators could handle it. but it wasn't sufficient, there was another crash and another 354 people dead. the investigation will determine whether or not it was sufficient and we will find out the reason for these terrible, horrific accidents and i'm confident that working together, we are going to fix it and the 737 max will go on to be as the 737 max varietals before it, the safest planes in the sky. let's stay in the us, because there could be a new front opening up in the trade war. the us commerce department says it may impose anti—subsidy duties on products from countries that undervalue their currencies against the dollar. rico hizon is following the story. hello, good morning. who could be affected by this? the latest initiative, victoria, by the trump administration is another move that

could slap higher tariffs on chinese products. as you all know, the one has weakened against the dollar over the past year as the china trade war has taken off —— yuan. this offers chinese exporters a bit of a cushion against chinese ——mr trump's tariffs. no country in the world meets this criteria and wilbur ross has said this measure is, if imposed, means foreign nations would no longer be able to use currency policies to get vantage of american workers and businesses that this notice, victoria, by the commerce department, says it would defer to the treasury department in determining whether any currencies have been deemed undervalued and it also specifically says the movie is not aimed at any central—bank action that results in currency swings and according to people familiar with the administration's internal deliberations, this move to include

the new currency tool has been pushed by mr ross and white house trade advisor peter navarro since the early days of the trump presidency and this latest initiative could also ramp up, victoria, the pressure on china to compromise with the united states on a trade agreement. —— trump. victoria. thank you. now let's brief you on some other business stories. what might be the retaliation? china may have tested its nuclear option in the trade war, we are talking about government bonds, it sold $20 billion worth of us government bonds in march and if china sold its $1.2 trillion in us treasuries, it could raise borrowing costs in america, weakened the dollar and plunge global markets into chaos. bloomberg has the story that we were just talking about, some proposed new ta riffs talking about, some proposed new tariffs on nations with undervalued currencies. 0n the wall street journal, the latest tariffs will

cost something like $831 per household. this is an estimate by the new york federal reserve which ta kes the new york federal reserve which takes into the new york federal reserve which ta kes into accou nt the new york federal reserve which takes into account the higher prices paid by importers and consumers over in the united states. to get in touch with me, i am on twitter and this is the hashtag if you are following us on twitter. we will see you shortly to take you through some of this paper is stories. —— of this papers' stories. —— of the papers' stories. a massive increase in cases of mumps has raised fresh concerns about the take—up of the mmr vaccine in england. parents are being urged to make sure their children have had two doses of the vaccination, with the latest figures showing measles cases also remain high. here's our health correspondent,

james gallagher. mumps isa mumps is a viral infection that causes large painful swelling is in the glans on the side of the face. in rare cases, it could even lead to viral meningitis. teenagers heading off to university of the most vulnerable and outbreaks have been seenin vulnerable and outbreaks have been seen in nottingham and cardiff this year. there were 795 cases of mumps in the first three months of this yearin in the first three months of this year in england, compared tojust 1031 and the whole of 2018. meanwhile, there has been 231 confirmed cases of measles in the first quarter of this year. with outbreaks of the disease in london, the northwest and the east of england. the mmr jab attacks against measles, mumps and rubella, concerns about disease outbreaks have led to debate around compulsory vaccination however public health england said now was not the time. i don't think we are at that stage yet, we know the confidence in the vaccine is at an all—time high and most people are getting vaccinated. we really need

to make all of the efforts to do as much as possible to get people vaccinated through consent before we go down that road, in my view. people are advised to speak to their gp if they have not been vaccinated orare gp if they have not been vaccinated or are unsure whether they have had all of theirjabs. james gallagher, bbc news. innocent people may have been removed from the uk after being wrongly accused of cheating in english language tests. an investigation by the national audit office says it's difficult to estimate the exact number of people affected because of the quality of the home office's record keeping but acknowledges that some students may have been removed from the uk unfairly. the home office says 25 people who carried out the fraud received criminal convictions. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: there's growing speculation the british prime minister, theresa may, will announce her resignation very soon — possibly as early as friday morning. us officials announce 17 new charges against

wikileaks founderjulian assange as he continues to fight extradition. tying the knot in taiwan, where it's now legal for same—sex couples to get married. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the new york times and wikileaks founder, julian assange, who has been indicted by the usjustice department on 17 counts of violating the espionage act for his role in obtaining and publishing secret military and diplomatic documents in 2010. india's business standard leads with indian prime minister, narendra modi, who has powered his bharatiya janata party to the nation's biggest re—election win in decades. the paper says his victory by such a stunning margin has surprised some political watchers.

in the guardian business pages, the deepening trade and technology war between the us and china has sent global stock markets sharply down prompting a warning from the international monetary fund of there being an increasing risk to the global economy. 0n the taiwan news website, following the decision by taiwan to approve a bill legalizing same—sex marriage on may 17, the first ever weddings are due to take place today. the new certicificates however will not contain the words "same sex". there is some controversy over that. and finally on the bbc news website, the tiger who came to tea author judith kerr has died at the age of 95. she published more than 30 books over a 50—year career and originally dreamed up the tiger to amuse her two children. her most popular picture books also included the mog series,