this is the business briefing, i'm sally bundock. australia's recycling crisis. what do you do with millions of tons of plastic? make bikinis, of course. a new era for britain, as borisjohnson welcomes more than 100 new conservative mps to westminster and prepares for a vote on his brexit deal. and this of course is what to do about plastic and waste. in australia, they make bikinis. and the euphoria of a phase one trade deal between the us and china has worn off, as investors go beyond the headlines and assess the detail.

it is a mixed picture in asia at the moment.. —— moment. let's get brexit done was the mantra of conservative leader and british prime minister boris johnson going into last week's election, and many argue it was a key part of the party's winning campaign. however, now the talking is over, and the party has to deliver on that pledge. the brexit date when the uk leaves the european union is set for 31 january 2020. prime minister boris johnson agreed a deal with the eu, but it still needs to go through parliament. a vote could take place as soon as friday. assuming it's a yes, the next priority will be to negotiate a post—brexit trade deal with the eu. talks are expected to begin in march after all 27 eu nations agree

to a formal negotiating mandate. these negotiations arguably need to produce a final agreement by the end ofjune. that is the point at which the uk has to decide whether or not to extend the transition period. but mrjohnson has ruled out any form of extension. if no trade deal has been agreed by the end ofjune, then the uk faces the prospect of leaving without one at the end of next year. elaine fahey, professor of law at city, university of london, joins me now. welcome to the briefing. it is a very tight schedule, isn't it? when you look at those dates, with

negotiations not starting until the beginning of march. it is an extraordinary time for the eu to get its mandate together for the extraordinary time for the eu to get its mandate togetherfor the eu extraordinary time for the eu to get its mandate together for the eu and the uk to agree the parameters to go into the depth of negotiations and to have something by first ofjuly, when we have to decide if the transition period needs to be extended. so it is an unprecedented and extraordinary time period to do such a huge range of issues. what do you think has been prepared in advance? because of course, we have been talking and discussing the prospect of leaving the european union for three years. have trade negotiators on the part of the uk and europe been working behind the scenes? you would hope they have. absolutely, and there's also a political declaration between the eu and the uk that looks like the basis ofa and the uk that looks like the basis of a very significant form of agreement. so assumes there are immense preparations which have taken place. immense preparations which have ta ken place. but immense preparations which have taken place. but still the devil is in the detail, over agreement on a

range of issues, and it is not an easy task. one assumes there is a huge amount of work which is in place, but still. what will be the key sticking point, do you think?” think the depth of the agreement, the regulatory alignment, seems to bea the regulatory alignment, seems to be a major issue. the nature of the language between the last political declaration between the uk and the eu, sojust how much declaration between the uk and the eu, so just how much you want to c0 nve i’g e eu, so just how much you want to converge with the eu rules to stay closely aligned, how much might business depart from them, in terms of frictionless trade, and how far you want to go, because you can't have a truly deep set of trade arrangements without a proper set of dispute settlements. there seems to bea dispute settlements. there seems to be a shift in language but whether that translates into a text which is legally binding, the declaration, whether that goes forward into something more concrete remains to be seen. and will the issue of northern ireland be an issue going forward ,

northern ireland be an issue going forward, presumably, or not? i mean, the political landscape has changed quite significantly in northern ireland, and of course the government in westminster no longer relies on the democratic unionist party to get things through parliament. absolutely, so the political contours have changed dramatically. it also if the agreement is past, it allows the joint committee to engage in rule—making exercises, and to understand what is happening in parallel on the trade negotiations. that is also something to bear in mind because of this very significant shift in the customs territory of the uk and how we understand the relationship tween the uk, northern ireland and the uk formally as a matter of customs law particularly. so much more to talk about, but we haven't got the time this morning. i will talk to you again, elaine. thank you for coming in and talking to us today. and there is a lot of detail on the website with a busy agenda this week for the prime minister and the

government. china has posted better—than—expected economic data for november. industrial production increased by 6.2% year—on—year, up from 4.7% last month and the highest level in six months. let's go to our asia business hub, where rico hizon is following the story. good to see you, rico. finally some good news in china. indeed, but markets aren't really celebrating the news. talk us through the numbers. well, if you break it down, it is all due to government initiatives, sally. from monetary to fiscal measures, boosting these factory indicators last month, a case in point, one multinational company felt improvement. the japanese construction material maker said its machine usage hours on the mainland rose for the first time in eight months, and it isn't only industrial output that is seeing better numbers. retail sales also

accelerated more than expected in november, propped up by the singles date shopping extravaganza. but these numbers suggest resilience in these numbers suggest resilience in the economy as beijing seeks to basically boost domestic demand due to the ongoing trade war between both countries. but it is not all looking up. if you look at fixed asset investment, which was also released today, it showed no signs of improvement in november. and last week's export and producer price data continued to shrink. but when you speak to economists, they say the december numbers could see more improvement, with the us and china announcing a phase i agreement that reduces some american tariffs in exchange for what us officials say would be a bigjump in exchange for what us officials say would be a big jump in chinese purchases. tanks a lot, good to see you. —— thanks a lot. now let's brief you on some other business stories: the us and china finally reached a phase one trade deal

over the weekend. the us dropped plans to slap fresh tariffs on sunday, while some existing tariffs would be cut to 7.5%. according to the us, the agreement also covers contentious issues like intellectual property and forced transfer of technology. germany's second—largest trade union has called for a pre—christmas strike for higher pay and better working conditions at an amazon logistics hub in the country. germany is amazon's second—largest market after the us. amazon said in a statement that the logistics centre is one of best employers, and customer orders are still being filled. boeing could announce today whether to further cut or suspend production of its grounded 737 max plane, the wall street journal reports. boeing has already decided to reduce its production pace from 52 to 42 planes per month after two crashes led authorities around the world to ground the entire 737 max fleet in mid—march. a halt in production would signal

the plane's grounding could last longer than previously thought. now to australia, where millions of tons of plastic get thrown out each year. the domestic recycling industry can only deal with about 10% of that rubbish, the rest burned, buried or shipped overseas. but, after china stopped accepting waste from overseas, australia now has a recycling crisis. phil mercer reports from sydney. much of what australia throws away goes to the tip, like this one in sydney. waste is still exported to countries such as indonesia, but it is a practice the australian government wants to stop. recycling makes australians feel good. it is very easy.

some contaminated items often can't be recycled, and because of stockpiles of waste, much that could have another life ends up in landfill. increasingly, australia is seeing waste as an opportunity. this road in sydney is 100% recycla ble. this road in sydney is 100% recyclable. it is supposed to be more hard wearing than traditional asphalt. sun, sea and recycled swimwear, made from plastic bags by a designer in sydney. i want to send a message one bag at a time that we can make a change, and that this is not rubbish. it is and that this is not rubbish. it is a resource. australia is still a long way from reprocessing its own discarded plastic and paper. last year, it exported almost 4.5 million tons of waste, mainly to countries in asia. that's it for the business

briefing this hour. shoppers are being warned about the dangers of buying cheap christmas tree lights through online marketplaces such as amazon and ebay. an investigation by the consumer group which found that almost half the products it tested could cause a fire or electric shock. our business correspondent katie prescott reports. a christmas nightmare. this is what the consumer group everyone found could happen when very light sold online don't meet standards. they caused electric shocks. when we are decorating the christmas tree, most

of us are probably thinking about what looks prettiest. but all these lights that were found to be faulty came from third—party sellers on online marketplaces, which makes it extremely difficult to know exactly what you are getting, because it is the vendor in these cases, rather than the website, that is responsible for the product. the charity electrical safety first has been campaigning on this for years. we were taught something in school, which is stranger equals danger. and this is exactly the same situation with buying electrical goods from online marketplaces, from strangers. you don't know who these people are, and they could send you anything in the post. ebay and amazon say the product in question have been removed from their sites. customers are being advised to look out for warning signs when they buy christmas lights. those that are packaged in unbranded plastic wrapping. a lack of instructions, and products costing less than £5. the chartered trading standards institute recommends that anybody buying electricals should do so from a recognised retailer, and says that anyone who thinks that they have

bought a set of dangerous lights should take them down straightaway. coming up at 6:00am on breakfast, we will have all the day's news, business and sport. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: at least six people killed in india as police and demonstrators clash over a controversial new law on migrants. after his election triumph, borisjohnson is set to welcome more than 100 new conservative mps to westminster and unveil his plans for governing. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the ft, and the un climate talks which the paper says have broken up in acrimony with countries failing to agree

new rules for a global carbon trading market after two weeks of fraught negotiations in madrid. the times says borisjohnson will promise new tory mps today that he will repay the trust of their voters with moves to keep violent criminals in jail and start infrastructure projects for the north. in the independent, the battle to succeed jeremy corbyn as labour leader is already in full swing after the party suffered its worst defeat at the ballot box since 1935. mr corbyn has said he would stay in place until another leader has been appointed, but contenders for the labour crown are already jockeying for position behind the scenes. in the guardian, china's state broadcaster cctv on sunday removed arsenal's premier league game against manchester city from its broadcast schedule, following messages from player mesut ozil that criticised the country's policy towards its muslim uighur minority.

and finally, howzat! is the telegraph's congratulatory note to ben stokes for winning sports personality of the year. almost every front page has been celebrating the world cup winning cricketer. with me is david buik, who's a market commentator at core spreads. let's get stuck in, i want to get to and stokes, i know you are a cricket fan. financial times, the and stokes, i know you are a cricket fan. financialtimes, the un and stokes, i know you are a cricket fan. financial times, the un climate stalemate is the headline, frustration and all sides? frustration, but also the wrong model. it was great when it was 2500, 5000 people rock up to madrid, absolutely desperate to do something about climate change, which is really important. foot soldiers are important but you want the film marshal and major general there.

u nless marshal and major general there. unless you have the united states of