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tv   Asia Business Report  BBC News  January 16, 2020 1:30am-1:46am GMT

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our top story: nancy pelosi signs articles of impeachment and sends them to the us senate, where president trump will go on trial. the house speaker said it was an important moment in her country's history. donald trump has dismissed the process as a con job. it's only the third impeachment trial of a us president. the us and china have signed an initial deal aimed at easing the trade war between the world's two biggest economies. some tariffs will be reduced and china has agreed to buy more american goods. and this story is doing well on our website: meet goody the turtle, who thanks to a new prosthetic is happily swimming again. she's been immobile after losing her flipper a few years ago, in a fishing net. that's all. stay with bbc world news. and the top story in the uk:
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the government has defended its decision to support the struggling regional airline flybe after coming in for severe criticism from competitors and environmentalists. you'll find lots more on our website bbc.co.uk/news and the bbc news app. now live to singapore for asia business report with mariko. trade war trues. the us and china signed an initial deal, but is this what businesses want? —— truce. $1 billion from bezos. the head of amazon offers an olive branch to small businesses in india competing against his platform. good morning and welcome to asia business report, live from singapore with me, mariko oi. let's begin with
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the trade war, because after almost two years of multiple rounds of ta riffs two years of multiple rounds of tariffs and negotiation, the us and china have finally reached an interim truce. the chinese vice president, premier and us president donald trump signed a so—called phase one trade deal in washington but the bbc‘s asia business report correspondent karishma vaswani says the devil is in the details. what is in the deal has been highly trumpeted in advance of the phase one deal being signed overnight by the us and china. the chinese were going to buy more agricultural purchases from the united states, helping to address the bilateral trade deficit that president donald trump has talked about. that's a positive for american farmers. it's a politically sensitive year, an election year, obviously, as well as
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addressing things like intellectual property theft and technology transfer, two big issues for the trump administration. in return, ta riffs trump administration. in return, tariffs don't go up and some go down. but what's not in the deal tells you about the relationship between the us and china and where this deal could fall apart in the future. those are things like industrial subsidies for chinese state—owned enterprises. the made in china 2025 programme, remember that's one of the things the trump administration said china unfairly helping its companies out to dominate in the tech space. they haven't talked about those issues and there's enforcement, there are laws in place in the negotiation but it's not clear what mechanisms there really are to get the us to be able to enforce those laws if china violate them. with the phase one deal now done, it negotiators are starting to make new effo rts negotiators are starting to make new efforts to reach a broader trade deal but us president donald trump says tariffs will not be lifted
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until phase two is in place after the election. earlier i spoke to wendy cutler, former acting deputy trade representative to the asia—pacific region. imean, i'm asia—pacific region. i mean, i'm optimistic that the phase two negotiations will get off the ground, but i think they are going to be bogged down by very difficult issues, including issues related to the state directed economy of china, industrial subsidies, the operation of state—owned enterprise and frankly getting more on technology transfer and intellectual property protection. so it's going to be a very difficult phase two negotiation, and i think it's going to be difficult to successfully conclude it in the second round of talks any time soon, particularly in aus talks any time soon, particularly in a us election year. and as president donald trump said that tariffs will not be lifted until the phase two deal is reached after the election, it's not
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actually changing a lot of things for us and chinese and the rest of the world businesses, which have been affected by this trade war. well, most of the tariffs, correct, are remaining in place but i think it does at least provide more certainty than we had before the deal is reached when both sides were continuing to ramp up restrictions. so more certainty, not 100% certainty, but i think businesses 110w certainty, but i think businesses now at least can navigate over the coming months and make some difficult choices and perhaps, you know, start actually putting in place some investment decisions that they've put off. wendy cutler speaking to me a little earlier. what does this deal mean for industries still affected by tariffs? steven lambert is the president of the american apparel and footwear association and he told me phase one holes way too short when it comes to economic relief. we
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think phase two can't come soon enough. we are concerned, however, because all the signals suggest phase two might not happen until the end of the year, if then. that means we have to experience these tariffs for the next ten, 11, 12 months, which definitely means they will result in price increases. let's now turn to india, because amazon boss jeff let's now turn to india, because amazon bossjeff bezos says he will invest $1 billion in digitising small and medium businesses. invest $1 billion in digitising smalland medium businesses. his visit, though, comes at a time when traders across the country have been protesting against the e—commerce giant. we have more from delhi. a warm welcome for amazon's jeff bezos at an event in delhi, and in return, he announced a gift... or what some are calling an olive branch for indian business. going to invest an incremental1
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billion us dollars in digitising small and medium businesses. we are going to use our global footprint to export outside of india, to export 10 billion us dollars of make in india goods. mr bezos hasn't been to india since 2014 and although his company has expanded significantly since then, some attitudes towards the tech giant haven't changed. jeff bezos‘s visit to india comes at a ethical time when the competition commission of india has launched an investigation into the sleep discounts and exclusive offers on amazon. indian retail associations have protested in the past and continue to do so, saying those discounts are detrimental to indian businesses. barely a few kilometres away from where mr bezos spoke, indian traders held a protest, accusing amazon of violating competition law. almost 40% of business has been
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taken away in the last four months by these companies. the indian regulator will be filing its report in the next 60 days. mr bezosis its report in the next 60 days. mr bezos is expected to meet senior government officials on this trip to explore more opportunities within india's strict regulation structure in an effort to keep expanding in what amazon considers to be a very promising market. now, can you now, can you guess now, can you guess the most popular apps on smart phones? well, nearly three quarters of the $120 billion thatis three quarters of the $120 billion that is spent by consumers last year went to gaming related apps. that's according to a market research company, atp and. this woman says it has a lot to do with young consumers. young publishers are driving trends, and if you look at millennials, who we re and if you look at millennials, who were the early adapters to mobile, and we now have a new generation,
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generation c, aged between 16 and 22, they are the ones who are essentially growing up in a world... they don't even know the internet didn't exist previously. mobile is central to them and 98% of this population actually owns a mobile phone, or a smartphone device. it's interesting that android has allowed handset makers more flexibility in order to reach those younger consumers? yes. with the open android ecosystem and with the lower costs of smartphone devices that's been manufactured now, and also data costs coming down, it does make the smartphone devices much more prevalent and affordable across all generations and different markets. i guess this trend of younger people leading the mobile trend was evident in mature markets like japan, south
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korea and so on. did you notice any difference in emerging markets like india and indonesia? india and indonesia? india and indonesia are the markets driving download growth of the app ecosystem, so globally in india we are seeing 198% of download growth rate coming from that market. with the generation z population, indonesia is the fastest—growing among the markets we have analysed. let's bring you up to date with other business news making headlights. goldman sachs' latest earnings have disappointed investors for a second straight quarter and a big portion of their spending came from setting aside more than $1 billion to cover legal fees and regulatory costs related to the 1mdb malaysian corruption scandal. the bank reported its operating expenses rising 42% in the fourth quarter.
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cathay pacific is offering its staff a one—month unpaid leave. hong kong's flagship airline is facing tough financial times as it copes with a massive drop in passenger traffic due to the city's anti—government protests. let's look at the markets, asian markets aren't that excited about the phase i trade deal with the nikkei injapan pretty much flat to slightly higher. we saw wall street overnight rising to record highs and the dow finishing above the 29,000 for the first time ever but as i said, asian markets not that excited. i guess this signing was somewhat expected so i guess it is priced in. that's it for asia business report, we will continue to watch the market reaction, sojoin us next hour if you can. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: key impeachment documents have been signed and sent to the us senate which will put
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president trump on trial for abuse of power and obstruction of congress. china and the united states sign a partial deal aimed at easing their trade war which has dampened global economic growth. meghan markle's half—sister, samantha, has said their father is prepared to testify against the duchess of sussex in the case she's brought against the mail on sunday. the duchess is suing the paper for breaching her privacy and copyright by publishing a letter she wrote to him. our royal correspondent nicholas witchell reports. markle versus markle. as if the events of the past week haven't been enough, there is now the prospect of the relationship between meghan markle and her estranged father, thomas, being dissected at the high court in london. the reason — meghan is suing the mail on sunday for breach of privacy after the newspaper published a letter she'd sent her father.
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mr markle had given the letter to the newspaper. unsurprisingly, in preparing its detailed defence, the mail on sunday regards thomas markle as its principal defence witness. meghan‘s half—sister samantha has told the bbc, "if he is called to give evidence, he will come." meghan‘s relationship with herfather reached crisis point at the time of her wedding. mr markle, who lives in mexico, developed heart trouble and was unable to attend. now the mail on sunday's lawyers have revealed text messages between the two of them. in one, mr markle says... so what should meghan do? media lawyers say the answer is obvious. you really don't want to go down this particular road. whoever is advising them is frankly not doing them any service whatsoever. and it's, i think, important to note
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that the queen's solicitor started off dealing with this case and he's no longer dealing with this case. the royal show goes on. william and catherine were in bradford today, taking part in a discussion about keeping communities together. sometimes, trying to get people to understand that it's ok to have these challenges and we just need to deal with them. on the snowbound west coast of canada, meghan was photographed yesterday at a local women's centre. in 2022, the invictus games... harry, who appeared in an invictus games video, which was released tonight, is expected to join her in canada some time next week. they face many questions, one of them is whether they want to begin their new life with a court case which would make headlines around the world. nicholas witchell, bbc news. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @bbckasiamadera. now on bbc news, sport today.
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hello, i'm gavin ramjaun, and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on the programme: a second—half goal from juan mata sends manchester united into the fa cup fourth round as they beat wolves. baseball's newest scandal has now reached the boston red sox. what next after their manager, alex cora, is fired. and she's won four grand slams, retired twice, but age is just a numberfor kim clijsters. she tells us about her latest comeback to tennis at 36. it's a challenge. the trick of it is that step two see, let's do this. hello and thank you forjoining us on sport today here on bbc world news. let's begin with football.

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