the eu's trade chief tells the bbc he is open to a reset of a crucial condition of the uk's brexit deal. and as president trump escalates his campaign against diversity, we take stock of his impact on business so far. hello, welcome to business today, a pan european customs area is something he could consider as part of brexit reset discussions with the uk. some businesses say it'll help britain rejoin complex supply chains hit by customs barriers.

we have more from the world economic forum in davos. so much of— economic forum in davos. so much of the _ economic forum in davos. sr much of the talk here has been trying to divine what the us administration of donald trump will do on trade. the consequences of a tit—for—tat trade war are very severe, but he suggested originally the trade tariffs he planned would be certainly slower in coming and less than expected. that has led to less comprehension than you may expect, but there's general uncertainty. on there's general uncertainty. on the other hand, there's big optimism about what the us economy can do, especially the big tech giants and their massive investments in artificial intelligence. some despondency about europe and how it's behind. he was trying to be very diplomatic about donald trump, skype such provocations as the us president saying that he had eyes on greenland, which is

obviously part of denmark, which in turn is part of the eu. so, some diplomacy required there. as donald trump focuses on canada, mexico, and china first. but also in terms of some discussion about the brexit reset planned by the uk government. the ball is in britain's court right now, but expressed some interest in a closer relationship than has widely been sumed. on the uk side there, there's moves that that direction, in terms of a veterinary agreement on food and farm exports. some moves as the world economic forum anticipates live from the white house a video address by president trump himself. speaking of us president donald trump, he has escalated his campaign against diversity

programmes. he's now pressuring the private sector to join the initiative. he told government employees in the offices administering these type of programmes they'll be placed on paid leave. civil rights groups argue they're necessary to address inequities and structure racism, but they say they discriminate against other americans. one of the issues investors will be watching closely is the efforts to slash the federal budget. led by multi—billionaire elon musk, the department of government efficiency, known as doge, is tasked with finding a way to cut costs. under president javier milei, argentina has reduced government spending by 30%, roughly the number of cuts the us is aiming for. they laid

off thousands of federal workers, eliminated government agencies, scrapped subsidies and halted public works projects. last year, the government brought in more money than it spent, the first time argentina has achieved this in m years. can the same be done in the united states? steve hanke advised argentina's officials in the 1990s, and told me more about these type of cuts. ~ �* . ~ ., of cuts. we're talking about argentina. _ of cuts. we're talking about argentina. a _ of cuts. we're talking about argentina, a country - of cuts. we're talking about argentina, a country for - of cuts. we're talking about argentina, a country for 60 | argentina, a country for 60 years has build up a very tangled fascist economic system, where the government is involved deeply in all economic decisions and economic activity. that's one aspect of argentina. the other aspect is that actually the size of the government relative to gdp is not that great. it's about — it's 15.5% of gdp. and not that great. it's about — it's15.5% of gdp. and on the

us, for example, the all—time high in the us right now, 23% of gdp. the government spending is a lot bigger chunk of the economy in the us than it is in argentina. but the regulatory web is not as great in the united states as it is in argentina. so milei has been very successful at getting this fascist economic control and web, these regulations, out of the system. that's been his big success. and his popularity has gone up since he was elected a year ago. gone up since he was elected a yearago. so gone up since he was elected a year ago. so the lay of the land is quite a bit different. if you look at the us, and what they're trying to do with this doge commission, i'm —| they're trying to do with this doge commission, i'm — i think it would be great if they controlled government spending. i think if they got it down to about 15% of gdp, about where it was before the second world war in the united states, that

would bejust war in the united states, that would be just great. war in the united states, that would bejust great. however, the — the experience with these efficiency commissions and so forth in the united states has not been very good. we had a commission, in 1947, uber commission, in 1947, uber commission 2 in 1953, and all they did really was reorganise they did really was reorganise the government.— they did really was reorganise the government. donald trump has stepped — the government. donald trump has stepped up _ the government. donald trump has stepped up pressure - the government. donald trump has stepped up pressure on - has stepped up pressure on russia to negotiate an end to the war in ukraine. he threatened financial penalties on the country if it did not reach a settlement to end the fighting. donald trump's warning made in a social media post on his third day as president called out russian president vladimir putin by name. he said putin should make a deal soon, or else he would "have no other choice but to impose additional taxes, tariffs, and sanctions"

on russian imports to the us, along with other participating countries. it's not clear what goods would be subject to penalties, or what other nations be included. they could potentially target russia's major oil producers, a move that incoming treasury secretary endorsed last week. the us has already imposed executive sanctions on russia, although it struggled to persuade some of russia's key trading partners, such as india, to scale back its purchases. if you look at how much russia actually sells to the us, it's very little. in the us, it's very little. in the first 11 months of last year, the us imported a little less than $3 billion, that's one—tenth of 1% of america's goods. trump campaigned on promises to end the conflict that began with russia's invasion on ukraine, which has killed tens of thousands and

reduced cities to rubble. india will be watching trump's proposed sanctions very closely. the foreign minister met his counterpart marco rubio in washington dc, in which was the newly appointed secretary of state's first meeting. tell us more about how india is preparing?— us more about how india is --rearina?~ �*, ., , preparing? well, there's a bit of anxiety. — preparing? well, there's a bit of anxiety, but _ preparing? well, there's a bit of anxiety, but there's - preparing? well, there's a bit of anxiety, but there's also i of anxiety, but there's also optimism. a lot of analysts are saying they hope the personal equation between donald trump and narendra modi could play a big role as they take their relations forward. having said, that big overarching shadow of course is the possibility of those tariff hikes, something that donald trump has talked about in the past. he has also called india the tariff king in the past, expressing displeasure about how a trade imbalance exists. while waiting for an official reaction from the indian government, the sense that we're picking up from reports both in the

international as well the locals media is the fact that india is mulling certain options and possible scenarios. one of course is perhaps try and reduce some of those import tariffs as well, another aspect is looking at a possibility of an india—us trade deal, something they looked to work towards in the first tenure of donald trump as president, but it didn't really materialise. so they're hoping they could pick up where they left off and explore possibilities there. and the other important aspect is how india can perhaps look at reducing imports from other countries and increase imports from the us. because at the moment, india has a significant trade surplus when it comes to its relations with the us. in fact, at last count, the figures were $35 billion. so if they can do some of that, india says that perhaps they can avoid any kind of confrontation, something they definitely don't want, going forward, and taking these relations to the next level. thank you very much for getting us across those developments.

now, south korea's economy barely grew in the last three months of last year, it couples as a result —— comes at a result of hit to domestic demand, in part due to the country's worst political crisis in decades. president yoon suk yeol was impeached in december and suspended over his short—lived bid to impose martial law. a lawsuit filed in the us is accusing linkedin of taking messages to train ai. it alleges they quietly introduced alleges they quietly introduced a privacy setting that opted users into a programme that allow third party users to use their data to train ai. a linkedin spokesperson told the bbc these are false claims with no merit. a quick check of wall street:

thanks forjoining me here on business today. see you soon.

i am here with the catch up. prince harry's privacy, netflix gets more expensive again, and a jet lagged cat. with start with prince harry as the owner of the sun newspaper gives him an apology. they also admitted instances of unlawful activity by private investigators working for the newspaper. they say there's strong controls so it can't happen now. they're paying damages, likely millions of pounds, to settle years of legal battles with the prince. his lawyers say it's good for other alleged victims too. this represents _ other alleged victims too. this represents a — other alleged victims too. ti 3 represents a vindication for the hundreds of other claimants 1523 00:12:47,239 --> 00:12:4