our main story this hour north korea has put on a showcase of its military might just one day before south korea opens the winter olympics the parade marks the seventieth anniversary of its armed forces. all right that does it for me i hope to see you again at the top of the hour here for now thanks so much for spending us part of your day with us. they make a commitment. they find solutions. they inspire a. africa on the move. story of those people making a difference shaping their nation. and their continent africa on the

move stories about motivational change makers taking their destinies into their homes and w.'s new multimedia series. d w dot com africa on the move. true international economic heavyweights report bomb export figures today germany and china but which country is doing so well it's running out of a key part of trade wooden pallets. and canadian prime minister justin trudeau fires a warning shot of washington as nafta negotiations drag on he says no deal would be better than a bad deal. let's do business berlin's finally got some ammunition to ease international criticism over its huge trade surplus it

shrunk for the first time in eight years and that's despite german exports hitting an all time high for twenty seventeen the nation known for its premium cars and precision machinery shipped close to one point three trillion euros worth of goods to the rest of the world a boost of more than six percent compared to the previous year which was also a record imports increased as well to just over a trillion euros that narrowed germany's torrijos trade surplus to two hundred forty five billion euros the government has been drawing fire from the u.s. and other trading partners over the imbalance that trade surplus is still huge and trump is threatened with measures he said china with tariffs is germany next that's a question i asked combat spunk chief economist york crema. first of all as a liberal economist i'm totally relaxed about a trade surplus the trade surplus was not made by politicians or the government is

not the result of pressure but it's simply the results of the buy and say decisions of millions of corporates and consumers in germany and outside germany and i don't know why somebody can criticize this unless i'm lays unless these millions of positions are biased for example by manipulating exchange rates but this is not the case what about trump's corporate tax cuts let's move on to that germany has some of the highest rates in the world is it going to start losing business. well you are right the corporate taxes and germany are high on so they have been higher couple of years ago they have been lowered but i think when i talk to our corporate clients they do not primarily complain about high corporate taxes they complain that the new government would continue to put more bureaucratic burdens on them that they tighten the regulation on the german labor market i think that the

new government is they're not investing enough in better roads bridges and ditcher to infrastructure i think these are the main problems from the viewpoint of german companies and germany last tax overhaul as you point out was a decade ago. is it time i mean so much has happened in that decade and so much is happening right now as far as the digital world goes at least you think germany would be rethinking how it does taxes considering how the direction the rest of the world is going in at least the u.s. . i don't think so we have a government which is in terms of economic policy dominated by the social democrats and during the negotiations was with us america is christian democratic union they wanted to raise the top income tax weight which would have been a problem for for for for corporate owners. and i think the the corporates were

happy that the social democrats did not push through a hike in the german top income tax rate do you see any positives coming out of this new grand coalition i mean a positive is the first the fact that he's getting a government at all after such a long time do you see pushing ahead any any positives. where you already said it we have a new government this is positive of course they are also. couple of positive minor details but the broader picture is that germany will continue to roll back the labor market reforms which. paved the way for the concepts of the german economy i think overall the corporate sector is quite skeptical as far as a second is a new so-called grand coalition germany is concerned your claim of joining us from

comments thank you very much for the analysis thank you. another economic heavyweight is reporting similar figures to germany china's trade picked up in january after stumbling the previous month what's new is a surgeon imports putting the chinese economy onto a new footing imports surged almost forty percent year on year that boid by rising commodity prices and consumer spending exports jumped to by eleven percent china's trade surplus narrowed that's being closely watched by the u.s. as well as the two nations tussle over trade the trumpet ministration recently increased duties on chinese washing machines and solar modules aging retaliated by starting an anti dumping investigation of us all from exporters. now you know your country is experiencing an intense export boom when it runs out of something as monday night as the wooden pallets used to transport goods that's what's happening

in germany and it doesn't matter how good your planning is there are so many factors involved that can cause a bottleneck from the machines that make the pallets to the forests the produce the wood. the family owned company is running at full capacity now in its sixth generation that specialized in producing wooden transportation pallets forty years ago. the head of the family says they've never had to cope with the kind of overwhelming demand they face right now. near the shed was piled high from wall to wall with pallets now it's cleaned out. and why is that. the economic boom industry is literally pulling our pilot straight out of the dryer and straight on to the trucks we can hardly even manage to build up a small buffer as a reserve. fund off the. last year of incl hided took on twenty new workers now with

a total workforce of ninety the company is having to work in shifts just to keep up with the demand. last year germany's palate manufacturers turned out one hundred ten million of them. that would fill up over one hundred fifty thousand forty ton trucks. the sector association says output has doubled in size ten years . in. general the companies are scraping the production barrel basically they're trying to squeeze everything they can out of their production lines with extra shifts holding people back from holiday times essentially taking all possible measures to ensure that every last minimal capacity is utilized just to make sure the demand is met somehow enough i. think allied is waiting impatiently for new machinery. would dry as and heating systems were ordered a long time ago. but the economic boom is evident here as well.

there aren't enough of the companies left that make our specialized machinery those still on the market today have extensive lead times we sometimes have to wait two or three years for a new machine. even the mild european winter is a factor behind the shortages joint managing director marcus winkle hider says it's hard to get wood from eastern europe right now. and you need to europe is done mainly in winter so there's a lot of moral and they can only access the forests when the ground there is frozen and there's no swamp on and they can get the machinery into fell the trees right now the ground won't support the weight of the heavy machinery. they. think of how it is lucky it can process locally sourced wood in its own sawmill that means it can compensate for the shortage of eastern european wood would least. no deal maybe better than a bad one that's the warning shot canadian prime minister just introduced was fired

at the united states over nafta the north american free trade agreement he says he won't accept anything that doesn't benefit canadians the same tack us president donald trump is taking the comments setting up the two leaders for a showdown. it's been one and a half weeks since the latest round of nafta talks between canada the united states and mexico concluded with the gauche eaters saying they're moving forward but with a very slow progress. during a visit to the united states canadian prime minister justin trudeau indicated his government is willing to compromise on renegotiating the trade pact that u.s. president donald trump called the worst trade deal in history but trudeau's said there are limits we know there are ways to modernize and improve off that in a way that will create a win win win when we include mexico there is a power absolutely for that but we are not going to take

a win loss just for the sake of getting a deal there is several sticking points in the talks like demands from the u.s. delegation to have more u.s. content in north american made automobiles that makes the deadline to wrap up talks by the end of march the man vicious to many observers the pressure is on the negotiators to reach a resolution before the mexican general election in july and u.s. midterm elections in november. and briefly in other news u.s. government investigators say they've struck a major blow against an international cyber crime syndicate the justice department says it's charged thirty six members of the crime ring with offenses thing to your credit card and oh i think fifty four least of arrested thirteen members of the organization fold in order in the u.s. astray the of britain france cost of over and savio investigators say the group was a key credit card fraud it's believed to have forged over five hundred million dollars in losses. unfold investigations and angry have reached prime minister back

to obama's family and gary and prosecutors following a recommendation by the european and fraud office to investigate a suspect fraud involving e.u. funds in thirty five public life and projects in several hungary and towns that were carried down by the in the company controlled by obama. in the us says the investigations of politically motivated ahead of a national election in april agree receives billions of euros in the e.u. development funds every here. i start business with you.

more dream international. journalists discuss the topic of the week after germany's longest political deadlock in post-war history a new governing coalition is finally taking shape can it deliver on its promises and how weak. that's our topic this week on quadriga join us. next. is going to. you know

who today nothing would change you know the banks pay a fine and so was the language of the bank more money. for speaking the truth global news that matters g.w. made for mines beat the germans mute and so close in its tracks of noise and culture in germany. us american keep music takes a look at germany it is increasing use of their traditions every day lives and language can just come out of my mom's i'm sorry so i'm going to carry on good show and. pick up the trick of going to g.w. dot com the german. by buying. the countdown is on fox britain's withdrawal from the european union. office next attacks. dealing with it. while politicians doing their.

own reporters are seeking answers in the year ahead of his fiscal. road to brazil today in our series. on the w c. l o n welcome to quadriga germany's include close of election in september ushered in crow longed wrangling between chancellor angela merkel and the pound a plea of potential coalition partners but now following the longest period of political deadlock in post-war german history an end may be in sight after merkel's christian democrats embarked on a difficult courtship with an initially reluctant bride it looks like the new coalition will be a.