global movers and shakers have reported to the swiss resort town of davos but many world leaders are not attending this year's world economic forum and the outlook for the economy is gloomy. and breaks it is a mess in an exclusive interview former british prime minister tony blair tells d.w. what he thinks of three cities present plan and whether he bears any responsibility for what's going on. i'm stephen beers in berlin thanks for joining us truck cancel she won't be there either so is this year's davos meeting a chance for the europeans to turn the spotlight on themselves there's certainly plenty to discuss. these added again part of a promotion for a scottish company into of us but it's hard not to hear a melancholic tune after all by next year's world economic forum britain should

officially be out of the e.u. it's still not clear how so the british prime minister cancelled her visit to you might see prince william cross your path he probably won't be commenting on brags that though but others like this top german economist are speaking their minds. this is the terrible thing is that the e.u. is trying to find a way to make britain an offer for leaving that doesn't make sense we want them to stay in the e.u. we want them to be part of it we have a historic opportunity to turn the situation around the e.u. should be making britain an offer to stay. if brakes had were off the table europe could finally concentrate on the future again it would do well to act now so that it's not left behind in competition with china and the us light it's time to talk about a new european economic policy in the us consumer sector there is the digital platform

economy in china we see how industry is rapidly digitizing and one of the big issues here is what is the future of digital infrastructure for european industry and davros is of course a forum where all that's being discussed. that. europe will try to set the tone in davos this year even though everything is being overshadowed by briggs it. and on briggs it british prime minister theresa may is facing mounting calls for a second referendum one of those voices belongs to former british prime minister tony blair blair is in davos this week and he told correspondent ben physical and why he believes a new vote is necessary. as i understand that the idea is to to change the withdrawal agreement obviously that's a matter of negotiation between the british government and europe but look myself and others have been arguing in the u.k. that this process is is a mess. there's no agreement as to what the future trading relationship with europe

should be one group of people want us to stay close to europe another group one has to break out of the european trading system altogether these are very different futures and our view is that it's got to go back to the people for decision because parliament i think will be blocked i doubt that she can get a deal through there's nobody already for any other form of break that and therefore the sensible thing in this situation is to go back and ask the people how would a second referendum change anything will change it because it would give us a conclusive result i mean people sometimes say well if you have another referendum isn't that a damage to democracy but look we're going back to the people we're not asking anyone else risking them within thirty months of negotiation there's a much clearer knowledge now of what breaks it really means is a much greater understanding of all the issues around it and i think it's not unreasonable in these circumstances to ask people whether they want to think again whether or not we get another referendum what sort of break will we get in the end

do you think all of the moment we just don't know and the trouble is that the two versions of bragg's it that make any sense if you like because obviously a no deal breaks it would be catastrophic for everyone. the two versions are very different one version has us remaining in the single market for example or the customs union but the problem with that briggs is that it means you keep to europe's rules but you've lost your say over them which would be an odd thing to do given you know what the break that people want is to break out of the system. secondly you could go for a third country standard free trade agreement like canada for example the problem with that is that it will disrupt british business that for four and a half decades has been doing business creating relationships trading investing on the basis that we're part of the european trading system the single market the customs union so you've got a very good at this point listen one that's painful than the choice is not a good one this is why parliament's blocked and the trouble with the deal mrs may's

putting forward at the moment is that it is completely ambiguous take about the future and i think it's not wise either for europe or for britain to leave without knowing what the future is what would you have done in the position i think the only thing that you can do is to explain to people in a sense for the prime minister to become the nation's educator in a way and say look here are the different options this is what they mean parliaments now got to come to a choice of parliament can choose because m.p.'s can find to break the works for them then you know it's not i think it's not wrong or strange to go back and say on a decision of this magnitude it's important to us the people in all politeness so what did you do wrong in your term in office that possibly set the stage for this or led to this type of exacerbated feeling or thanks from from brits that they're not getting a good deal from the european union you know the thing is in my period in

government obviously we had a lot of controversies in europe. but we were constantly one making the case as to why britain should be part of europe nonetheless despite all our criticisms of the european system germans of all criticisms of your do by the way everyone has secondly the failure to deal with the underlying issues immigration number one communities and people feeling left behind by globalization now if i've been in government my view is you've got to deal with these issues in other words even if you try and change greg's it you've got to understand what gave rise to breaks it and you have to deal with those underlying issues if you don't then you're going to have a major problem and the trouble is the break that itself is not really an answer to any of these issues so this is the. the dilemma the britons in and we've got to find a way out of it so what's britain going to look like in the next ten years will it be so great look the one thing i'd say it is important to say this to any outside

audience we're having a pretty profound and crisis written debate in britain right now but britain is a great country and the british people are great people will get on our feet again so you know whatever happens even if we can passionately opposed to break that but even if we do breaks it you know we will sort ourselves out and we'll get back on our feet and we'll we'll move forward so this is not simply about britain either what i'd say to any audience in europe is this is about europe do you pull a large economy out of europe a major political player out of europe europe's weaker so this is why if we can find a way and you know there's a letter recently from german politicians that was actually very helpful very sensible letter. signed by you know the leaders of some of the main parties in germany this is this is what we need to do we need to realise both of us europeans british our future should be together. and that was the former prime minister of britain tony blair speaking earlier to detail he's been physical and in davos so

the business world is watching what's happening at davos let's go to our correspondent yens korda in new york where markets are reacting in part to news from that meeting and talking of course about the i.m.f. lowering its growth projection and warning of a slowdown yes how are markets reacting to this news from the i.m.f. well we certainly is soul wall street trading lower on houston because of the martin luther king day holiday on monday wall street to catch up with the reason news flow and then the i.m.f. is lowering the projections for global economic growth is just further evidence that the economy in the u.s. but also globally is not doing as good as earlier projected on top of it we also got some weaker economic news out of china so in twenty a t. in china actually saw the slowest economic growth since ninety and ninety and then

on top of it here on q. stay there were some reports that trade talks between china and the u.s. that were supposed to happen this week got cancelled even if white house official later denied those reports but all of that together blue chips lost about three hundred points in value the tech stocks in the form of the nasdaq composite lost even almost two percent in value and then there's also the sense that the recent come big that we saw on wall street might have been overdone blue chips gained three thousand points just within the past four weeks quarter there for us in new york thank you against. and let's go back to davos the newly minted populist president of brazil jebel scenario is also there he selling his new brazil to the global establishment now both and all in brazil urgently needs investors to have confidence in the weak brazilian economy which has been run down three years of

corruption and mismanagement both in our zero told the world economic forum he's opening up brazil for business he promised to fight corruption invest in security and cut taxes to boost production and generate employment. we want to show that brazil is taking measures so that the world reestablish has confidence in us that the business will once again flourish between brazil and the rest of the world without being guided by ideology which will show the world that we're a country safer investments especially in the area of agribusiness which is very important to us. the meeting is the first international outing for brazil's new president top economists are surprised about his popularity at davos it's ironic that. they're over for. sessions with other crafts. dominate and you can't get into that at a place like this. at

a time when populists dominate the world's political stage this year's davos introduces both scenario to the establishment. and that's it for us at the business i'm stephen tears in berlin thanks for watching. cut. cut. cut. cut cut.

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