the first. real. world famous conductor. of the. lamaist that. starts feb eighteenth on t.w. . american and chinese trade officials are sitting down today for new talks and negotiations are overshadowed by newly unsealed criminal charges against chinese telecom giant huawei and by a slumping chinese economy. also the u.s. is pushing europe for a new trade deal threatening automakers in return but brussels has a little more leverage it's importing ever more amounts of soybeans. and u.s. sanctions on venezuela are driving up the price of oil worldwide and that's

angering governments in china and russia. i'm stephen beers in berlin thanks for joining us american and chinese trade officials are set to begin a new round of talks today in washington the latest effort to resolve a trade dispute that has disrupted business across the globe the stakes are high u.s. president donald trump has threatened to raise further tariffs on chinese goods if no deal is reached by march about would hit an already slumping chinese economy and then there's the delicate matter of huawei and its chief financial officer. the way brand in beijing is probably as common as apple is in new york city huawei is china's leading telecommunications group that's why journalists were eagerly awaiting a statement from the beijing foreign ministry on tuesday from the tone it would seem that the trade conflict is just going to get worse. you know it's the day that it's been some time since the u.s. started to use its state power to smear and suppress certain chinese enterprises in

an extent to throttle their legitimate operations their intentions are strongly political and manipulative we suddenly urge the us to stop ill founded suppression of while way and other chinese enterprises you know we've got you know washington brought charges against huawei at the beginning of the week the u.s. accuses while way of subverting sanctions on iran as well as money laundering and fraud china describes washington's move as unfair and immoral you know i suppose the american authorities probably have been collecting evidence of. these on a couple of tiny's and the prices have brought and now this kind of evidence is being used to exert pressure on china in a sign of american trade negotiations if the world's two largest economies can't agree on a compromise during negotiations on wednesday the u.s. has announced another increase in its tariffs on chinese goods at the start of

march. and let's take a closer look at these trade talks i'm joined now by d.w. frankfurt correspondent paul christian brit's. paul what do american companies hope to get out of these talks. well for american companies really there's a lot of stake donald trump u.s. president donald trump has been stressing how the chinese slowdown in the economy is really bringing bringing beijing back to the table it's hurting its economy and he sees that as a big benefit but if this earnings season and this these earnings that we've seen this week from american companies show as anything of that it is that in the globalized economy it doesn't really work that way because i chinese slowdown also affects u.s. corporations we look at it more closely we've seen caterpillar this week with its biggest earnings miss in ten years the machine manufacture software is

into in two ways actually one is the chinese slow slow down its exposure is about ten percent so about ten percent of its profits come from china and if china as an investing so much in infrastructure projects that's bad for caterpillar bought also it is directly affected by the tariffs on steel and other materials that have been put in place and that's just make it more more expensive to produce the company has lost one hundred million dollars on these tariffs alone we've also seen apple with a massive slump in sales in china another big u.s. brand as been suffering from these trade talks and harley davidson which got tangled up in these and this terror fight that trump is waging and that it is also has also very significantly low numbers and sales especially.

in response to or because of you you counter terrorist because let's not forget dung trump is not just waging a fight with china he's put tariffs on these materials that affect much more than just china it's relationships. ands were also being joined now by correspondent so don han from taipei there is how you doing so let me ask you a question bring you into this conversation paul was just talking about the effect of these talks in this trade dispute on the u.s. economy obviously the big question right now is what is the effect on the chinese economy does it put them in a tight spot and force them to really seek a deal based on some of the economic figures that we've been seeing recently well we talked to some chinese investors under the pressure of trey war really warry it and not very optimistic let me give you one example because of the slowing economy many local governments ost contractors for example like the interview he is

a contractor of the government construction projects and now he's not able to get money from the local governments so he's unable to pay the workers working on the government's construction projects these triggered protests against him and he told us that these phenomenon it's just not a single case that it's common now in china you have local governments these contractors a lot of money so that's why they think it's very important for the government to get the deal done immediately now so i want to ask you another question of about the chinese side of this a big part of this trade dispute has become intellectual property of course a start off as being about the exchange difference the trade difference between the two nations but intellectual property has really risen to the forefront and this accusation of forced technology transfers by chinese the chinese government is this something that china can actually deliver what america wants on this or what trump wants on this and into this kind of technology transfer. well from china's point of

view it's willing to do as much as they can and actually china's leaders she promised at the end of last year publicly that china will actually make some changes to protect ip and it's rare for the top leaders to make such a public promises you know a from the beginning of this year actually china launched i p protection court so actually the chinese government's are willing to do something but for them they really worry about that the u.s. government is using it as its cues stop the chinese colonies and the development of chinese technology and so we still have to wait and see what happens today will be following everything of course our correspondents those are han there in taipei and paul christiane bret's in frankfurt thank you both. now the u.s. trade dispute of course goes beyond china as u.s.

president donald trump has repeatedly pushed for new trade agreements with europe threatening tariffs against european carmakers in the absence of a deal the brussels has already stepped up its purchase of u.s. soybeans in response and now the e.u. says it can import even more funding the beans can be used for biofuels. soybeans are worth some six hundred fifty million dollars a year to farmers here in louisiana as that trade war with china intensified last year from is around when bill feared for the future is today's announcement should give them yet another confidence boost it's all part of a large a deal struck in july last year between european commission president. and u.s. president all trump to avert tariffs on imports of european cars the initial agreement doubled the amount of soybeans that the e.u. imported from the united states to the season as a new proof of the european union is do believe on our side. the

deal announced today brings the u.s. share of the european soybean market to about seventy five percent from just over half in twenty eighteen it's valid until mid twenty twenty one but could be extended. apple has announced the mantras i phones continue to slow over the holiday season the result a fifteen percent drop in revenue over the previous year blamed weakening demand in china its second largest market after the u.s. and blowback from the trade tensions between beijing and washington for the slump the american tech giant is also facing stiffer competition in china from home homegrown brands like huawei and shell me however it wasn't all bad news from cupertino apple marks a sharp uptick in revenue from its services sector last quarter. and over to africa the biggest free trade zone in west africa has opened its doors at least partially on only fifty kilometers away from the nigerian capital lagos' the lucky

free zone has its own deep sea port and a sizable airport three universities and schools are set to follow the area's meant to service the whole of the west african market with its three hundred million consumers have a look. this is west africa's biggest construction site the lucky free zone there's not much to see yet but when it's finished it's supposed to be as big as washington d.c. countless production facilities storage buildings a fertilizer factory and of the biggest oil refinery in africa that means nigeria would be able to export oil products like gas diesel and synthetic materials instead of just roll crude as it does now the free zone is divided into quadrants one city has just been inaugurated it's reserved for the residences for the one million or so people set to live and work here in the future. since this is

just. this. is. just. the free zone is a joint project sixty percent belongs to chinese investors the nigerian government holds the rest the lucky free zone has managed to win one hundred sixteen major finance years most of them from china but national investment is flowing to. the us fast developing area was developed in rapidly so letters would. just disappear. with nearly a fourth of the population unemployed much hope is riding on the lucky free zone project. and a quick reminder of our top headline today trade officials from china and the us are sitting down to new talks today in washington in the background of course is the recently unsealed criminal charges against huawei china's telecom giant and

a slumping economy in china that's it for me in the business team here in berlin for more you can visit us on our website. business or follow us on facebook and twitter leaving out the look at global markets thanks for watching as all. i'm souvenirs like everyone.

let's try. and take a closer look at modern culture from. culture. hey listen up. video game music sounded like thirty years ago. today's tracks take the experience to another level. composer.

featured in. his music is bound to. his fans he opens doors to. sounds good. oh genre that's so much more than just background music. video game music starts for you we're twenty fifth on d w. hello what a very warm welcome to news from the world of arts and culture robert merrill and today on the show. our reporter david kennedy was in london for a controversial exhibition life death rebirth brings together two strange bedfellows american video artist bill viola. and the renaissance mosque michelangelo. disappearing giants daniel schwartz is black and white shots of mamta

glaciers reveal the effects of climate change on his native switzerland. and berlin base violinist. is astounding audiences with his tapes from bach to the blues and beyond. but first stop just back from london i'm joined by my colleague adrian kennedy the show bill viola . life death rebirth opened at the weekend adrian this is a rather surprising pairing is not yet video arts and say what were they thinking the curator is a keen to stress that not suggesting that there is some kind of modern day michelangelo but inevitably some of the critics are approaching it.