three days after a free trade pact between japan and the european union takes effect berlin tokyo explored deeper cooperation we'll tell you how the new agreement benefits both sides. also the u.n. warns that further tariffs being dangled over china by u.s. president trump could have grave the facts for the world economy if they take effect. and also on the show is the no deal brags that looks more likely japanese carmaker nissan scraps plans to build its new s.u.v. model in the u.k. . i'm stephen beard's in berlin thanks for joining us. german chancellor angela merkel was in tokyo meeting with japanese prime minister shinzo abbay in a joint press conference both stressed the importance of close trade ties and times of rising protectionism merkel's visit comes just three days after a sprawling trade pact between the e.u. and japan came into force good friends are important especially in hard times

that's why german chancellor angela merkel has been emphasizing during her visit to japan a major ally in our call for free trade but their relationship is about more than trade. i am in japan for the fifth time now but we've met seventeen times already. and we've always worked well together even at international conferences. and we have a long friendship with twenty twenty one marking one hundred sixty years of diplomatic relations for us it's an incentive for us to work even more closely in an ever more disorderly world. for his part a warrant against rising protectionism saying germany and japan the world's number three and four economies respectively had an increasingly important role in protecting multilateralism both countries face similar challenges a rapidly aging population and the need for improved digitalisation germany is

japan's biggest trade partner within the e.u. some four hundred fifty german companies are active in japan and the german chancellor is traveling with a business delegation eager to forge even more deals. earlier clemons kober the director of trade policy at the german chamber of industry and commerce in brussels told us about the significance of merkel's visit to japan. from the business perspective important sign that both economies want to cooperate closer we. trade while you move over forty billion euros between germany and japan and we have a new trade deal that is set to reduce the trade barriers for both exports and imports and improve investment so this is a very much needed signal especially for the german economy that is heavily dependent on open markets internationally and free trade and openness for

investment there was clemens kober from the german chambers of industry and commerce a u.s. plan to hike tariffs on a further two hundred billion dollars in chinese imports could spark a global economic downturn that's according to a united nations report released monday the study by the un conference on trade and development agency found that a tariff hike in march would rattle already unstable global commodities and financial markets to trump has threatened a tariff hike during negotiations between the two nations the study also says more companies would move their operations out of china. and let's take a closer look at this with our financial correspondent in new york against courts yes what would further tariffs mean to some of for example the biggest american companies. well i mean that really is remains to be see you know what the report of the united nations claims is that the u.s.

in general would not really profit that much if they are going to increase the tariffs and the big question really is will the tariff speed increase or not i mean the clock is ticking we are approaching the deadline of march first of pretty soon some of the bigger u.s. companies could try to get some of the materials for instance from other nations but you can't just do that over night so overall we probably might see a negative impact and also we could see a counter measures from china the united states reports of the united nations reports also claims that we could see a currency war because china could try to counter those higher tariffs devaluation of the chinese currency they have come back to you in just a moment i want to take a look first at wall street today markets in the strong on the strength of tech stocks apple microsoft and adobe leading the tech focused nasdaq index to solid

gains that after overcoming initial market slump that followed the release of new u.s. figures which showed declining factory orders in november and best years were still awaiting an earnings report by google parent alphabet in asia lunar new year celebrations meant subdued market activity during monday trading. and let's go back to quick yet another good run for wall street today after so many dips late last year why are investors suddenly more upbeat. you know that's really interesting to see because we've been up here on wall street for the past six weeks and we also had a strong start into this week and i guess what really made the big difference was the federal reserve when around to christmas time they hinted that they're not going to increase interest rates any more any time soon because if you look at earnings i'm here in the united states yes for the fourth quarter the earnings

reports came in ok but for the first quarter of twenty nineteen and of this meant that we might even see a drop in profits and still stock prices are increasing so it is a bit concerning to see this trend so all eyes on interest rates yes quarter their force in new york thank you ends now to a weighty question that's been occupying philosophers for hundreds if not thousands of years what makes us human one answer that's cropped up again and again is self-awareness now a group of scientists have created a robot they say is capable of displaying what was previously thought of as a uniquely human trait this is no ordinary robotic arm at least not according to the scientists behind it who say it's acquired the holy grail of artificial intelligence self awareness. how well it's a little complicated the team at columbia university in new york developed

a so-called self model to help the robot learn through trial and error much like a child learning to take its first steps. or first it kind of had no idea what was going on because it had no gathered no information about itself or about anything so it moved at first completely ran away with no coherent motion at all and no knowledge about itself at all after it's collected a sufficient amount of information and we've trained its first mission a sufficient amount of time it was able to create a model of itself from the information that it's gathered from all its around emotion from all its babble and it was able to produce something that allowed it that was useful in a lot of to do any number of tasks training and it's this that sets it apart most robots are designed for one job to be performed under a specific set of conditions and if the circumstances change it's generally

impossible for them to adapt to this sets them apart from humans who sell for awareness helps them adopt to an ever changing environment something we take for granted is that we have an image of ourselves inside of us we can imagine ourselves in the future doing things we can see ourselves we can picture ourselves in new situations but that's that that self image that we take for granted is not all of us leave therefore machines while questions may be asked about whether this robotic arm truly does possess a human level of self-awareness the development is likely to reignite the debate about what it means to be a machine. irish budget airline ryanair has announced a twenty million euro loss for its third quarter which ended december on the back of weak fares now the carrier expects profit for its financial year which ends in march to fall by nearly one third europe's largest low cost carrier has endured

a difficult eighteen months due to cancellations strikes and higher oil prices which have affected its earnings. with price at less than two months away and no deal in place u.k. based businesses and supply chains stand to lose access to the european single market in one fell swoop on march twenty ninth japanese carmaker nissan has now decided to act and shift production away from the u.k. . the misson plant in sunderland produces more than half a million cars a year its new flagship s.u.v. the extra zero was also supposed to be assembled there but that has changed the japanese carmaker has shelved those plans due to uncertainty over break that my reaction to this effect of almost as absolute disappointment this comes at a time when the u.k. automotive sector is under huge amounts of pressure not only with rex it days in emissions automation full point general other issues more than seven thousand

people work at the nissan plant in north east england one of the country's biggest car factories parts come from all over the world across supply chains that traverse the e.u. . well sunderland voted for brags that free trade within europe is crucial for nissan well it's devastating news for city and the region any loss of future production at the plant makes it less stable but i can't say i'm not surprised you know that the the uncertainty around gretz it is is always a factor now in any decisions made in manufacturing. britain will leave the e.u. in a few weeks but no one knows what will happen next and the breaks across as a nice and clearly does not want to wait to find out. and that's it for me in the business team here in berlin don't forget you can always find out more about these and other stories on our website at d.w.

dot com slash business we'll leave you now this quick check on the global markets i'm stephen beard's in berlin thanks as always for watching.

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