well let's celebrate the face of jesus. you're watching live from berlin we'll have more news at the top of the next hour with stephen b. it's the is up next with this is asia scenics have. 50 years of religions for peace people from many different things are working together toward a common goal the peaceful resolution of religious conflicts. now the female members of religions for peace from the middle east are demanding the lord's . own common ground is empowering women giving them the rule

making them agents of change. the female peacemakers storms churning where we fish on teetotal to. china there's a trade pact with the u.s. and continues its massive infrastructure project to east access to global markets have a closer look at the new silk road and talk to our correspondent about china's trade ambitions. also on the show christmas means well big business for many take a look at how retailers did this holiday season. this is deja vu business asia i'm stephen beers in berlin thanks for joining us. the u.s. says it's planning to submit its new trade deal with china during

a signing ceremony in the 1st week of january china has yet to confirm the time one has also been quiet about specific components of the trade agreement which up to now have been released by the us taken together there's uncertainty about exactly what is happening when. next year's election year in the u.s. and donald trump is not likely to risk an barking on tricky trade negotiations with one eye on the polls instead he's keen to declare himself the winner in the trade war with china so no surprise when he announced phase one of a trade deal. because we want to get it done it should be. a few days earlier out a rally his message was even clearer. we just achieved a breakthrough on the trade deal and will be signing it very shortly they're already buying bijan billions of dollars of products agricultural products. the

phase one deal is bigger than window dressing china will no longer impose tariffs on soybeans import from the u.s. for its part the u.s. wave tariffs against china in mid december but nothing on state subsidies or market reform not even when and where it will be signed so what does china make of all this. are the issues you're concerned about on the phase one deal signing i can tell you that both sides economic and trade teams are in close communication about details arrangements for the deal signing and other follow up work. which translates as both sides say negotiations are continuing. and for more on this i'm joined in studio by d.w. business reporter clifford couldn't clifford what do we know about this trade deal so far well so far it seems to be a truth a kind of placeholder they're very political and they're talking about no more tariffs and soybeans and poor cars so basically going to be selling us farm

products and there won't be any retaliation tariffs from from the us so basically from china so basically we have a kind of a truce so far when you say truce though that implies that this is not the far reaching trade deal detroit may have supported no it's not and there's an election next year and his eyes are very much on that he wants to come out as a winner but he's basically focusing on the political on the headline figures and avoiding some of the torn your issues definitely we've seen things that over the period of trump has been in power that the trade deficit has risen from $544000000000.00 to $691000000000.00 despite all these tariffs and despite this sort of trade pressure but at the same time he was pushing for at the beginning at least a more structural trade deal that involved things such as intellectual property property theft from china intellectual property theft market access are you saying that these issues are being avoided are they going to be worked on later i don't

think they're being addressed i think they are being avoided i think one of the things is that with the trade war that china is only doing what it was supposed to be doing on the terms of the w t o it wasn't doing anything new and the big factor was always going to be charged china opening up and reforming and becoming a real global trading figure and that hasn't happened there was a hope maybe at the beginning that trump's pressure would would force this but now it looks a little bit like political issues are taking presidents on and maybe that means that these big ticket items won't be addressed so i have to wait and see. clifford couldn't joining us for this talk thank you very much. now to further those trade aspirations china continues to make an impressive array of global investments many of them are part of the belts and road initiative a series of grand infrastructure projects intended to connect the chinese market with the world and if you look at behind me here on the map it is i think

i think we have our trade map maybe were we don't have a right now there it is you can see what was what china has dubbed the new silk road that's been a construction since 2013 a series of harbors railways roads and power infrastructure in more than 60 countries of the aim is to secure export markets and access to raw materials china has also shown a keen interest in germany that's led to the influx of more than 38000000000 euros of direct direct chinese investment in the country since 2005 now investing in germany the focus is innovative technologies which could also appeal to the chinese market according to a recent study by the battle's month foundation most in demand areas of investment include automotive drive systems energy systems and biomedical technology. these are cooling and heating units for industrial buildings soon they'll be shipped to the u.s. pakistan bangladesh and mexico the manufacturer broad group a company headquartered in hunan china specializes in energy efficient air

conditioning in the next few years the firm with more than 3000 employees hopes to further expand needed by china's belgian road investment scheme. felt on road opens a new space for growth in the world economy. it creates a new platform for international trade and investment and provides new ways for global economic governance and contributes to the wellbeing of people in many countries. sometimes called the new silk road the built in road initiative is a massive infrastructure investment scheme new railways are intended to provide better connectivity across the region continent investment in ports will open new maritime trading routes according to official figures the total value of projects already signed exceeds $500000000000.00 us dollars. so

far international trade rules have been shaped by western countries chinese companies like broad hope that through its massive investments china will gain a greater say in these rules to make them better serve chinese businesses. and chinese ambitions are on the table it's now up to the rest of the world to react. and for more on this let's cross over to our d.w. correspondent in thai paid so the song so nice to see you as always so you saw that report what are china's ambitions with the belt road initiative well to eventually get more influence and control in the world we know this from another name of the project that is the still carolled is the engine network of trade routes that connected china and the roman empire and many societies in between so the modern version in vision by the chinese president xi jinping goes further to partner with more countries in europe and africa and beyond so

that chinese government's biggest and bishan. so you mentioned the original silk road linking as far as the roman empire what about this version of the silk road what role does europe play in it. well as part of china's plan we know some belkin countries or eventually become e.u. member state some early as 2025 so china is using its companies to fill in that development gaps in this cash strapped countries to get more influence so let's stay with these infrastructures build by china in the well spell can see china can ship its goods from greek to the west into e.u. common market of over half a 1000000000 consumers that of course leads to political remicade ramifications when it comes to integration of those european nations into the e.u. . how about now this year as china's economy has slowed as

a slow these ambitions at all well not really country to that china has left for wart on infrastructure related projects in other countries and send its workers have brought not only that china has it new project called digital still carolled to promote it's because telecom company huawei so all these projects are considered to be a economic boost for the chinese economy. so. we're cofounder travis kalanick will be leaving the ride sharing company at the end of the year clonic was was pushed out as chief executive of. as chief executive of the company 2 years ago amid revelations about controversial business practices who resigned from the board of directors effective december 31st one is also selling 90 percent of his shares which will net him 2 point $5000000000.00 he says he wants to focus to focus on other ventures which include

a new investment vehicle focus on real estate e-commerce and innovation in china and india. a christmas time is critical for retailers who rely on strong sales to make up for slower parts of the year the good news here in germany is that holiday season retail figures are expected to top 100000000000 euros retailers especially the operators in smaller and midsize stores and city centers are unhappy germans are now spending more online on sites like amazon and that has hurt the revenues of independent stores. and for more on this i'm joined in studio by business reporter jim bell who thanks for joining me these retail figures it seems like it's good in some sense they're going to break numbers but why are people not happy why retailers not happy well the smaller retailers and well to be specific the ones who are not very happy about the current trends are just not getting enough traffic the one getting as many

people going into the stores as they used to and you know you see lines of people waiting to you know pick up their packages outside those d.h.l. locations where you can pick up you know your package and also online over on line that is all that's all coming from amazon as a land-o. and other you know other online stores but definitely not for the you know those those lies not for the story the definition of christmas retail itself has become sort of a blur right and what marks the holiday season yes exactly is when most stores get their highest revenue and that's what's expected the ones in germany at least this year are expecting actually to have less of a revenue of course just because of the. of traffic this year i would imagine also with sales like prime day things like that is there really a christmas season anymore when it comes to buying most of most people buying you know like you mentioned prime day gifts like 6 months in advance and of course we have black friday of course and then we also have

a cyber monday so the oldies other own line sells events which are sort of catered to you know offer people but unities to buy gifts and that's why it's really hard to save the christmas season is like the big moment on the highlight for christmas shopping or right to business reporter to punish him baylor thank you very much. and that's it for me in the business team here berlin you can find out more about these and other stories online at d w dot com slash business i'm stephen bears in berlin thanks for watching.

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that i like to see as the kids find the strength. to do the books on youtube. if you ever look that. good. hello and welcome to the new edition of africa brought to you by i did abuse in germany n.t.v. in uganda and channels t.v. in the geria i am sondra to know via reporting from compiler here in uganda and of course with me is my charming colleague near term in nigeria hello everybody i'm male sorry me and greetings from this part of the world all of them.