this is business on the asian and global business news as well. the e.u. is calling it the most extensive trade agreement its ever reached with an emerging economy the deal with vietnam approved today the european parliament will slash tariffs on goods and services and would further cement vietnam status as an upcoming economic player but there also are serious concerns that sport should soon get cheaper for european buyers german sporting goods maker added as has been producing sneakers in hoochie minh city for years footwear is a big export for vietnam with 15 percent of all germans walking on shoes made their most goods leave the country via haiphong port the e.u. imports products worth around 38000000000 euros from vietnam not just jews there are a lot of electronics and agricultural products and european cuisine might be

a bit less spicy without vietnam as it accounts for nearly half of all pepper imports. the agreement now means the end of virtually all tariffs on bilateral trade the benefit of the agreements are many preferential access to a vibrant to come trying to be of almost 100000000 people removal of non-tariff barriers for exporters which they currently face for example on cars of spirits the vietnamese side says it will comply with international labor and environmental standards this also includes the founding of independent trade unions so far impossible in the communist state. let's talk about this with one of our visual joins us from strasburg and with me in the studio is michael jenelle the man . we want to start with you why is this deal so important for the european union. it's an eminently political deal get hard to because look at vietnam it's

a neighbor to china and the european union of course one's piece of this growth market because before china takes it all and the 2nd big reason is that this is seen as a sort of gateway agreement for they want to sort of open up for themselves the big east asian market this group of 10 countries who promise sort of huge opportunities for the european manufacturers not only but particularly providers of services so this is not only about trade on goods but this is also particularly for the e.u. . trade services they would to open up public procurement. is there any real gain that you can see for vietnam or is the country merely being used as barbara just said as a stepping stone into and also to sort of keep the chinese a bit well of course there's definitely a big gain for getting here i mean we're going to see 2 thirds of vietnamese

exports the e.u. become tariff free with the rest catching up in 7 years the e.u. of course being a 500000000 strong market now china is still vietnam's biggest trading partner but at a time where relations between china and vietnam are overshadowed by the tensions in the south china sea it makes sense for vietnam to shore up its economic ties with other partners and terms of looking at the bloc as a whole what this does for vietnam is get it preferential trade treatment with the e.u. without being bogged down by the issues of its regional neighbors now there's a lot there it's seeing the. deals are now becoming trendy for the e.u. the making of deals with the larger as the block are becoming a bit more of a challenge can you imagine what it's like for you to make a deal a deal with and have to deal with say the problems of palm oil indonesia malaysia if there is a ban and that you so what vietnam gets is what it wants out of the e.u. without having to consider. it's neighbors but one thing. that critics mention is

sort of the human human rights issues workers rise in front of you have workers whereas in a socialist country what's there to say about well that's really like asking me whether china is really a communist country i mean is it gary hart what you really have there is a mostly capitalist economy with strong guards a say on political expression in vietnam not that far off now in the 1980 s. the communist party started this policy called means or innovation basically it allowed markets to exist so adopting some elements of capitalism but within a single party state so you know where there are markets there are inequalities and you also see that in vietnam you have for example 2 thirds of the labor force in the informal economy so that means that there are on pay day laborers or the nest thinks are factory workers with short term contracts and many critics of the deal say that not enough protections have been put in place for these kinds of workers bring in barbara on this again is the e.u.

a bit lax on these issues you think. absolutely because all these provision about social rights labor rights labor conditions the environment and so on they're written into the contract that is always the case but so far the e.u. has never enforced anything they have they have never suspended deal because a partner country wouldn't implement these provisions and wouldn't sort of stick to the deal so they are lex on it and they really have to decide whether they want to be a beacon for fundamental rights worldwide or on the other hand they want to be sort of your favorite tree frater and so so far the free traders are winning the game and that seems to be the case again in this vietnam deal. in strasburg another man of him in the studio thank you very much. i know that some of the other stories making headlines around the world today organizers of the mobile world congress the world's biggest event in the field of mobile communication are discussing whether

it is crap the event over fears of the for all of our us that's according to spanish media which says a decision could come on friday major companies have been pulling out of a barcelona event scheduled for february 24th among them georgia telecom cisco systems sprint and facebook. u.s. play make a boeing did not sell a single commercial plane last month the 1st time a company come up empty handed in january since 1962 boeing has been struggling to obey orders that continues to deal with a 737 max prices jet still grounded after 2 deadly crashes. china's economy has been paralyzed for 6 weeks now due to the coronavirus production remains at a standstill in many places and trade has been complicated by bans on travel and shipping there are even fears that foreign companies could leave china altogether if things don't improve soon. the streets of beijing remain eerily quiet.

although some workers have returned to their jobs this is anything but business as usual. employees across the country queue to have their temperature checked before they can go to work those who make it in find themselves practically in isolation that is anything but splendid this office worker usually has 100 colleagues for company today there are just 3. usually that's a good atmosphere in the office everyone talks to each other at lunch time but today just with 2 or 3 of us it's really clear to me. the corona virus outbreak is a tragedy for the more than 1000 people who have died is also a disaster for business in the world's 2nd largest economy close to half of the country's 1400000000 citizens are only able to move freely impacting businesses and supply chains of all kinds the situation has raised questions as to how long foreign companies can continue production in china that i've also talked to some of

the companies in sens in one of the major manufacturing hubs in china they told me that only around 20 to 30 percent of the company's a factory opened during the past 3 days so given this uncertainty many businesses they have already placed their orders elsewhere to places like taiwan and south korea japan so if china cannot control the outbreak by march or april we might see more and more business leaving china and even reorganize they say they ship of the whole supply chain that scenario remains a way off but the longer streets like these stick quiet the closer it gets to becoming a reality. let's go to our financial correspondent shows a delay in frankfurt for a look at the markets just european the markets rebounded yesterday this beginning rather beginning to look beyond coronavirus. i think that's definitely definitely true and it's another record day here in frankfurt that the dax investors have been

really focused on this question of when will the number of new cases peak and it does appear about that maybe happening experts say it's too early to call this but over the past couple of days there has been a decline and the number of new cases and that's giving hope to investors that over the next couple of weeks we could sort of start to see a turnaround in this and in the next couple of months there could be an even bigger rebound and while this is still going to be a big problem for 1st quarter growth it could have and of having a more marginal effect on our long term growth just how disruptive does bar was remain for companies considering supply chains. it's certainly very disruptive and it's going to remain destructive for a while but there have been indications businesses are starting to reopen that factories are starting to get up and running again companies like di miller. have

started their factories that and others like apple supplier foxconn plans to in the next couple of weeks so while it's not back to normal it could definitely. it does seem like we're at least not at a standstill any more. so it's maybe a frankford thank you very much. now european the plane maker used the singapore asho to unveil a prototype of what it believes could be the passenger jet of the future. is a model of what's known as a blended wing body and crofts revolutionary design is to be 20 percent more fuel efficient than the passenger jets you and i use today claims that would give travelers a. new experience of the challenges was working out how to prevent passengers at either side being thrown about too much in the app often. it's.

a foldable smartphone for the 2nd time the flip looks like a large make up compact but when open it looks like any other smartphone the difference is almost $1400.00 samsung launched its 1st full handset the galaxy fold in september forties screens forced an initial recall. from me and the business. business all website. business before we go here's a quick global markets.

able. to laugh.

at them from people make fun about their own social economic and political problems . in mozambique we say that you have to last so you don't try to it's hard people called me big a deal. as a joke i often joke about these folks in the back by listening to my cynical she and i i just back my day by checking it all for all those jokes finding out what people are talking about what is moving down. my father taught me how to ask and confront the book questions about my country and about to that describes i keep going to this day my name is maggie sofa and i work adds up you. feel.

good. news live from the syrian army's push to capture the country's last a rebel held stronghold triggers an international standoff some props hundreds of thousands to flee we'll hear from a civilian caught in the crossfire also on the program u.s. summers of bernie sanders that claims victory in the new hampshire prime rate but does his witness get the party any closer to a candidate who can challenge doesn't trump. china suggests that race of corona virus infection is falling faces small cars.