are scrambling to pin down deals with its trading partners at a brag at the end of next month now e.u. trade pacts cover about seventy countries so the loss of e.u. membership means the u.k. will need its own agreements in place immediately after now it's unlikely that the u.k. will be able to replace all its existing trade arrangements in time but today it managed to add one more with switzerland. these signatures offer a little bit of security in stormy times or so it's hoped a new trade pact between britain and switzerland will define their post break that relationship that's important because until now trade between the two economies has been governed by e.u. rules the new contract says the relationship will remain the same even if britain leaves the e.u. without a deal a welcome status quo in times where brags it is just one of several sources of uncertainty. interconnected global economy if the chinese economy can slows down with a seven point six percent drop in chinese imports in q four of twenty eighteen that's likely to have an impact on the major exporting western economies we've

but the new trade agreement with singapore is not without its critics german social democrat and chairman of the e.u. parliament pollens trade committee says a sense of personal lacks in commitment to workers' rights my colleague max hoffman spoke to him earlier today in brussels. mr long your party the german s.p.d. rejects the free trade agreement with singapore why. two side of the coin it's a quite good agreement but indian women there is all too clear when quest for the singapore insight to what you find the sweet out saying oh core level convention and this is the other side of the coin the senior police are not really committed to do so until it's about workers' rights workers rights the collective bargaining possibilities under discrimination of work as a workplace and we ask for a long long time i myself was in singapore last year in february ask and i'm sure that you are really committed to do so and nothing happened and for the decided not to vote for the agreement because it really worth i mean the advantages seem to be quite big most are expecting a ten percent increase in trade over th

e.u. japan trade deal with scraps e.u. tariffs for cars made outside of its borders cheaper to export cars to europe. the announcement from tokyo was expected but when it came the shock wave could be felt most acutely in southern england you said you have started talks with the union aiming to end the production of completed vehicles at hyundai u.k. manufacturing in twenty twenty one. honda has insisted that its decision is not due to breaks it the swindon plant had a tough times long before the u.k. voted to leave the you see tech here ahead chico says other factors are pushing it to produce the new honda civic in north america or elsewhere. as you're aware the four wheeled vehicle industry is facing a turning point under the circumstances in order for honda to survive we need to provide our products in a speedy nano to meet our customer's needs and to keep on creating new value towards the future. that will provide no comfort at all to the three and a half thousand workers at the swindon plant and it's another blow to th

the march first deadline becomes increasingly unlikely also coming up a trade war on two fronts e.u. trade ministers meet in bucharest and pledged to hit back if washington boosts tariffs on european cars and it used to be a boom town for property. now mumbai house prices are falling at an alarming rate. i'm chris colburn berlin welcome to the program. u.s. president on trump says he's happy with the progress in this week's round of trade negotiations with china and that he would extend talks through the weekend that as u.s. media reports that china has agreed to buy up to one point two trillion dollars worth of goods from the united states is a trump says he expects to meet china's leader next month and that the two presidents would rush out the biggest parts of the deal in person and thereby extending negotiations beyond the initial deadline of march first for more on this last cross over to new york and our correspondent course a louise they are standing by as closely luis de negotiations are apparently moving forward how relieved are people on wall street to see that sort of progress.

trump has ninety days to decide whether to act upon the commerce department's recommendations e.u. trade ministers a jew to discuss contingency plans later this week during a meeting in romania now for the latest let's cross over to washington and our correspondent helen humphrey helena donald trump says he's a terror of man is the commerce department telling the president what he wants to hear. right christopher you're right to point out the fact that president trump is a self-proclaimed tariff man but he's also a self-proclaimed deal maker and you've got to look at this and its context the united states and europe have long been locked in negotiations over a trade deal they are somewhat sluggish perhaps the president thinks that this is his leverage this is his way of dangling a threat of up to twenty five percent increase of tariffs on european car makers of getting the best deal for the trumpet administration we understand that privately he said that he used the same tactic when dealing with the canadians in the negotiation of a trade deal so perhaps what we see is leverage in presid

e.u. similar to a so-called european customs association suggested by trade groups it would represent both the u.k. and the e.u. meaning they have a common external trade policy and just single representation at the world trade organization. now for more on this let's bring in martin bromley is with the effects center for international economics and he's among the economists that has suggested for britain and the e.u. to stay in one customs union martin welcome to the program theresa may has or directed this plan do you think it still has a chance. i think it still has a chance it has never been on the table by brussels brussels has always ruled out to give the brits a say in the newly created customs union or customs association as we have called it but we believe that the backstop is the best solution as address to permanently money first disadvantage to two asian forty united kingdom very internal integrity is a driscoll different regime applies for northern ireland and for the rest of great britain and without. the british for the british authorities on trade issues and britain which m

e.u. and trade analyst with the u.k. institute of directors business lobby which conducted that study here's what she had to say that's quite a lot of your members though it's quite a drastic step as well it is quite a just accept and we were quite surprised but i think what it shows is that it's getting to the crunch time now and that is a very frustrated there's been no progress in parliament to for recent weeks members a small medium sized businesses and actually moving to the actually quite a drastic measure to take so it just shows that it's getting to the point where they're very frustrated and they want some progress and what about the free trade deal that's come out recently that most of the free trade use of the e.u. has with other countries are not going to be rolled over and i'm for braggs does that have any consequences to the pressure for your members i think one of the main ways that the government can ensure continuity of business in the u.k. is ensuring that they can roll over these trade agreements by ma

billion euros it's hoped the agreement will result in a rise of up to ten percent and bilateral trade the e.u. is already singapore's most important export destination for services and singapore is that used largest trading partner in south east asia now for some more perspective on this deal let's go to our correspondent max hoffmann in strasbourg at the european parliament where the lawmakers will vote on the deal later today max good to see you bilateral investment between singapore and the e.u. is over two hundred and fifty billion euros that seems an awful lot for a small country like singapore tell us more on that. well i don't know anything more than you do except that of course those are two very highly developed regions that have been trading for quite some time now so it's a fit and you mentioned some of the numbers right there very important trading partner for the european union the most important one in the region in fact a third of the trade of the european union straight in the region goes through singapore and how will this deal change things given the already rapid pace of de

agreement between japan and the european union has come into effect and is the largest trade pact to date that the e.u. has concluded that germany is japan's most important trading partner within the european union in the first three quarters of last year germany export of goods worth almost nineteen billion dollars to japan that's an increase of almost ten percent and germany imported products for a fifteen point two billion dollars from japan an increase of more than ten percent not only trade but also cooperation is to be expanded the main focus is on digitized nation and auto fishel intelligence in japan manufacturers produced more than half of the global supply in twenty seventeen making the country the top industrial robot maker now germany is fifth in that market and japan is also the forefront of other major future technologies such as the manufacture of batteries for electric cars an area where german producers are still trying to get up to speed for so there are many incentives for call for a. let's talk about them with claimants' kober he is director of trade and policy e.u. customs and tra

e.u. that's fair. we probably lose $150 billion trading with the e.u. this has been going on for many years. they wouldn't meet with the

e.u. trading partners charlotte you can ski for boom bust in paris. and turning to china this year is new year of holiday shopping season is in the now being counted as yet another sign of than economic slowdown their sales for this most recent lunar new year holiday season showed the smallest increase eight point five percent since the chinese ministry of commerce began tracking such figures in two thousand and six in two thousand and eighteen the percentage growth in the lunar new year sales was above ten percent for this year's cycle the sales total was one hundred fifty billion dollars one stakeholder showing outstanding growth was j.t. dot com the online retailer says they had a forty two percent sales increase for this year's lunar new year season. and speaking of the chinese slowdown science and apple has fallen from the tree as the u.s. based tech giant disclose sales in china for their flagship product the apple i phone fell by roughly get this twenty percent in the final quarter of last year apple's chinese rock chinese rival huawei tongue t

e.u. member states saying this is sort of what we're talking about these trade tariffs obviously heighten the language there heightens through the feeling around this i mean this is a bludgeon the trump likes to use as we've seen with the u.s. trying to trying to use well is it going to heighten things so much that it's going to make them worse that's a possibility especially if there are counter tariffs which then could get into the global economy as well supply chains of course are tied all over the place so so you facts and we do have a template with china to a certain degree stephen thanks very much the visa beardsley from the business will be back later this hour to talk more about this issue well another topic causing friction between europe and the u.s. what to do with european nationals captured fighting for so-called islamic state in syria germany says it will be working with france and britain on american demands to repatriate some eight hundred european jihad is now that's after a twitter broadside from the president threatening to release captured fighters unless europe puts t

automatically continues to be under e.u. trade policy there's also no way of unilaterally leaving the backstop nor any time limit on it and that's too much for some bricks a ts to stomach the u. is however prepared to offer more binding political commitment to avoid ever having to use the backstop we are open as parliament from day one to a great political decoration to make this political decoration more binding more precise also on the issue of the backstop explaining and saying very clearly that this is insurance and more than that but persuading british politicians to back to reason that plans may require more than promises this is the first last ditch attempts to finalize the deal petition that negotiators will meet on monday and to resume a return to process at the end of the month but finding a plan to please her party the british parliament and e.u. remains painfully out of reach. brussels. six refugee families stranded on a british military base in cyprus for more than twenty years have won a legal battle to settle in the

the march first deadline becomes increasingly unlikely also coming up a trade war on two fronts e.u. trade ministers meet their bucharest and pledge to hit back if washington boosts tariffs on european car and it used to be.

e.u. trading block for us sixty percent of global g.d.p. is called forty trillion dollars and the u.k.'s made a decision to take themselves out of that grid and to be to do it alone by themselves in the middle of the ocean west no talent anymore it's all been lost all left banking centers leaving and they're going to just be like picked on by the big guys and only just try to be like greece in a london will be like athens within five years ok so the u.k. doesn't exist anymore what i'm talking about is you're asia and you're there your asian future so this is the future as he's presenting in this belton road the belton road it is the intention by china to create your asian economic superpower with china at its center notice that they're doing it through trade not through threats not through threats to invade not through threats of throwing marmite jars at them and we have. our you know it's none of that is just trade the way the very old fashioned way the way the world used to work two thousand and three thousand four thousand years ago this means a system of very gated trade networks st

e.u. does a trade deal with canada, for example, which it has just done, and they've agreed to reduce tariffs to zero, e.u. exports hit a 0% tariff, canadian exports to the u.k., 0% tear arifftariffs. u.k. manufacturing exports to canada hit the wto tariff. it's an asymmetrical process you don't get any benefit for the u.k. actually by being in that customs union the only benefit is an import policy and no internal borders snoo when members of your own party talk about being trapped in a customs union by this backstop, what are they concerned about? is it that lack of parity in terms of what that means >> it means that if you are a manufacturing business based in the u.k., you're not going to have access to any global markets outside of the u.k. on preferential terms at the moment in the e.u. the u.k. does have that. we lose that the day we lose the e.u., and the aim for many on the conservative side is to have an independent trade policy where you can go and negotiate your trade deals in this case we not only can't negotiates trade deals, but we also don't benefit from the e.u. trade deals.

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 germ

topics here we're looking at all sorts of topics everything from environment climate but also trades the e.u. being the most importing trading partners of the states of the arab league and so one diplomat said to me here in sharm el sheikh it is the idea is to start a multilateral process in a time when donald trump is putting that issue of multilateralism very much into the critique interesting of all of those issues that you just named what do you think are the ones that are the most pressing that they're discussing i think really pressing issues also in terms of migration which is also a key issue here at the summit is really addressing the of the civil wars that are taking place within that union of arab states and most of all you have a syria a war that apparently is partly one now by bashar al assad and the leaders here of the e.u. but also arab leaders will have to think about how they deal with this and then you have conflicts a civil wars in yemen but also unstable very unstable situation in libya also a big issues here and the question of course for european leaders is how do they

what i feel when i talk to people they know that we are very small country without all the trading deeds without e.u. without trading with the whole world we don't have a chance we had to export our of goods we had to export a lot to england and we hope that will continue and that's the way a small country like this we have very well if you created that mean we are good in design good in india nearing we good in green energy we have so many things to sell to the rest of the world and this we build borders we can't do that and that would be a castro for them and so denmark joined the european community as it was then in one thousand nine hundred fifty the same day as britain joined denmark voted against the mastic treaty in a referendum and had to be asked again as a share many of the euro skeptic tendencies that will see them britain from your perspective there is no chance of them are following britain out of the exit door i don't think so and i think it was a big mistake that the england they let the people vote about it but it's so complicated that david cameron probably thinks the same thing yea

so we talked about you mention that the trade deficit is less outside of the e.u. ou know new nations who are their largest trading partners of the us a big one outside of the it is the u.s. and china yes us and china are the top two within the e.u. e.u. it's germany from the netherlands is very high up there too so. we sort of saw this coming earlier this week you know i mean there's been talk about delays and then it was sort of floated from the e.u. we would accept the delay if you have problems over there and i think she was egypt he said no no no and then jeremy corbyn said well you know if you really had to you could do it and then yesterday ms may said well maybe so what do you think's going to happen look into your crystal balls are going to be a delay or are we really thirty days away it's going to happen i think the majority do want to delay you know what is that cooper is trying to do and they're all the majority wants to go with the hard line breaks it is a holding steady but i think that her main as i getting more and more confident that they're going t

automatically continues to be under e.u. trade policy there's also no way of unilaterally leaving the backstop nor any time limit on it and that's too much for some bricks a ts to stomach the e.u. is however prepared to offer more binding political commitments to avoid ever having to use the backstop we are open as parliament from day one to grade his political decoration to make this political decoration more binding more precise also on the issue of the backstop explaining and saying very clearly that this is insurance and more than that but persuading british politicians to back to reason that plans may require more than a promise is this is the first last ditch attempts to finalize a deal british and negotiators will meet on monday and to resume a will return to brussels at the end of the month but finding a plan to please her polity the british parliament and e.u. remains painfully out of reach. brussels. six refugee families stranded on a british military base in cyprus for more than twenty is have won a legal battle to sett