u.s. and the eu is essential. we're not quite yet on the same page particularly with regard to the scope of an ita expansion negotiation. from the u.s. perspective, what makes best sense is a negotiating scope that allows for rapid progress, tangible deliverables and the reinforcement of the ita membership. while i can understand why my eu colleagues would like to use ita expansion negotiations as a platform to pursue long-standing aspirations on nontariff issues, the ita is fundamentally a tariff agreement. exceeding the current mandate is unlikely to garner the necessary consensus to move an ita expansion initiative forward. let me also offer a brief perspective on the wto's negotiations on trade facilitation. since the ministerial conference in december, we have been pleased to see a continuation of the workman-like bottom-up approach to this negotiation that has characterized it for some time. our intention is to continue contributing to the negotiation in the same spirit. the economic gains from an eventual tf

u.s. and the eu, should be able to have that conversation. i'm very optimistic about the ability of the global trading system to walk and chew gum at the same time. over the decades, we've seen the ability of discussions to take place in multiple fora that complement each other. when i first started working in washington 20 years ago, i can remember the panic in some of the academic world that nafta would be the death knell of the multilateral trading system. and of course what happened a year after we concluded the nafta is that we concluded the long-stalled uruguay round. and so i think there is a lot of capacity for agreements to have a positive synergy between each other. one of the other things we've frequently seen is using these bilateral and plural lateral discussions as a laboratory for expanding good ideas and later on finding ways and multilateralizing those ideas. that's very much the model we would like to see with the services discussion is that we use that plural lateral combination, first of all, to bring together a lot of wor

businesses depend on the u.s./eu safe harbor agreement to mange sure they can do business in europe. we would like to see that expanded in a number of different dimensions. but we think that's a very important baseline to begin with in advance of whatever statutory changes we will have, both in europe and the u.s. i think it's really important to stress that both death entities the country and european union are in the process of rethinking our privacy protection framework. we've worked he very hard to make sure europe framework is open to the global nature's the -- so there is a national adequacy mechanism, that's based on state of national law, there are other mechanisms that european countries have begun to develop the data protection authorities have begun to develop which make it easier for companies doing business on a global basis, which means any internet company, which make it easier to move information in and out, in and around europe. those are things that can happen in advance of any legislative changes i

u.s. inspects one industry, they share those inspections and let the resources of those countries be spread around to inspect other agencies. it doesn't help us by having the eu and u.s. inspect one specific manufacturer and then not look at another manufacturer. so this is an area that we think some rapid progress has already started but progress could really be accelerated. on a similar vein, our trusted regulatory agencies alone cannot solve this problem. so industry associations should over the next three years work out a way of sharing supply chain information. basically work out a way to find out what are the supplies, what are the issues coming up, what are the problems coming up, what should they be looking at? now i realize this is tricky, there are trade secrets, we're aware of this but there has been some progress in this line. the group rx 360 has been working on, this the beef safety industry has been working on this so the information can be shared. so we are not prescribing what needs to be done but we strongly field that we need to get private industry involved in how to essentially do this on their own and share those results. starting in the

the southeast asian nation of burma has been under international sanctions for decades, but the eu and the u.sare easing restrictions, recognizing historic moves toward the -- towards democracy. >> ideas prompted a flood of foreign investors looking for the next big business deal, but aid agencies are also interested in getting into the country. >> the grapes are being harvested in the mountains in northeast burma. this is one of only two vineyards in the country. its wines are for the domestic market. it may not meet international standards, but the vineyard provides jobs and security for dozens of locals. and the founders and shareholders who started this are all from germany and all over 60. they were not interested in making money. they love the country and the people and wanted to help them, so we are bringing wine here. >> one of 130 expensed in burma has been with the venue for 15 years. the wine is expensive but sells well. initially, there were problems for the country's military rulers, but since 2010, that has changed. >> we suddenly noticed there were new ideas. reporting was diffe

the u.s., the eu, and nato say that damascus is failing to live up to their promise. the loss to chelsea leads to the resignation of the parcel on a football coach. he cited exhaustion as a reason for calling it a day. -- the loss to chelsea leads to the resignation of the parcel on arcelona football coach. prominentna's most human rights activist has managed to escape from house arrest. a former supporter of the spanish work force is now unemployed. the highest rate in nearly 20 years. the highest in the whole of the eurozone. an inquest into the death of an mi ^ officer said that it was almost impossible for him to lock himself inside of a sports back. he was found two years ago. >> intelligence officer found in the bag. the inquest has been tracing the final movement. did he get inside himself or was he put there? today, there was evidence including this video from experts. this shows how hard it is to climb into a bag in a bathtub and close it. he was either placed in 8 unconscious or he was dead before he was in the bag. the experts whether -- looked at whether i

in addition, u.s.-eu partnership is critical in approach to russia. some might disagree, certainly the proceed works i feel we've gotten precious little from russia in return for concessions on nuclear weapons. the reason is russia's domestic policies shape its -- to act in ways that make it harder to integrate russia into the global community and the free international order. now, putin may talk tough but he knows he's weak. everywhere he looks he see threats to his rule real and imagined. so he uses state-owned media to preach paranoia and anti-western sentiments to russians. he faces a rising china to the east, and hostile islamic forces to the south, but he tells his people that the biggest threat they face is from nato. some of our allies in europe increasingly feel that our recent reset with russia tended to ignore in some cases undermine them. we need to reenergy and lead a united coalition with european nations to tackle issues ranging from missile defense to the continued enlargement of nato. furthermo furthermore, if we are successful in for

the u.s. and eu also started to relax their sanctions. so these are also rewarding. the president's effort. i think the reforms will go on for the foreseeable future. however, the landslide victory of the nld in the by-elections has made the change of power a possible scenario for the people at the next general elections scheduled for 2015. the possible loss of the power is now a real threat to the usdp government. are they ready to release power? the political situation could be fluid again after that. >> that was an expert on myanmar from the institute of developing economies in tokyo. >>> people main japan's northea are focused on overcoming the challenges of the 2011 disaster but it won't be easy. they have to rebuild homes, businesses, entire communities. we'll show you their struggles and their successes on "the road ahead" every wednesday at 1:00 p.m. japan time here on "newsline." >>> japan's nuclear safety agency wants the operators of four nuclear power plants to reassess the quake resistance of their facilities. the agency says the risk of a major tremor h

u.s. and the eu started to relax their sanctions on myanmar step by step, so these are also rewarding the president's effort. i think the reforms will go on for the foreseeable future. however, the landslide victory of the nld in the bielections has made the change of power a possible scenario for the people at the next general elections scheduled for 2015. the possible loss of power is now a real threat to the usdp government. are they ready to release power? the political situation could be fluid again after that. >> so 2015 definitely a crucial year for democracy in myanmar. >> yeah, exactly. >> thank you very much for your time. an expert on myanmar joined us, toshihiko kudo from jethro in tokyo. >>> china and russia fought during the cold war for leadership of the communist world. now their navies are finding common ground on the yellow sea. naval personnel from china and russia have launched joint drills. political analysts say they're trying to counter the growing u.s. presence in the asia pacific. nhk world reports. [ applause ] >> reporter: a scene like this was almost unthinkabl

u.s. and the eu have imposed a strong oil embargo. the exchange rate has depreciated by more than 50% and their gdp has been in a serious decline. approaching almost a minus 8% in 2011 and more now. third, we are strengthening and unifying the non-violent political opposition in syria. the united states is in the process of providing direct non-lethal support including communications and medical equipment to the civilian-led opposition. for taking these actions in concert with similar steps taken by the friends of syria and other international partners to assist the opposition. fourth, we are providing emergency humanitarian assistance to the syrian people. the total commitment so far in excess of $25 million. food rations, medical supplies, water, and other relief supplies have been provided. lastly, we are reviewing and planning for a range of additional matters that may be necessary to protect the syrian people. by acting along these lines, we are increasing pressure on the assad regime every day. make no mistake, one way or anothe

and it will only work if the u.n., the u.s., and the eu stop exporting weapons to syria and don't intervene in any way in the conflict either militarily or financially. that's the only way we can bring peace. >> thank you very much. and the last speaker. >> thank you, president. the government and the opposition ae accusing each other for the breach of the cease fire and assume there have been human rights violations on both sides. but the implementation of the six-point plan will be difficult. whether the eu controllers can do their job and whether the government and opposition can be on table whether they are exercising various tactics as the observation mission of the arab league found out. it's important whether or not the mission exceeds to improve to increase pressure. the idea of a no-fly zone, the eu must plan for the post assad era and they must learn from the arabs in the case of egypt and libya. >> thank you very much. and for the closing remarks. >> thank you, mr. president. it's various from all of the contributions the passion and the frustration that members of this house fee

the implications of this race are quite broad for the eu and to some degree u.s.opean relations. >> the reason this is so important and so potentially promising is because as much as germany is besotted with austerity, it's been a disaster for the people of europe everywhere it's been tried. it's not as even if it's tough medicine that's going to work in the end. it's a human disaster and also a policy disaster because it's completely anti-growth. so in as much as this is a vote against austerity and is going to kind of end the merkozy and create breathing room for policies that favor employment, that's hugely significant. the other important thing here is that are maureen la pen, part of the quasi fascist. >> far, far right. >> the fact that she did so well is again, i think, and she did so well with working class voters is i think another warning signal. obviously a lot of that was about immigration but it was also about that societies cannot kind of coher if you have these incredibly brutal austerity measures. >> kirk, when we were talking about la pen's showin

eu and the swift to act in this manner. what do you believe that the impact of this recent sanction actually will be. and il will there be an effort to mesh the u.s. list of sanctioned iranian banks with the eu list? >> the combined effect of these latest sanctions, both to discourage countries from buying iranian oil, or cut back significantly and make it much, much harder for countries to pay for their oil from iran, and to pay for other financial activity with iran, the combined impact of those sanctions is the very, very substantial. europe has come a long way to matching the much tougher reforms we had for some time. and their support has been critical of course because we can't do this on our own. but we had much broader cooperation even beyond europe. you're seeing japan, south korea, china, countries around the world really moving with us to tighten up. now, we're going to keep looking at ways we can bring more pressure to bear and keep looking for what's the most effective balance of pressure we can bring to bear. but i think we're making substantial progress. and our hope is of course that will alter iran's calculations about their inte

u.s. and the eu. some of the concerns weighing on sentiment in this particular market. nikkei down 0.3%. investors still worried about the currency headwinds. they need a strong yen. the kospi in south korea down 1.3%. australian market pretty much flat and the sensex trading down 0.1%. so overall it's a mixed picture. this friday lots of head winds for investors. >> european markets, we're seeing gains coming through. certainly on the equity markets. the stoxx 600, certainly we have more gainers than losers. up by 0.2%. looking across the region, the ftse 100 is a bit of a laggard, up by 0.2%. in germany, we're looking at gains of nearly 0.7%. in paris, the cac is also trading higher by roughly a third of one 1%. and in spain, we managed to edge up to those levels today. but what's going on in the currency markets? as far as the euro is concerned, we've been trading in will this narrow brand for practically as long as i can remember. just over 130. we're moving up by 0.2%. we did see a spike come through, but within the narrow trading band. so 1.3164. dollar-yen flicking between unchang

in addition, this u.s.-eu partnership is critical to a more realistic approach to russia. i know some here might disagree, and certainly the president would, but i feel like we've gotten precious little from russia in return for its concessions on nuclear weapons. the reason is because russia's domestic politics shape its foreign policies. an autocratic russia tends to be more anti-western and to act in ways that make it harder to integrate russia into the global community and the free international order. now, putin may talk tough, but he knows he's weak. everywhere he looks he sees threats to his rule, real and imagined, and so he uses state-owned media to preach paranoia and anti-western sentiments to russians. he faces a rising china to the east and hostile islamic forces to the south, but he tells his people that the biggest threat they face is from nato. some of our allies in europe increasingly feel that our recent reset with russia tended to ignore, and in some cases, undermined them. we need to reenergize and lead a united coalition with european nations to tackle

u.s. and the eu have imposed a strong oil embargo. the exchange rate has depreciated by more than 50%, and their gdp has been in a serious decline, approaching almost - 8% in 2011, and more now. third, we are strengthening and unifying the non-violent political opposition in syria. the united states is in the process of providing direct, non-lethal support, including communications and medical equipment to the civilian led opposition. we are taking these actions in concert with similar steps taken by the friends of syria and other international partners to assist the opposition. fourth, we are providing in emergency humanitarian assistance to the syrian people. the total commitment so far is in excess of $25 million. food rations, medical supplies, water, and other relief supplies have been provided. lastly, we are reviewing and planning for a range of additional measures that may be necessary to protect the syrian people. my acting along these lines, we are increasing pressure on the assad regime every day. make no mistake, one way o

u.s. and the eu have imposed a strong oil embargo. the exchange rate has depreciated by more than 50%, and their gdp has been in a serious decline, approaching almost - 8% in 2011, and more now. third, we are strengthening and unifying the non-violent political opposition in syria. the united states is in the process of providing direct, non-lethal support, including communications and medical equipment to the civilian led opposition. we are taking these actions in concert with similar steps taken by the friends of syria and other international partners to assist the opposition. fourth, we are providing in emergency humanitarian assistance to the syrian people. the total commitment so far is in excess of $25 million. food rations, medical supplies, water, and other relief supplies have been provided. lastly, we are reviewing and planning for a range of additional measures that may be necessary to protect the syrian people. my acting along these lines, we are increasing pressure on the assad regime every day. make no mistake, one way o

it does not help us by hattie by having view -- having the eu and the u.s. and spent one inspector. industry associations should work out a way of sharing supply chain information. work out a way to find out the issues coming up, the problems coming up, what they should be looking at. i realize this is tricky. there are trade secrets. the group rx-360 has been working on this core pharmaceuticals. -- for pharmaceuticals. we are not prescribing what needs to be done. we strongly feel that we need to get private industry involved in how to do this on their own and shared those results. starting in the next five years, agencies within usda need to start focusing on technical assistance and strengthening surveillance. regulatory agencies need to increase and get some and for structure and some training. but -- regulatory agencies need to increase and get some infrastructure and some training. this needs to happen in the country of origin rather than after the finished product is starting to work its way into the u.s. is the supply chain can be refined, we need to look at how that can be

and, we are talking with them in the near term about working on making sure that the current u.s.-eu safe harbor framework remains in place and remains strong. thousands of u.s. businesses demend on the us-e.u. safe harbor agreement to do business in europe. we would like to see that expanded in a number of different dimensions. we think that is a very important baseline to begin with in advance of whatever statutory changes we will have, both in europe and the u.s. i think it is very important to stress that both, both entities, our country and the european union, are in the process of rethinking our privacy protection framework. we've worked very hard to urge europe to make sure that their framework is open to the global nature of the internet environment. so there are a number of mechanisms, not just the national adequacy mechanism. that is a determination based on the state of national law. there are other mechanisms that, that european countries have begun to develop, the data protection authority, that make it easier for companies doing business on a global basis, which really

u.s. beef. the eu says it sees no impact on import prs the states. cow futures have been under pressure..6%. the big question is what happens down the road and whether or not japan will lift some of the bans they had on cows that were under 30 months to this point. >> coming up, we're just minutes away from the durable goods data for march. as we head to break take a look at the dow futures. it's guaranteed to grow grass anywhere, even if you miss a day of watering. [ scott ] seed your lawn. seed it! >>> we are just seconds away from durable goods data. rick santelli is standing by at the cme and steve liesman is in washington. rick to you first. >> and the survey says durable goods taking a beating. down 4.2% on headline. that's a little over two times the expectations of down anywhere from 1.75 to 2. revisions last month lower from 2.2 to 1.9. let's take out transportation. down. let's look at a proxy for business investment and capital orders, nondefense, down .8. if you switch it from orders to shipments that was the only part of this report so far that i see that looked better up 2.

mark wants it kn s to know why k eu is worse if they're doing more austerity. >> the last part of the question was -- >> why is the eurozone data worse than the u.salready doing more austerity in europe than we are in the united states, which is the policy you want the u.s. to pursue. >> because they haven't knolled through on the private sector. i'm dlated spain will not add a bunch of new taxes, but greece is, lust with new taxes. they don't pay them anyway, so they should be going the opposite direction of something like the flat tax. brits did the same thing. europe is much more dependent on banks than we are. in this country banks lend about $1.2 trillion to u.s. companies. in europe, i think the number is almost $6 trillion. so when banks get in trouble, that has much more of an impact, they don't have the diverse capital sources that we have in the u.s. so you have a banking system under pressure. putting more restrictions on them when they should be doing the opposite. what we need is a county cyclical banking policy, tighten up on capital requirements in good times, ease up on hard times instead of pro cyclical, so you have the pressure

u.s. were a bright spot, although exfors to the eu declined not a huge surprise there. but of course the concern is about what china's import figures showed. they grew much less than expected, only about 5% year on year, highlighting concerns about the pace of a slowdown in domestic command from the most important marginal consumer. and the bank of japan meanwhile keeping its key interest rate steady as expected for the 25th straight year or something. markets already factoring in monetary easing at the boj's next meeting. finance minister saying he expects to take appropriate steps to support the economy. and back in the u.s., a few reports to watch. the nifb small business survey the out at 7:30 eastern and we'll have the news first courtesy of an interview. and then at 10:00, wholesale trade and my favorite job openings in labor turnover survey. jolts. a slow move aing survey, but it packs a punch. >> makes me nervous. >> are you in the control room, anna? how late are you up? like the previous -- how late can i send you things? when were you -- >> i don't know. i se

u.s. this week. they may divide their focus everyonely on t everyone evenly on the fed meeting and the earnings reports. >>> euommissioner making his voice felt over serious concerns over the business investment climate after argentina repatriated ypf. saying it sends a negative signal to investors. absolutely it does. but i'm not sure what the eu will necessarily do about it. we've heard an investigation into sky news over e-mail hacking allegations. sky news admitted that they made unauthorized entries into other people's private e-mails. so what will the probe focus on? >> that's true, they have admitted it and they in fact handed over material to the police and said that the the hacking was very much in the public interests and it involved one case involving e-mails around the notorious case where someone had faked his own death to claim life insurance and they hacked e-mails for his supposed wid did he who knew what was going on all along. so i think they'll be able to not justify that, but murdoch stepped godown as chairman and then this admission came out. so this is all very interesting. and of course

it is something where imf and eu can work together i have to say i regret a bit that the u.s. is not participating in this. but i think it will be part of the recovery that we see. >> and how much more do you feel the european central bank can and should do to help support european recovery and stabilize the crisis? >> the european central bank has done quite substantial deal, both with regard to liquidity, with regard to interest rates. so i think we really have con tribucontribut contributed quite a lot. i would not advise to have let's say heavier -- a quick succession of steps. i'm more for a steady hand approach. we have this big liquidity operation with a net effect of over 500 billion. now let's see how this affects the economy. >> about if you take a look at how it affects the sfok mtock m, there is not the desired impact. red arrows across the board. >> that's true, but -- >> are you surprised by that? >> well, not so much. at least the way how i see it, this is mainly politically motivated. as you have seen, we have elections in france, we have certain turmoils in th

weaker eu demand for chinese goods could refrain a growth track on the world's second largest economy for some time to come. >> certainly if the the u.s. holds up, that could also act as a counter balance. plenty of things to discuss. let's get out to research fellow at the east asian institute here in singapore. thank you so much for coming into talk to us. these numbers are really confounding everybody out in the markets today. number one, if there's a positive, maybe investors market watchers have been getting too fearful about the 7.5% growth level that premiere wen highlighted earlier in year. what is your take on what exactly is happening to china one month after another, these mums are just confounding us. >> i think the chinese economy is no doubt slowing down at the current moment. and we can see from this trade figures that you willy china's economic fundamentals are deteriorating month by month. this quarter's trade pigs actually on the surface is not that bad. but actually will this is probably because people's expectations are too low. most people expect that the chinese will have trade deficit in first quarter. but pleas

u.s. is consuming a lot less. we came down from about 21 million barrels down to about 18. and we're seeing the eu strength, as well. with china starting to see its growth starting to slow, global demand is really static. i think it will be steady unlike what other people are really saying. i think the best we can hope for is steady. it may be coming down. so we say fundamentals don't justify this price. so really we have to get through this issue of geopolitical risk and try to get to that resolution so we can once again come back to the actual supply and demand. >> and it will impact the election coming up. >> no question about it. if you have some kind of resolution, i think it's actually unlikely in an election environment, if you were the iranians, what incentive do you have to make a deal with an american president who might be in the last five or since months of office. so i discount that a little bit. there it's no question if gasoline prices stay elevated, it's going on play a big role in in election. voters care about it even if it doesn't have a real material impact on their weekly expe

eu. would you go into that a little bit? de e you another example of globalization or is it more like real federal government being formed? what powers should day you have over the u.s.? of these rulings that are emerging from the you antitrust division, all these things, is this part of the globalization run amok kind of thing and what is your reaction to that? >> a great question, and i wish we had thought of it and addressed in the book. unfortunately we wrote the book before the current crisis in the european union that we had. if we had written and a little later, the analogies have really come to mind. a great question. i guess -- and i can't speak for my co-author. i think the european union is definitely response of globalization. an earlier one, and it actually in my mind points to some of the perils of we are trying to identify. one of the main criticisms that you hear about the european union from europeans is that there is a democracy deficit with the european union. this is a phrase the european kim up with. much of the policy that is made over at the european union does not come from any kind of proportional representation or an assembly votes on a new

u.s., a trio of top names report first quarter results before the opening bell. coca-cola, johnson & johnson, goldman sachs. >> you're watching "worldwide exchange." is the eu at risk? george soros says the crisis is worsening, not getting better. we look ahead to the results of spain's latest debt auction. and what about the hair index? we'll speak to the ceo of paul mitchell hair products. and find out why ikea is calling an electrician. stay with us through those stories. >> i don't know whether will the rips to the salon will be any sharp gauge of how the economy will do, but we'll leave that discussion for later. i'm sure we have plenty to talk about. of course we're focusing on india, looking at a policy rate, 50 basis points to 8%, first cut in three years. the bank says doesn't expect any additional cuts despite its aim to boost weak economic growth. live more from mumbai. >> embarked on a reversal of the qualities down peerly after three years, now, this is cop rather to our report which indicated that at least 15% of the market expected 50 basis points cut, the remaining expected a 25 basis points cut. they reacted positively. shot up 200 points a