20/02/2017 World Business Report

Talking trade - Trumps Vice President is in Brussels meeting

with key leaders from the European Union -

but will the worlds two most powerful trading blocks

The American food giant, Kraft Heinz, walks away

from its proposed merger deal with rival Unilever.

It would have been the largest merger ever.

Also in the programme, a nose for talent.

India's perfume industry takes on a unique hiring approach.

The US Vice President Mike Pence meets the President

of the European Council Donald Tusk in Brussels this morning.

They will try to mend fences after throwing rhetorical fire

crackers at each other in recent weeks.

While Mr Tusk described Trump as a threat to Europe,

Mr Trump has praised the UK's decision to leave the Union

and angered many nations with his travel ban.

Between them the US and the European Union

are the world's two biggest trading blocs -

figures from 2014 puts the value of all goods and services traded

between them worth over one trillion dollars.

And that favoured the EU - it sold 91 billion dollars more

stuff to the USA then the other way round.

Something the Trump administration would like to change.

And since 2013 the EU and US have been trying to broker a free

and Investment Partnership - TTIP - that would eliminate tariffs

But President Trump has said nothing about it since his election

- many though expect TTIP to be scrapped.

Where differences have emerged its been over currency

valuations, car exports and financial regulations.

With me is Jag Singh, a political strategist and former

Special Advisor to the Democratic National Committee.

Good morning. Interesting because we have the outlined the various

rhetorically going on between the US and the EU, it's not been

particularly a -- amicable. We have to look at Mike Pence's visit to

Europe. He is the tolerable face of the administration. We have to view

it in the context of one trying to reassure European allies that

America is committed to Nato but also that Mike Pence is a safe pair

of hands. For all of Trump's rhetoric on the campaign trail about

EU and Brexit and Nato, there is the team in place and Mike Pence is part

of that team. We have outlined how important the two parts of the world

are in terms of trade but today's talks are to do with security and

Nato. Numerous American president since the 1970s have railed against

what they see as the freeloading of European allies with regards to

defence budgets and military spending. It is not illogical to see

that it is probably not fair for American and British taxpayers to

foot the expense for Nato. There are only four countries within the 28

member Nato grouping that actually have committed to spending 2% of

their annual budget on defence spending and only four countries are

only matching or meeting the self-imposed number. Today, although

they will talk about security and Nato, it does lay important

foundations for future will relations between the US and Europe.

How will that go in terms of trade? We don't know. The US - EU

relationship at the moment is marred by uncertainty. Nobody really knows

how President Trump will treat any given issue on any given day. The US

trade has just gone through the confirmation process. There is a big

free trade component. There is called stop optimism with people

like Mike Pence who are staunch free-trade believers. -- there is

optimism. Uncertainty looms large. We appreciate your analysis, thank

you for coming in. We will have more discussions when we have a look at

the newspaper. The biggest potential merger deal

in corporate history is not happening - after the American food

giant Kraft-Heinz said it was dropping its bid

to buy rival - Unilever. The Anglo-Dutch company,

which makes Marmite, Lipton tea and Dove soap,

rejected a $143 billion bid Now Kraft has said it has amicably

agreed to scrap the plan. It will not pursue further and come

through with another deal. We will talk about that in a bit more

detail, as I say, when we reviewed the papers. It's dominating the

financial press today. China is stopping all imports

of coal from North Korea in a move that effectively cuts the secretive

regime's exports in half. The ban will remain in place

until the end of the year in a bid to ramp up the pressure on Pyongyang

after its missile test last weekend. Last week China rejected a one

million dollar shipment of North Korean coal -

the country's biggest export. Single malt Scotch whisky topped

?1bn worth of exports for the first A New Zealand judge has upheld

an earlier court ruling that flamboyant internet entrepreneur

Kim Dotcom and three of his colleagues can be

extradited to the US Sharanjit Leyl has been

following the case from our The decision is coming five years

after US authorities shut down Dotcom's website Megaupload and

filed charges of conspiracy, fraud, copyright infringement, racketeering

and money laundering. Three other and money laundering. Three other

people of Megaupload could also be extradited. All four of them have

said they will appeal against the decision. Mr Dotcom has long argued

he was not responsible for the content that others are shared on

his site Megaupload which was shut down in 2012. It essentially allowed

millions of people to download movies and songs for free. We know

he was born in Germany but he now has a flamboyant lifestyle after

changing his name to Kim Dotcom. There was a massive police raid in

his mansion. When he got out on bail, he released a music album and

he started another Internet filesharing company and launched a

political party with a -- which unsuccessfully contended in the 2014

election. He has been fighting this extradition since the start and says

that today's decision won't be the last. The case is likely to be

appealed right up to New Zealand's Supreme Court. All right, Sharanjit

Leyl, thank you. India has among the largest number

of blind people in the world - more than five million according

to government numbers. The country has few employment

opportunities for them, but now a private firm is training

blind people to work in perfume and fragrance companies,

using their sense of smell. This man became blind at the age of

three due to a smallpox infection. Last -- like most visually impaired

people in India, finding work has always been a struggle. One year

ago, he got a job with a company that makes fragrances. His role is

to ensure that the aroma is going into that Perkins are pure by

selling them. -- Perth Demons. TRANSLATION: People respect me at my

workplace, I am now living with dignity. -- perfumes. It is in a

course like this that he was trained. It found that people that

can't see have a keener sense of smell but the general population. In

India, there are laws that mandate that a small percentage of

government jobs should be reserved for people with disabilities but

they are often difficult to get and there is not enough of them. That is

why perhaps the solution lies with the and new opportunities like this

one but are being created. Initially, his employer hired people

like him for corporate charity but the company now says it also makes

good business sense. Still, finding suitable jobs for all of the

students have been cast. -- tough. It has been hard. We need to go

door-to-door and ask to hire these people. They wonder how they will

get to work, what kind of support they need to give, how will the

surroundings be like? How will they adjust to other people. Those are

all the apprehensions. Ravi has a long commute to work on public

transport that is not very easy for him to use. But, the promise of a

salary at the end of each month is enough to make him go the distance.

In Asia, it is a mixed picture in the markets. A slight gain for

Japan. Japan publishing news of its biggest trade deficit since the

month of January. It has impacted Japan. That is all from me for now.

The UE in a minute when we look through the papers.

People who abuse animals should face up to five years in prison -

instead of just the current six month maximum in England and Wales.

That's according to Battersea Dogs and Cats home -