:00:15. > :00:23.After months of tough talk, President Trump now says he will not
:00:24. > :00:27.label China currency manipulator. And we are tracking this food
:00:28. > :00:40.delivery service on the streets of San Francisco. Welcome to Asia
:00:41. > :00:44.Business Report, I am Sharanjit Leyl. US President Donald Trump says
:00:45. > :00:48.his administration will not label China currency manipulator. It is a
:00:49. > :00:51.stunning reversal from one of his key election campaign promises. Mr
:00:52. > :00:55.Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he changed his mind because
:00:56. > :01:01.China has not been manipulating its currency recently, and that doing so
:01:02. > :01:05.jeopardise talks with Beijing about how to deal with North Korea.
:01:06. > :01:11.Earlier I spoke to an economist about whether the US president was
:01:12. > :01:15.softening his trade stance on China. In the past, China has arguably used
:01:16. > :01:19.currency to push its trade policy. They have moved away from that over
:01:20. > :01:23.the past year or so, and I think although Jock, Donald Trump is the
:01:24. > :01:27.candidate a year ago was very vibrant on this point, that is not
:01:28. > :01:32.currently today's situation. Again, he is not looking for a fight but he
:01:33. > :01:36.will push them on market access on things like tech, financial
:01:37. > :01:40.services, steel, autos, that is where you will see a very forceful
:01:41. > :01:44.Donald Trump. The US Treasury is due to release a report later this week
:01:45. > :01:48.on the currency practices of major trading partners. This is how
:01:49. > :01:52.currencies are doing this morning. We are seeing a strong yen having an
:01:53. > :01:58.impact on the market, the Japanese market, the Nikkei already lower. We
:01:59. > :02:02.have already also heard President Trump staying overnight that the US
:02:03. > :02:07.dollar was too strong, and that he would prefer it if the US Federal
:02:08. > :02:10.Reserve would keep interest rates low. Meanwhile, the World Trade
:02:11. > :02:15.Organization says local trade is expected to pick up slightly this
:02:16. > :02:20.year. The WTO says the value of goods shipped around the world will
:02:21. > :02:24.increase by 2.4% this year, and potentially grow even faster in the
:02:25. > :02:33.next two years. This is up from a very weak 1.3% expansion in 2016,
:02:34. > :02:37.but the trade body also warned of potential risks to its outlook on
:02:38. > :02:41.trade, which include the danger of protectionist government policies in
:02:42. > :02:45.response to job losses. Our correspondent has more on the WTO's
:02:46. > :02:50.numbers. They crept up the numbers a bit but it means we are on the right
:02:51. > :02:54.trend. And what I read from that is two question marks over the trade
:02:55. > :02:58.environment over the last six months or so, exit and the Trump election
:02:59. > :03:03.and the Trump Presidency, and because both of them embody or at
:03:04. > :03:07.least tilt towards some of this protectionist instinct. What we have
:03:08. > :03:12.seen is very good stewardship in London and good stewardship on trade
:03:13. > :03:16.in DC, at least in so far as saying that no one is spoiling for a trade
:03:17. > :03:19.fight. Donald Trump is clearly going to be more forceful on some trade
:03:20. > :03:25.issues than his predecessor but he had a good meeting with Xi Jinping
:03:26. > :03:30.and is not looking for a fistfight. It is interesting you mentioned
:03:31. > :03:33.makes it and some of the talk which Donald Trump has done throughout his
:03:34. > :03:36.campaign and residency, but he hasn't really acted on it unless you
:03:37. > :03:39.include getting rid of the transpacific partnership, which he
:03:40. > :03:43.has done. So are we braced for an even more dire outlook once these
:03:44. > :03:47.real consequences are felt? Well, I think we have seen some signals from
:03:48. > :03:51.the Trump Administration that he will be more forceful on some of
:03:52. > :03:54.these enforcement provisions, anti-dumping and some others,
:03:55. > :03:58.putting top trade lawyers and those spots. By the way there is not
:03:59. > :04:02.necessarily anything wrong with that. If that is all you do on trade
:04:03. > :04:07.you are limiting yourself. In other words, that is the bad cop side of
:04:08. > :04:10.things, you also need the good cop. He signalled with racks of a free
:04:11. > :04:15.trade agreement with the UK might be feasible. Abe's visit, he was
:04:16. > :04:19.talking about the possibility of a free trade agreement with Japan. All
:04:20. > :04:29.we know is not on the table is the TPP, but what is on the table, we we
:04:30. > :04:37.will have to wait a few more months. Samsung's replacement for Apple Siri
:04:38. > :04:41.has been delayed. The Galaxy as eight and as eight plus will now
:04:42. > :04:52.ship without English voice controlled -- S8 and S8 Plus. Hong
:04:53. > :04:58.Kong's flagship carrier Cathay Pacific has announced a change of
:04:59. > :05:04.leader. The current chief executive will be replaced by the chief
:05:05. > :05:10.operating officer, Rupert Hogg. A few weeks ago the airline reported a
:05:11. > :05:15.loss of $74 million for last year, the first annual loss since 2008.
:05:16. > :05:21.Earlier I spoke with an industry analyst and asked why Cathay Pacific
:05:22. > :05:25.is struggling. There are a few key changes which have happened to
:05:26. > :05:29.Cathay. You can say that their greatest advantage, being close to
:05:30. > :05:32.China, which drove their traffic throughout their history, has become
:05:33. > :05:36.a major disadvantage. You can see the Chinese carrier is adding
:05:37. > :05:40.immense capacity so trainees passengers have options to bypass
:05:41. > :05:43.the hub in Hong Kong and fly direct from major Chinese cities and in
:05:44. > :05:47.addition foreigners who might be travelling who used to fly with
:05:48. > :05:52.Cathay and change at the Hong Kong hub can now fly direct. Is this all
:05:53. > :05:55.symptomatically something all premium airlines are having to deal
:05:56. > :05:59.with, or is it specifically a problem for Cathay Pacific? Varies
:06:00. > :06:04.across the industry how people are affected. Cathay Pacific is
:06:05. > :06:08.extremely exposed to heavy and intense Chinese competition.
:06:09. > :06:12.Singapore airlines is also exposed, to a lesser extent. They have a
:06:13. > :06:15.geographic advantage in their distance from China, but they are
:06:16. > :06:17.struggling with the low-cost carriers in the region and
:06:18. > :06:25.continuing competition from the traditional rivals like Geruda,
:06:26. > :06:29.Malaysia airlines and so forth. They have undertaken the biggest review
:06:30. > :06:32.of their business in two decades, and this change of leadership as
:06:33. > :06:37.part of that. Are they optimistic that this will change things and
:06:38. > :06:40.turn things around? -- Garuda. The people leading Cathay Pacific, I
:06:41. > :06:44.believe, a very cognisant and aware of the issues they are facing and
:06:45. > :06:48.they have a sense of what needs to be done. They recently announced
:06:49. > :06:53.they will be cutting 30% of the costs at their headquarters, that is
:06:54. > :06:57.an important first step and the new 777 planes will have an additional
:06:58. > :07:01.seat per row in economy class, so it will be a bit tighter when you are
:07:02. > :07:05.sitting in economy, but it will drive their costs down and hopefully
:07:06. > :07:12.bring some of that revenue back. Italian luxury brand Prada reported
:07:13. > :07:17.a 16% fall in profit for 2016. Many luxury brands have struggled in Asia
:07:18. > :07:21.over the last 16 years because of a corruption scandal in China and
:07:22. > :07:26.stock markets but for the rivals business is picking up -- volatile
:07:27. > :07:32.stock market. Overall it was quite a disappointing year for product, in
:07:33. > :07:36.fact it was its worst annual profit since 2011, when it first listed in
:07:37. > :07:41.Hong Kong. Analysts at Thomson Reuters were looking for net income
:07:42. > :07:46.around 300 million euros and instead it came in at around 20 million
:07:47. > :07:51.euros less than that. It suggests the anti-corruption crackdown in
:07:52. > :07:55.China hasn't fully been resolved by a Prada. It was in stark contrast to
:07:56. > :08:03.its larger rival which just a few days ago posted a very strong first
:08:04. > :08:10.three months of the year. So in contrast to that, Prada said it is
:08:11. > :08:13.seeing green shoots of recovery, to borrow a phrase we were using during
:08:14. > :08:19.the financial crisis. In its third quarter, mainland China bottomed out
:08:20. > :08:22.and in the first three months of the year mainland China was growing in
:08:23. > :08:29.terms of revenue in the double digits. So Prada, that is what is to
:08:30. > :08:34.appease or tell its investors, that things are turning around,
:08:35. > :08:37.especially in mainland China, and it hopes to maintain that momentum.
:08:38. > :08:41.Feeling a bit hungry but not willing to step out of the house to get some
:08:42. > :08:44.food? One company in San Francisco may have the answer for you, and it
:08:45. > :09:16.involves robots. We think the best approach for this
:09:17. > :09:19.kind of system is one where there is constant human oversight of the
:09:20. > :09:23.robots. The architecture we have chosen is one where a person is
:09:24. > :09:28.capable of controlling one or two robots, and overtime we are building
:09:29. > :09:32.more and more autonomous operations, so that there is one person in
:09:33. > :09:35.controlling five and then ten and so on. It is effectively multiplying
:09:36. > :09:43.the possibility of a person to do more work over the set of robots
:09:44. > :10:23.that they are overseen. -- overseeing.
:10:24. > :10:28.Deliveries with a difference. That is it for this edition of Asia
:10:29. > :10:39.Business Report. Thank you for watching.
:10:40. > :10:42.The top stories this hour: After hours of talks in Moscow,
:10:43. > :10:46.Russia and America fail to resolve their differences over