:00:00. > :00:16.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:17. > :00:22.Talking tough. Trump officials demand fairer trade links with
:00:23. > :00:29.China. Can be two sides struck a deal? And how some companies are
:00:30. > :00:39.hoping to create a better workplace for mothers by providing childcare.
:00:40. > :00:50.Welcome to Asia Business Report. Live from Singapore. Trade tensions
:00:51. > :00:53.have emerged between the US and China during the annual bilateral
:00:54. > :00:57.meeting. Neither side were willing to comment at the end of the talks
:00:58. > :01:04.after the US demand fairer trade links with China. Washington wants
:01:05. > :01:08.to reduce its massive trade deficit in goods from Beijing. That deficit
:01:09. > :01:14.reached nearly $350 billion last year. The US also wants a better
:01:15. > :01:19.access to China's growing consumer markets. But the Trump
:01:20. > :01:25.administration could introduce tariffs or quotas on Chinese steel
:01:26. > :01:27.and aluminium products. Washington has frequently accused Beijing of
:01:28. > :01:34.flooding the market and driving prices down. Earlier I asked our
:01:35. > :01:39.business correspondent is this tough talk is a good strategy. Donald
:01:40. > :01:46.Trump campaigned on this promise to shrink America's trade deficit which
:01:47. > :01:51.he says are helped diminish American manufacturing. If you look at the
:01:52. > :01:55.trade gap in America, the widest gap it has with any country is China so
:01:56. > :02:04.unsurprisingly it has been a focus of tough talk. The president chose a
:02:05. > :02:09.billionaire investor to steer this meeting, and his language echoed
:02:10. > :02:13.that of his boss. China now accounts for nearly 50% of the US goods trade
:02:14. > :02:18.deficit. If this were just the natural product of free-market
:02:19. > :02:25.forces, we could understand it. But it is not. And so it is time to
:02:26. > :02:33.rebalance our trade and investment relationship in a more fair,
:02:34. > :02:40.equitable and reciprocal manner. Donald Trump has stopped labelling
:02:41. > :02:44.China at currency manipulator. Comments between the two sides after
:02:45. > :02:48.an amiable meeting between President Xi and Donald Trump have suffered.
:02:49. > :02:55.If you listen to the leader of the Chinese delegation, his comments
:02:56. > :02:59.were restrained. TRANSLATION: China and the United States are still
:03:00. > :03:05.having dialogue, not confrontation. Dialogue can not immediately address
:03:06. > :03:10.all differences that confrontation will damage the interests of both.
:03:11. > :03:16.Despite that amiable meeting between the leaders of the biggest
:03:17. > :03:22.economies. There are still tensions. One of the key ones that has been
:03:23. > :03:28.focused on is a fight over steel and what could happen. On the trade
:03:29. > :03:34.deficit front, Beijing has its own reasons that it is urging Washington
:03:35. > :03:40.to loosen outdated restrictions on the export of high-tech products. I
:03:41. > :03:43.don't think many were expecting a concrete announcement but what is
:03:44. > :03:48.next? Well, yeah, these two sides, nobody was expecting much to come
:03:49. > :03:53.out of the meeting that there are a few things pointing out. There was
:03:54. > :03:57.no joint statement following the meeting. There was a meeting with
:03:58. > :04:01.the press that was supposed to happen but was counselled. This is a
:04:02. > :04:08.departure from what we have seen previously. I think people interpret
:04:09. > :04:12.it as a sign of disagreement between the two and it goes back to the
:04:13. > :04:16.steel tariffs. That is something we could see going forward. Steelmaker
:04:17. > :04:22.shares in America were soaring after the results of this meeting. In
:04:23. > :04:28.other business news making headlines, there has been a twist on
:04:29. > :04:35.one of China's biggest property deals with the group now deciding to
:04:36. > :04:40.sell 77 hotels to a different buyer. Becomes just one week after the
:04:41. > :04:45.property giant agreed to sell all of its hotel assets for $9.3 million.
:04:46. > :04:56.Wall Street's top indices closed at record highs on Wednesday, boosted
:04:57. > :04:59.by the technology sector. They hit new highs with rising oil prices and
:05:00. > :05:05.solid corporate earnings, driving some of the days of gains.
:05:06. > :05:11.Shareholders of British American Tobacco have approved the
:05:12. > :05:15.acquisition of an American company. $47 billion deal is expected to be
:05:16. > :05:19.completed next week. It will create the world's biggest tobacco company,
:05:20. > :05:27.controlling more than 12% of the global market. Imagine if you could
:05:28. > :05:34.do your banking using nothing more than your eyeball and your smart
:05:35. > :05:41.phone. Biometric technology is being adopted by banks and TSB sees the
:05:42. > :05:43.first in Europe to introduce it. As thou tech expert explains, there may
:05:44. > :05:50.be concerns about security. From September, you rise could be
:05:51. > :05:58.your password into your bank account. We will show you how to use
:05:59. > :06:02.your iris. TSB customers will need an advanced Samsung phone to try out
:06:03. > :06:06.the technology. You set it up by getting the phone 's camera to scan
:06:07. > :06:10.your eyes. Then if you want to log to your bank account, you just need
:06:11. > :06:16.to look at the screen. Because it is looking at 266 different
:06:17. > :06:21.characteristics of your eye... Let's just check, can you getting? It will
:06:22. > :06:24.not work if someone else looks. It is extremely fast. Less than a
:06:25. > :06:30.second to access. It is extremely secure. And there is nothing more
:06:31. > :06:35.convenient than looking at the screen of your smart phone. You
:06:36. > :06:39.don't have to do anything special. We all know about the complexities
:06:40. > :06:42.of getting into your online accounts, remembering passwords,
:06:43. > :06:49.fiddling about with devices like this. Good biometrics, which depend
:06:50. > :06:55.on something unique about you, simple answer? Facial recognition
:06:56. > :06:58.and retina scanning are used at passport control in various
:06:59. > :07:02.countries and fingerprint scanning on smart phones has taken off as a
:07:03. > :07:07.mean of paying for anything for coffee from a bus ticket. But even
:07:08. > :07:12.those promoting biometrics admit consumers have two big concerns.
:07:13. > :07:15.Privacy and the security of the technology, whether can be spoofed.
:07:16. > :07:20.If we got that right and put the right processes in place, I think
:07:21. > :07:25.the convenience of the biometrics offers will create a fantastic
:07:26. > :07:30.customer experience. German hackers claimed they fool the iris scanner
:07:31. > :07:34.with a high-definition photo. But the phone maker and TSB insist it is
:07:35. > :07:36.unlikely that anybody would have both the phone and the photo needed
:07:37. > :07:44.to defeat the system. All across BBC News today we are
:07:45. > :07:54.looking at the pressure of child care for families around the world.
:07:55. > :07:58.Problems for working families during the holidays, and how businesses
:07:59. > :08:06.respond. Chukker in the US is a big business, given the length of their
:08:07. > :08:10.school holidays. -- childcare. Yellow school buses on the streets
:08:11. > :08:15.of Manhattan in the summer, do not mean school. It means camp. Although
:08:16. > :08:25.some bread the 45 minute bus ride, the destination is an idyllic summer
:08:26. > :08:30.experience city children. This other day camp spends 50 acres. Campers
:08:31. > :08:36.undertake a range of activities from zip lining to making a camp
:08:37. > :08:40.delicacy, small was. There are hundreds of camps like these running
:08:41. > :08:46.in New York state all summer. But they are not cheap. Camps can be
:08:47. > :08:49.anywhere from $500 a week to $1000 a week. There is a range for
:08:50. > :08:56.everybody. A private day camp with bus and lunch is 750 to 1000, but
:08:57. > :08:59.there are local cancer can be left. Camps like these offer children,
:09:00. > :09:03.especially those who live in the city, a unique experience. They can
:09:04. > :09:09.also be prohibitively expensive for parents. These campers are filing
:09:10. > :09:14.into the classroom to make beads, necklaces. It is just one of the
:09:15. > :09:19.many activities offered by the Brooklyn children's museum day camp
:09:20. > :09:24.programme. It comes at no cost to parents. As a result, the wait list
:09:25. > :09:32.is double that of the number of campers they can accommodate. Some
:09:33. > :09:35.parents have the means to afford to expose their child to certain
:09:36. > :09:42.experiences. Others do not. Some parents rely on this programme to
:09:43. > :09:46.help them make ends meet. Some parents did not have the resources
:09:47. > :09:52.to pay thousands of dollars for a summer programme. As many parents
:09:53. > :09:55.know, children are pricey proposition all year round. When it
:09:56. > :10:02.comes to child care over the summer, there options are defined by your
:10:03. > :10:06.means. A reminder, we will be looking at the cost of childcare
:10:07. > :10:12.across the BBC today online and via social media. Follow the
:10:13. > :10:16.conversation online. Let's have a look at the markets before we go.
:10:17. > :10:20.Asian markets take their cue from Wall Street after the record close
:10:21. > :10:25.that I mentioned earlier. The Japanese market and the Australian
:10:26. > :10:29.market are both higher. Bad is it for this edition. Sports today is
:10:30. > :10:30.coming up next. -- that it for this