:00:08. > :00:17.President Trump has lashed out at journalists at a news conference
:00:18. > :00:20.in New York over media criticism of his response to the violence
:00:21. > :00:24.Mr Trump said both sides were to blame for the violence
:00:25. > :00:27.and he insisted he was right not to speak out until the full
:00:28. > :00:31.The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says America
:00:32. > :00:34.is still interested in dialogue with North Korea, but that's
:00:35. > :00:36.a decision Kim Jong-Un will have to take.
:00:37. > :00:39.State media in Pyongyang said plans to test fire missiles towards Guam
:00:40. > :00:48.And this story is trending on BBC.com.
:00:49. > :00:51.There's been a huge outpouring of sympathy for a stuntwoman Joi SJ
:00:52. > :00:54.Harris who died in a motorcycle accident while filming the movie
:00:55. > :01:10.The government has released a document detailing how it sees
:01:11. > :01:12.the future of the border between Northern Ireland
:01:13. > :01:17.It says it wants to avoid checkpoints or other physical
:01:18. > :01:35.Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:01:36. > :01:41.Negotiators from the US, Canada and Mexico meet today to lash out a new
:01:42. > :01:46.North American Free Trade Agreement. One of the world's biggest shipping
:01:47. > :01:55.companies releases its latest earning numbers. What will this tell
:01:56. > :02:04.us about the state of global trade? Good morning, Asia, hello, world,
:02:05. > :02:07.glad you could join us for Asia Business Report. I'm Rico Hizon.
:02:08. > :02:13.Later today in Washington, DC the first round of negotiations will
:02:14. > :02:18.start for Nafta, the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact between
:02:19. > :02:22.Canada, the US and Mexico. The US president made a campaign to promise
:02:23. > :02:27.to renegotiate the deal signed in 1994. Any other disagreements are
:02:28. > :02:32.between the US and Mexico, but there are also issues in Canada, one of
:02:33. > :02:38.them softwood lumber. To get to the root of this problem we sent our
:02:39. > :02:42.correspondent to the state of Maine. There's a lot of uncertainty. Nobody
:02:43. > :02:49.knows where this will go. There's a lot of talk about free trade and
:02:50. > :02:54.Fairtrade. Need Fairtrade. Money may not grow on trees by the softwood
:02:55. > :02:59.lumber is a billion-dollar business. Canada and the US have been arguing
:03:00. > :03:04.over the industry for decades. So what is softwood lumber? It's a kind
:03:05. > :03:13.of wood that comes from softwood trees, obviously. Trees like cedar,
:03:14. > :03:20.pine and and it is primarily used to build houses. -- and spruce. It is
:03:21. > :03:27.big business. In 2014 the industry contributed 21.2 Iliad dollars to
:03:28. > :03:31.the Canadian economy. -- billion dollars. And over 350,000 people
:03:32. > :03:38.work industry the US. They are good paying jobs. We are not investing
:03:39. > :03:44.elsewhere, all the money is put back into the community and it helps make
:03:45. > :03:51.a community live and be vibrant and survive. What's the problem? Because
:03:52. > :03:55.it is subsidised and they have advantages that we don't have and we
:03:56. > :03:59.are competing. We can't compete against the government or subsidies,
:04:00. > :04:03.we need Fairtrade. For years the US said the Canadian government is
:04:04. > :04:09.unfairly subsidising it lumber industry and Canada says that's not
:04:10. > :04:12.true. So both sides took their arguments to a Nafta panel and they
:04:13. > :04:18.were created to hear these kinds of complaints and repeatedly the
:04:19. > :04:21.Americans lost. So now the US wants to get rid of the panels altogether
:04:22. > :04:26.and find another way to resolve conflicts. Not so fast. The
:04:27. > :04:32.Canadians say they will quit the Nafta talks if these panels go. So
:04:33. > :04:36.what now? Well, Nafta negotiations will be testy and will take time and
:04:37. > :04:41.these panels will be a sticking point. Mexico says it wants them to
:04:42. > :04:45.stay and even if the Americans get their way they will still need to
:04:46. > :04:49.find a way to settle arguments that may come up in the future. If one
:04:50. > :04:55.thing is clear from this, even friends disagree.
:04:56. > :04:59.The executive director of the apex secretary joined me earlier and we
:05:00. > :05:05.ask if it was time to modernise this pact. Most people would agree it
:05:06. > :05:09.does. Since it was put in place there have been the development in
:05:10. > :05:14.supply chains and an energy revolution and more importantly,
:05:15. > :05:17.despite the talk about merchandise trade and manufacturing, actually
:05:18. > :05:22.the future is in services trade, so it needs of staff on data movements,
:05:23. > :05:27.services trade, small business, intellectual property protection and
:05:28. > :05:30.all of those sorts of things. A lot of areas to be covered in this
:05:31. > :05:36.renegotiation process, but how complicated the youth think will be
:05:37. > :05:40.whole process be? -- do you think. It will be complicated. Trade
:05:41. > :05:44.agreements are always complicated and it will take a while. Recently
:05:45. > :05:48.we have the APEC business council meeting and they said they want to
:05:49. > :05:52.see it happen, they don't want to see reversion for trade protection.
:05:53. > :05:57.There are all of these new areas and it is complicated. What will be the
:05:58. > :06:03.main sticking point between the US and Mexico, the US and Canada and
:06:04. > :06:08.the other way round? There are some particular high-profile things
:06:09. > :06:12.across the Mexican border and the Canadian border. Timber across the
:06:13. > :06:16.Canadian border, energy across the Canadian border. But as I say I
:06:17. > :06:19.think the big benefits for the future of those. They are the new
:06:20. > :06:24.generation stuff because that's what is really driving those economies
:06:25. > :06:27.and it is stuff like software and intellectual property and dispute
:06:28. > :06:33.resolution, all of those things. Also it is pretty clear that all
:06:34. > :06:37.those three leaders are very focused on being clear about who benefits
:06:38. > :06:42.from this trade now, so it is what the Canadians are calling
:06:43. > :06:45.progressive trade agreement. This whole negotiation process was
:06:46. > :06:51.started by the US President Donald Trump. Would he want the upper hand
:06:52. > :06:58.when this whole thing plays out? Will the Mexicans and Canadians give
:06:59. > :07:03.in? It has to be a win-win for this to become an agreement. It might
:07:04. > :07:08.take time but in the end they will have to walk towards that. Tension
:07:09. > :07:12.surrounding North Korea and the US have driven some investors to look
:07:13. > :07:19.for safe havens for their money and old has-been one beneficiary. --
:07:20. > :07:23.gold. The price for an ounce of the metal has risen by $70 or 6% since
:07:24. > :07:26.the beginning of the year and that is when President Trump took office.
:07:27. > :07:32.Although there was a slight sell-off overnight. Earlier I spoke with a
:07:33. > :07:35.resource analyst in Sydney and asked whether it was more than just
:07:36. > :07:42.current events driving up the price. You would have to look at the
:07:43. > :07:46.demand-side and jewellery makes up most of gold demand. It has been
:07:47. > :07:49.quite poor. With only seen in the last couple of months, with India
:07:50. > :07:55.moving into his wedding season, we've seen a lift in demand for
:07:56. > :07:58.gold, otherwise it has been somewhat disappointing for the course of the
:07:59. > :08:02.past 12 months. What has been driving the price has in fact
:08:03. > :08:06.probably been more the direction of the US dollar and four this year it
:08:07. > :08:10.has been downward and that's been very good for the price of gold.
:08:11. > :08:15.What do your charts tell you? Where are we going to see the price of
:08:16. > :08:20.gold before the year's" Mac at this point in time he would have to
:08:21. > :08:25.suggest that we believe that by the end of this year inflation, looking
:08:26. > :08:29.into 2018, will be somewhat of a problem. That's going to cause the
:08:30. > :08:36.rise in gold prices. The other side of the coin, the US dollar, if
:08:37. > :08:39.defence stays on the sideline, we will see that dollar weaken and
:08:40. > :08:45.again that will be good for gold. The IMF is sending out a warning
:08:46. > :08:48.that China's credit boom is on a dangerous trajectory. The
:08:49. > :08:52.organisation says in a new report that there is a massive growth of
:08:53. > :08:56.debt fuelled by the expansion of credit. The IMF urged Beijing to
:08:57. > :08:59.press on with reforms aimed at achieving long-term sustainable
:09:00. > :09:07.growth, including efforts to boost consumption. New Zealand's largest
:09:08. > :09:10.construction company posted more than a $290 million lost within its
:09:11. > :09:15.construction arm for the year and till June. Fletcher Building Mr
:09:16. > :09:19.windfall from the national building boom due to a series of issues,
:09:20. > :09:23.especially with two major projects in Christchurch and Auckland --
:09:24. > :09:28.missed. Moving to the shipping business. The
:09:29. > :09:33.container industry has been bellwether for global trade. One of
:09:34. > :09:36.the industry's biggest players Maersk will announce its
:09:37. > :09:40.second-quarter earnings later today. Until recently it has been tough
:09:41. > :09:44.times for shipping companies like Maersk, is a good thing starting to
:09:45. > :09:52.turn around? Here is the view from an industry analyst.
:09:53. > :09:58.2016 was a difficult year for Maersk. They announced a one -- $1.9
:09:59. > :10:03.billion loss. They have now announced a profit. Their cyber
:10:04. > :10:06.attack that happened about two months ago, we've never seen
:10:07. > :10:12.something like that in the industry before. Analysts say there could be
:10:13. > :10:18.a financial impairment of up to ?450 million... Dollars, before the day's
:10:19. > :10:24.half-year results, but we will have to wait and see. Of course last year
:10:25. > :10:26.we had this major bankruptcy which affected the shipping industry. But
:10:27. > :10:32.we've seen the container business turning the corner. Can this be
:10:33. > :10:37.sustained? We have seen rates increase. They went from an
:10:38. > :10:40.historical low at the end of 2016. We even saw a seven-year-old
:10:41. > :10:46.containership being scrapped. This is crazy and an historical low. The
:10:47. > :10:53.average Asian footy strips is about 25 -- average age. There has been
:10:54. > :10:57.growth in global age but the problem with the shipping industry is a
:10:58. > :11:00.supply and demand imbalance. There are too many ships and not enough
:11:01. > :11:09.cargo. Owners need to take note of this. Let's have a look now at the
:11:10. > :11:16.Asian markets. As you can see, little changed. The Dow Jones is up
:11:17. > :11:20.I five and a quarter. The Asian markets are quite flat at this hour.
:11:21. > :11:22.Thank you so much for investing your time with us. Sport Today is coming
:11:23. > :11:36.up next. The top stories this
:11:37. > :11:40.hour: President Trump has defended his response to deadly
:11:41. > :11:43.protests in Charlottesville