16/08/2017 Asia Business Report

President Trump has lashed out at journalists at a news conference

in New York over media criticism of his response to the violence

Mr Trump said both sides were to blame for the violence

and he insisted he was right not to speak out until the full

The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says America

is still interested in dialogue with North Korea, but that's

a decision Kim Jong-Un will have to take.

State media in Pyongyang said plans to test fire missiles towards Guam

And this story is trending on BBC.com.

There's been a huge outpouring of sympathy for a stuntwoman Joi SJ

Harris who died in a motorcycle accident while filming the movie

The government has released a document detailing how it sees

the future of the border between Northern Ireland

It says it wants to avoid checkpoints or other physical

Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.

Negotiators from the US, Canada and Mexico meet today to lash out a new

North American Free Trade Agreement. One of the world's biggest shipping

companies releases its latest earning numbers. What will this tell

us about the state of global trade? Good morning, Asia, hello, world,

glad you could join us for Asia Business Report. I'm Rico Hizon.

Later today in Washington, DC the first round of negotiations will

start for Nafta, the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact between

Canada, the US and Mexico. The US president made a campaign to promise

to renegotiate the deal signed in 1994. Any other disagreements are

between the US and Mexico, but there are also issues in Canada, one of

them softwood lumber. To get to the root of this problem we sent our

correspondent to the state of Maine. There's a lot of uncertainty. Nobody

knows where this will go. There's a lot of talk about free trade and

Fairtrade. Need Fairtrade. Money may not grow on trees by the softwood

lumber is a billion-dollar business. Canada and the US have been arguing

over the industry for decades. So what is softwood lumber? It's a kind

of wood that comes from softwood trees, obviously. Trees like cedar,

pine and and it is primarily used to build houses. -- and spruce. It is

big business. In 2014 the industry contributed 21.2 Iliad dollars to

the Canadian economy. -- billion dollars. And over 350,000 people

work industry the US. They are good paying jobs. We are not investing

elsewhere, all the money is put back into the community and it helps make

a community live and be vibrant and survive. What's the problem? Because

it is subsidised and they have advantages that we don't have and we

are competing. We can't compete against the government or subsidies,

we need Fairtrade. For years the US said the Canadian government is

unfairly subsidising it lumber industry and Canada says that's not

true. So both sides took their arguments to a Nafta panel and they

were created to hear these kinds of complaints and repeatedly the

Americans lost. So now the US wants to get rid of the panels altogether

and find another way to resolve conflicts. Not so fast. The

Canadians say they will quit the Nafta talks if these panels go. So

what now? Well, Nafta negotiations will be testy and will take time and

these panels will be a sticking point. Mexico says it wants them to

stay and even if the Americans get their way they will still need to

find a way to settle arguments that may come up in the future. If one

thing is clear from this, even friends disagree.

The executive director of the apex secretary joined me earlier and we

ask if it was time to modernise this pact. Most people would agree it

does. Since it was put in place there have been the development in

supply chains and an energy revolution and more importantly,

despite the talk about merchandise trade and manufacturing, actually

the future is in services trade, so it needs of staff on data movements,

services trade, small business, intellectual property protection and

all of those sorts of things. A lot of areas to be covered in this

renegotiation process, but how complicated the youth think will be

whole process be? -- do you think. It will be complicated. Trade

agreements are always complicated and it will take a while. Recently

we have the APEC business council meeting and they said they want to

see it happen, they don't want to see reversion for trade protection.

There are all of these new areas and it is complicated. What will be the

main sticking point between the US and Mexico, the US and Canada and

the other way round? There are some particular high-profile things

across the Mexican border and the Canadian border. Timber across the

Canadian border, energy across the Canadian border. But as I say I

think the big benefits for the future of those. They are the new

generation stuff because that's what is really driving those economies

and it is stuff like software and intellectual property and dispute

resolution, all of those things. Also it is pretty clear that all

those three leaders are very focused on being clear about who benefits

from this trade now, so it is what the Canadians are calling

progressive trade agreement. This whole negotiation process was

started by the US President Donald Trump. Would he want the upper hand

when this whole thing plays out? Will the Mexicans and Canadians give

in? It has to be a win-win for this to become an agreement. It might

take time but in the end they will have to walk towards that. Tension

surrounding North Korea and the US have driven some investors to look

for safe havens for their money and old has-been one beneficiary. --

gold. The price for an ounce of the metal has risen by $70 or 6% since

the beginning of the year and that is when President Trump took office.

Although there was a slight sell-off overnight. Earlier I spoke with a

resource analyst in Sydney and asked whether it was more than just

current events driving up the price. You would have to look at the

demand-side and jewellery makes up most of gold demand. It has been

quite poor. With only seen in the last couple of months, with India

moving into his wedding season, we've seen a lift in demand for

gold, otherwise it has been somewhat disappointing for the course of the

past 12 months. What has been driving the price has in fact

probably been more the direction of the US dollar and four this year it

has been downward and that's been very good for the price of gold.

What do your charts tell you? Where are we going to see the price of

gold before the year's" Mac at this point in time he would have to

suggest that we believe that by the end of this year inflation, looking

into 2018, will be somewhat of a problem. That's going to cause the

rise in gold prices. The other side of the coin, the US dollar, if

defence stays on the sideline, we will see that dollar weaken and

again that will be good for gold. The IMF is sending out a warning

that China's credit boom is on a dangerous trajectory. The

organisation says in a new report that there is a massive growth of

debt fuelled by the expansion of credit. The IMF urged Beijing to

press on with reforms aimed at achieving long-term sustainable

growth, including efforts to boost consumption. New Zealand's largest

construction company posted more than a $290 million lost within its

construction arm for the year and till June. Fletcher Building Mr

windfall from the national building boom due to a series of issues,

especially with two major projects in Christchurch and Auckland --

missed. Moving to the shipping business. The

container industry has been bellwether for global trade. One of

the industry's biggest players Maersk will announce its

second-quarter earnings later today. Until recently it has been tough

times for shipping companies like Maersk, is a good thing starting to

turn around? Here is the view from an industry analyst.

2016 was a difficult year for Maersk. They announced a one -- $1.9

billion loss. They have now announced a profit. Their cyber

attack that happened about two months ago, we've never seen

something like that in the industry before. Analysts say there could be

a financial impairment of up to ?450 million... Dollars, before the day's

half-year results, but we will have to wait and see. Of course last year

we had this major bankruptcy which affected the shipping industry. But

we've seen the container business turning the corner. Can this be

sustained? We have seen rates increase. They went from an

historical low at the end of 2016. We even saw a seven-year-old

containership being scrapped. This is crazy and an historical low. The

average Asian footy strips is about 25 -- average age. There has been

growth in global age but the problem with the shipping industry is a

supply and demand imbalance. There are too many ships and not enough

cargo. Owners need to take note of this. Let's have a look now at the

Asian markets. As you can see, little changed. The Dow Jones is up

I five and a quarter. The Asian markets are quite flat at this hour.

Thank you so much for investing your time with us. Sport Today is coming

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