07/03/2018 Asia Business Report

to have made a former Russian spy

and his daughter critically ill.

Now on BBC News all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

Asian markets react to the news that

the White House's top economic

adviser steps down just hours after

President Trumps stands firm on

steel and aluminium tariffs. And

billions of dollars in offshore oil

and gas are mocked for East Timor.

Welcomed Asia Business Report live

from Singapore with me, Marika Oi.

The White House's top economic

adviser Gary Cohn has resigned,

reportedly unhappy about the

President's proposed tariffs and

that it could trigger a trade war.

We are already seeing the impact on

the market, especially on the US

dollar falling against safe haven

currencies such as the Japanese yen

and Swiss franc. Mr Trump tweeted

that he will appoint a new person to

the role in the coming weeks. The

news of Gary Cohn's resignation came

shortly after his comments that the

recent dispute he disagree with.

The

United States has been taken

advantage of by other countries both

friendly and not so friendly for

many, many decades and we have a

trade deficit of $800 billion a

year. And that's not going to happen

with me.

Mr Trump is standing firm

on the proposed tariffs so I asked

our business reporter in New York in

this latest resignation of Gary Cohn

had come as a surprise.

Gary Cohn

has long said he opposed the tariffs

the Trump administration has so

vociferously defended. He supports

free trade, his background, he

worked at Goldman sacks, he is a

Democrat. He says he supports

pro-business policies and Diaz

classed with President Trump on a

whole range of issues. They agreed

on the recently passed tax reform

but there was not much common

ground. When we saw Donald Trump

come out this afternoon saying he

wanted these steel and aluminium

tariffs, it seemed like it was a

done deal that he would have to

resign.

There have been so many

disagreements from within his own

party as well but we also heard from

the aluminium industry which is set

to benefit from these tariffs,

opposing the move.

An industry trade

group said they were deeply

concerned about the proposed tariffs

and they weren't quite sure this was

the best way to help the American

aluminium industry. This comes in

stark contrast with the US steel

industry which is said they support

the proposal.

What are the most

aggressive reactions to the tariffs

has come from Europe. They are

meeting today to discuss how to

respond and the European Commission

said its response would be fully

compatible with WTO rules. It's

already drawn up a target list of

100 US goods worth $3.5 billion in

the row has its businesses.

Electrolux is freezing its US

factory investments. The deal to

take over the production company of

Harvey Weinstein has collapsed. It

is the latest twist in the

long-running saga over the future of

the film studio which is on the

brink of bankruptcy. Last week an

investment group gave the green

light on an all women run studio

that they have abandoned the venture

for now. The first fall in sales for

over a decade for Lego. It saw

strong growth in China but it

struggled in more established

markets like North America and

Europe. The firm has diversify then

recent years, moving into

videogames, a hit movie and

amusement parks. Let us turn to the

fishing in seafood industry in

Thailand which is worth around $7

billion according to the latest

estimates. It employs more than

600,000 people out of which about

300,000 are migrant workers and its

latest report, the International

Labour Organisation, or the ILO,

said migrant workers were more

vulnerable to abuse in the industry.

Let's get more from Jason Judd from

the ILO live from Bangkok. Thank you

for joining us. Tell us about your

findings and stories you might have

heard from the workers?

The ILO, a

UN agency, has tracked 435 workers

in Thailand's seafood and fishing

industry is everybody from the boat

to the processing plant and its big

business here in Thailand. We found

evidence of some progress and some

persistent abuses. Evidence of

progress includes changes in Thai

law that means the fuel workers on

both factories who are under years

old. There are high wages for some

workers in some of these vessels. We

see more fishing workers who have a

written contract, for example. The

number was very low in 2014, 9%, and

the new number was about 40%. That

is evidence of improvement. On the

other side, we see problems with

payment of wages. Fishers reported

that about a quarter of them are not

getting all of their pay. Some of it

is withheld in part in part in an

effort to keep them on the boats. A

third of fishers toll is their

passports or other documents are

kept from them. It means they can't

leave when they want to. As tomorrow

is International women's Day and it

will be celebrated here in Thailand,

we saw the gender pay gap in seafood

processing including large factories

and small. On the whole, we saw that

only half of women are paid legal

minimum wage but the figure for men

is 75%.

Jason Judd, chief adviser at

the ILO. After more than a decade of

disagreement, Australia and East

Timor have finally come to an

agreement over their maritime border

in the Timor Sea. The deal could

pave the way for major oil and gas

developments and East Timor

desperately needs them to develop

its economy. For more, I'm joined by

Timothy McDonald who has been to the

country. How significant is this

deal for East Timor?

This is really

as big as it gets. We are talking

about something that will clear the

way for development projects which

could be worth in the order of $40

billion. East Timor really does need

this revenue. It has other oil and

gas projects but they are running

out but they are responsible for

funding 90% of the government

budgets without it, they could be in

quite a bit of trouble. On the other

hand, what this treaty doesn't do is

guarantee that those are going to

happen. The oil and gas companies

actually want to know what country

they are drilling in, which is fair

enough. It doesn't guarantee it

because there is still a big

sticking point and that has to do

whether they are going to process

the gas and oil. East Timor wants to

do it on shore. The companies don't

know if they want to do it offshore

or in Darwin.

Very interesting.

Thank you. The annual list of the

world's richest billionaires, Tim

and I are not on it but Forbes

released the latest list and topping

it for the first time is this man,

the founder and boss of Amazon, Jeff

Bezos, worth $112 billion. Here in

Asia, the founder of WeChat in

China, which is just crossed the 1

billion accounts mark. He is at

number 17. And Jack Ma, the Chief

Executive of Alibaba came in at

number 20 but Donald Trump has

dropped quite a number of places

this year.

Donald Trump has fallen

2-2 spots, his fortune is down $400

million and that is primarily due to

retail markets in New York city

being down but it is also in part

duty is very polarising personality.

We've definitely seen some of his

licensing and merchandising

businesses take a hit. You are

seeing some places around the world

take down the Trump name. It's

definitely losing a bit of its

lustre.

Let's retake -- recap our

top story which is the sudden

resignation of Gary Cohn and Asian

markets are already reacting to his

resignation. Let's show you the

boards. All markets are in the red.

Also, interestingly, shares in

Japan's defence equipment companies

are lower after tensions on the

Korean Peninsula appeared to have

eased after news of the apparent

willingness by North Korea to halt

nuclear tests. All this after Wall

Street had a volatile session all

because of continued uncertainty

over US trade policy. There has been

some impact on the currency market

as well. That