18/05/2016 World Business Report

Today's general strike in Nigeria is on, despite

a court action to block the walk out, as the country faces its

Fighting back: The US approves measures to slap tariffs on Chinese

The price increase would be a whopping 522%.

Hello and welcome. I'm Sally Bundock.

Also in the programme: Tim Cook, the boss of Apple, is in

Nigerian labour unions are expected to go ahead with a general strike

today after rejecting a ruling by the Nigerian courts to block

The strike comes a week after the government proposed to raise

Politicians hope a reduction in fuel subsidies will help to address

So, why is the largest oil producer in Africa struggling to match

The answer is because of the currency.

The global plunge in oil prices has taken its toll

This has reduced the non-official value of the Nigerian currency

against the dollar, as you can see from this graph.

As a result, fuel suppliers have struggled to source the US dollars

required to import the refined fuel that can be used by motorists.

To address this shortfall, the Nigerian government has proposed

raising the price cap from 43 US cents to 73 US cents per litre.

Joining us from Oxford is William Attwell, Africa analyst at Oxford

Good morning. It sounds like a very critical time for Nigeria. It has

been struggling for a while, with this problem with the oil price

lowering. Give us your take on how this week will go. That's right.

Yes, as you say Nigeria is under some severe financial strains as a

result of the historically low oil prices. One of the consequences of

retail prices being capped at a lower level domestically has been

that it creates disincentives for traders and importers to actually

bring refined fuel into the country. The reason that a major oil producer

imports its own gasoline for domestic markets is that its own

refineries are very dilapidated. Around 70% or more of its refined

fuel is actually imported. So this subsidy cuts is in many ways an

attempt to try to increase incentives for bringing that refined

gasoline into the country. How do you think this will be resolved? We

can see the problems from the point of view of the government, and yet

you can understand the issues from the point of view of trade unions as

well. Of course. Those concerns by trade unions and much of the wider

population are very real. Inflation is running at over 13% already and

if we see this price increase holding, there's the very strong

possibility that, given the knock-on effects on the wider economy, we

could see inflation rise much more. I think it will be extremely

difficult for the government to hold the line on this policy. Back in

2012, under the previous administration, a similar attempt to

remove fuel subsidies failed dramatically. So I think the

administration of the president will really struggle to hold the line

here and I wouldn't be surprised if there is some backtracking. All

right. We appreciate your time and analysis on what is happening in

Nigeria. Of course we will keep you up-to-date on that as the situation

develops. Now let's move on to the United States. It has raised import

duties on Chinese steelmakers by more than fivefold after accusing

them of selling their products below market prices. The tax is

specifically applied to Chinese made flat steel. This is used to make

cars, shipping containers for other construction purposes. US Commerce

Department ruling comes amid heightened trade tensions between

China and the US over several products, including chicken meat.

Steel is an especially sensitive issue.

US and European steel producers claim China is distorting the global

market and undercutting them by dumping its excess supply abroad.

Just talk us through this situation. This is not going to help relations

between US and China. The tax is really huge. A whopping

522%. The US says the Chinese products were being sold in the

American market at below cost and with unfair subsidies and the

commerce department ruling comes amid heightened trade tensions

between the two sides over several products. The US steel industry

claims that around 12,000 workers had been laid off in the past year

because of unfair Chinese competition. But on the flipside

Beijing is defending itself against these allegations, saying it isn't

enough to reduce capacity and blamed local access and weak demand for the

industry problems. They also say the weak economy in the mainland is more

responsible for the industry problems and that it has taken steps

to reduce its steel production. At this point there is still no

reaction from Beijing, with this punitive tariffs being imposed by

the US government. Analysts are expecting a retaliation coming soon.

Watch this space. Thanks. See you soon.

Apple's Tim Cook is visiting India for the first time, for a visit

that's expected to include a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India has recently emerged as one of the last large growth markets

in the smartphone world, as sales in the United States

But so far demand for the iPhone has been slow,

with Apple just taking just 2% of India's booming smartphone market.

Not surprisingly that's because handsets are so pricey, often five

Look around the phone shop here and you won't find many of these. More

than 24 million smartphone handsets were sold in India in the first

three month of this year, at less than 2% of them were Apple iPhones.

The reason is the pricetag. Most phones cost between $100 and $200.

The latest iPhone costs close to $1000. For Samsung -- Samsung and

many other Indian makers are cleaning up the market, aided by

low-cost goods. At Apple is not giving up yet. If you look at the

top end of the smartphone market, it is getting back shed, especially

from its big rival, Samsung. It has plans to open the first Apple store

in India. The growing class of middle-class Indians can now afford

the product. In other news: A bill that would

allow the families of 9/11 victims to sue the Saudi

government has passed The Justice Against Sponsors

of Terrorism Act now moves to Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister

warned that the move could cause his government to withdraw US

investments. US consumer prices rose

at their fastest pace in three years in April as energy

prices climbed, figures show. The Labor Department's Consumer

Price Index rose 0.4% last month, the biggest one-month increase

since February 2013. A build-up in inflation could

see the Federal Reserve raising Japan's economy grew by 1.7% in

the first three months of the year. The better-than-expected growth rate

came after as higher government spending helped offset weakness

in business investment and exports. Analysts are concerned about the

outlook for consumer spending, which is critical to the economy given it

accounts for about 60% of GDP. A quick look at the markets. Those

stories about US inflation and growth in Japan are pulling down

markets in Asia. It is a mixed picture at the moment but the

Japanese yen has got stronger, as has the US dollar. It is believed

Janet Yellen and the US Federal Reserve might increase rates in June

in the US. The likelihood of that happening as far as economists are

concerned has gone up. So Japan are just up slightly. The price of oil

not quite $50 per barrel. That is how things went the night before in

the US. Of course these are the markets across Wall Street. See you

soon. The world's biggest cruise ship is

in Southampton ahead of its maiden voyage.