17/03/2017 World Business Report

Chancellor Merkel heads to the White House amid growing US

complaints that German business isn't playing fair.

Plus, a yawning hole in our finances. We lack of sleep could be

wiping billions from the global economy.

We start in the US where President Trump will be hosting

German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House later.

Coming up, Singapore has its best month for trade in five years. Now,

back to the US, and their meeting with Germany later.

The two nations are major trading partners -

but there's been growing concern on the US side

that their relationship is simply not fair.

The rhetoric has raised fears of a damaging trade war.

Last year the US sold $49 billion worth of goods

to Germany - everything from Boeing airliners to Pfizer medicines.

That sounds like a healthy figure until you look at this one

$114 billion was the value of goods Germany sold to the US.

That's a lot of BMWs - not to mention everything

from industrial machinery to medicines.

known as America's trade deficit with Germany -

That's a bigger deficit than the US has with Mexico -

and in fact any other country except China and Japan

In January one of President Trump's top trade advisors accused Germany

of using a "grossly undervalued" euro to "exploit" the US.

Chancellor Merkel rejects the claim - and points out the thousands

of jobs created by German investment in the US.

She says she will remind the President that BMW's US plant

exports more US-made cars than GM and Ford put together.

The bosses of BMW and another huge employer in the US -

industrial giant Siemens - will be travelling with her

We'll be getting the views of a Frankfurt-based economist in 20

Carsten Brzeski is Chief Economist at ING-DiBa and joins me via webcam

It seems clear that her tactic during this meeting is going to be

focusing on trade and the benefit that Germany brings to the US and

not the other side of the coin. She makes a point clear by taking these

business people with her. She will try to teach Mr Trump a lesson in

trade economics, trying to let him know that German exports are a good

thing for the global economy, that Germany is a big employer in the US

economy and the trade sanctions to Germany would be harmful not only to

jump Germany but the rest of the world. They had widely differing

views in terms of things like the environment as well. Do you think

that will be of brought up in the meeting? That do have a lot of time

but it is a issue for Angel Merkel. There are many things on which they

do not agree. The environment, refugees, and I don't know if they

have the time to go through all these points. I think it will be

more of a courtesy visit to the first time, to exchange views and

shake hands have doubts over whether they will really have an in-depth

discussion. There is a feeling among some and, particularly in the Trump

administration, that Germany is getting the best deal as far as the

euro is concerned. It has a huge trade surplus because of the

relatively weak euro compared to the state of the German economy. There

is some truth in that, isn't there? Obviously, as with so many people

that the Trump administration has said there is a tiny bit of truth

there and the fact that Germany is running a high trade surplus has

been criticised not only by the US but by the European Commission. The

other thing is that it you cannot blame the Germans for producing good

products. Or you can blame the Germans for is that they import too

little comment little. They need more investment in Germany and then

the surplus would automatically disappear. Let's stay with the

subject of trade and go to Asia now where there are some very positive

news from Singapore. The citystate is seen as something of a barometer

of global trade and it has posted its biggest jump in exports in five

years. Rico Hizon has been looking at that for us. If you take a look,

if you take a look at the February domestic exports grew at the fastest

pace since September 2012, fuelled by demand for tech products and a

sharp jump in shipments to China. The petrochemical industry was also

a major bright spot for the economy. So the stronger than expected data

adds to optimism now over a manufacturing revival for Asian

exporters. But despite these numbers analysts remained cautious because

it is still a trade dependent economy and that could change at any

time. There is concern over trade protectionism and geopolitical risk.

The annual rise in February was the biggest in five years students

strong shipments to China and South Korea. The United States is also

rebounding and the economy has been on the ropes over the last few years

with growth slipping to a seven year low in 2016 as exports slowed amid

sluggish global growth. Thank you very much for that update. And, one

of those trade figures, if that gives you have your eyelids or, like

me, you start work at three a.m., this may wake you up. A lack of

sleep is costing the world economy billions of dollars in lost

productivity. Today is world sleep day and our reporter as being to

find out why nodding off instead of logging on could be good for

business. We all know that we need sleep. Some

people probably need more sleep than others. But what happens if you do

not get enough? What does that mean for your ability to do your job? To

find out more, I have come here to the clinical research Centre at the

University of Surrey in southern England. The experts he will look at

what happens to your mind when you take a nap and what happens if you

don't get enough sleep. I will go every few things that we will do

after we finish wiring you want. This doctor is a research fellow at

the University. 18 studies what happens to a sleeping brain and has

analysed how insufficient sleep can have damaging effects on health and

performance. Sleep deprivation can lead to a mental state which is very

similar to being drunk. In part, because you are not aware of your

inability to focus or perform at your best. And your judgement is

paired you, your speed is impaired. We have some instructions now from

the control room. This comes at a cost. Analysts say that lost sleep

can cut economic output by up to 3%. In the United States costs to $411

billion a year. In Japan, 138 billion. And in the UK, $50 billion

just over ?40 billion. People who do not sleep enough died prematurely

compared to those who slip a healthy number of hours. They are more

likely to die of cancer, cardiovascular disease or to have a

car accident. And the other end, we know that people who sleep enough

are more likely to come into work and be productive compared to people

who do not sleep enough. Sacrificing sleep to work long hours may impress

your boss but it may be dangerous and could be costing your company a

great deal. So was a lack of sleep is really costing economies

billions, what can be done about it? Employees can help themselves by not

staying up so late at night when they have an early start in the

morning. Employers can help by not sending so many late-night in mouse

and perhaps dividing a nice quiet comfortable place for their workers

to have a well earned nap. If you excuse me, this reporting business

is tiring so I am going to have a nap.

I always know where to find him in the newsroom. A quick look at the

newsroom. -- market. And I dropped slightly. -- the Japanese yen --

market dropped slightly. The dollar has continued slide that began after

the Federal Reserve was unlikely to speed up military tightening. Wall

Street was subdued after strong gains following the rates decision

from the Fed. Now a think tank is warning that the average secondary

school in England could seed funding drop in real terms by nearly

?300,000 by 2020. The education policy Institute has been looking at

the impact of the