15/08/2017 World Business Report

The UK government pushes for a frictionless trade deal

to help ease its transition towards a post-Brexit future.

Donald Trump calls for an investigation into whether China

is stealing Intellectual Property from American companies.

The British Prime Minister Theresa May has this morning,

published a blueprint for future trade relations between the UK

In the first of a series of Brexit papers, the government suggested

creating an interim period of trade, saying one possible approach

would be a temporary customs union between the UK and the EU.

That means they would continue applying the same tariffs to goods

from outside the union - which can then move between them

The government's Brexit committee hopes a time-limited transition

period will give importers and exporters enough time to adjust

In a bid to create what it calls a seamless and frictionless

border, the government has suggested either creating a brand

new arrangement that includes a new customs border,

or a special partnership which would negate the need

With me is Christian Schulz, the director of European economics

Thank you for joining us. Whose interests would such a deal most be

in? I think both sides would benefit if effectively nothing changes in

March when the UK leads the EU. Customs unions are particularly

important, important for goods trade. Something has two physically

cross the border to attach customs to it, tourism services not

affected. Goods trade, as we all know, the EU runs a big surplus with

the UK. Whereas, the UK runs a big deficit with the EU. UK purchasers

more? Indeed. It shows that, for the EU, this is actually pretty good if

nothing changes, because they could continue to export a lot of things

to the UK. So, is this a smart move? The government has picked something

that would be of huge benefit to those on the other side of the

negotiating table? From an economic standpoint, yes. It avoids a cliff

edge in the specific case of goods trade. That doesn't affect at all

the services trade, what happens to people moving between the UK and the

EU and so on. But for goods trade, it means nothing would change. There

is no fear of a cliff edge, more time to adjust to whatever happens

in the future. The real question is what comes in the future, after that

arrangement? If there was such an interim customs union ordeal or

whatever you want to call it, that would stop the UK from going ahead

in signing free trade deals from countries outside the EU, which is

the whole point of Brexit? One of the economic upside is potentially

of Brexit would be the UK negotiating and bringing into affect

free-trade deals with countries outside the EU. That could include

the US and Australia and so on. With the customs union, they cannot bring

these trade agreements into effect, they can negotiate them and find

them, but they cannot be in effect. It would give the UK a chance to do

these deals, but they would not be in effect. Do you think it is a

realistic prospect that this deal will be done? I think that the

interim arrangement is perfectly possible. Where it gets interesting

is in future. Those two options, a Customs border or this partnership

where the UK and the EU somehow work together in their customs

arrangements, that almost sounds a bit like what we have at the moment.

The EU negotiates with the rest of the world on behalf of everyone. In

that case, the UK could sneak into that arrangement via the back door,

I guess. I have a sneaking suspicion we will be talking about this again

in the months to come. Thank you very much.

US President Donald Trump has asked his country's top trade

official to review China's practices regarding intellectual property.

The probe comes at a sensitive time for Washington as it leans on China

to assist with the nuclear threat posed by North Korea.

Let's get more on this with Rico Hizon in Singapore.

They are at loggerheads yet again. According to the US government,

intellectual property stolen by the mainland is estimated at more than

$300 billion. China is that to account for up to 80% of global

intellectual property theft. These talks have been going on for a

while, I earlier spoke to a market research in Shanghai and I asked if

it was wise for Donald Trump to criticise the Chinese. I think he is

right, he should be criticising China for the over protectionism in

the country, as well is for copywriting intellectual property

issues. It is a fair, at this stage, that a lot of American companies,

such as General Motors, have to set up a joint-venture in China. The

concern is that right now, there is a lot of transfer of technology to

the Chinese joint-venture partner. Today, you will be helping your

partner become your competitor in five years. There is also situations

like Elon musk, who want to open a factory in China, but they are not

willing to have a joint-venture partner. Donald Trump is definitely

correct. China won't take this sitting down. They said they will

take action to defend their interests if the US damages trade

relations. They have also said that America must respect objective fact

and not ignore principles of multilateralism. We will see how

they move forward. 70 years have passed

since the end of the British Raj. Partition resulted in Muslims moving

to the newly formed state of Pakistan and Hindus moving

to independent India. Among the millions of people

affected, the owner of one sweets franchise eventually managed

to thrive in a new homeland. But it was a painful

and challenging journey- Partition was very bad for many. It

was for us, we had to start again from zero.

We had three restaurants, and some shops here. They were of quite a

large size, but due to partition, we had to move to Bombay. Any

establishment takes decades to build, and it only takes an hour to

destroy. The clientele base was totally destroyed. It was hard work

in Mumbai. We could not import our customers from Karachi.

We could not import our customers from

This is the house where we came and stayed. It was almost like a

dormitory. All our employees came and stayed with us for a number of

years before we could establish our business again. The memory cannot be

wiped out entirely. The pain is still there. The mockery of the

whole thing is that it was not a question of religion or politics or

state. Then what was the cause of partition? Plenty more on partition

on our website, and you can get in touch with me on Twitter. We will be

back for the papers shortly.