A than this is counting the cost on aljazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week wall streets happy but is the us recovery all down to trump a nomics what does it mean for the rest of the world. Also this week official figures show the first acceleration in chinas growth since two thousand and ten. Plus how Companies Hit with a huge negative brand publicist he can win back consumers trust. Now and donald trump officially became the u. S. President a year ago he promised economic protection will lead to great prosperity and strength he also vowed to change course on a number of International Policies and agreements and that prompted warnings you might boost the u. S. Economy in the short term but trigger a global depression or theres been a slew of positive economic downturn on the domestic front since then the Dow Jones Industrial average has raced past the twenty six thousand mark for the first time in history well joining me now from london is James Knightley james is the chief International Economist with in. G. Bank good to have you with us so james how much credit can donald trump take for solve the economic gains weve seen on the domestic front from unemployment to the stock market to growth whats been missed i think this year in two thousand and seventeen call really came all that much there was a huge amount of domestic momentum really left you know retail sales Industrial Production consumer demand in general really really quite strong but also another thing that he can claim is the strength of the global upturn what has really caught economists and structure spice surprise is the strength in external demand the strength of europe the recovery. Asia this is coming far quicker and far more aggressively than and would really been expecting so that in itself is also a boost of the u. S. Because of course strong export markets for u. S. Products have really boosted Overall Economic demand and of course also the dollar softness that too has made the us much more competitive or how let me just really im glad youre mentioning that point about the growth in exports i mean in his inauguration speech donald trump spoke of protecting u. S. Markets is he creating greater Economic Prosperity through protectionism them with prices not really done all that much on the protections and fronts yes ok he ripped up the Transpacific Partnership which was this big trade deal that president obama had been putting together along with lots of other pacific nations but of course Hillary Clinton had promised to do the same so in actual fact he didnt really alter the outlook thats much of course we are concerned about nafta the north American Free trade agreement with canada and mexico theres more talks but to be honest hes not he seems to be coming around to the idea that actually trade is good trade does creates u. S. Jobs as well American EconomyAmerican Companies do benefit from trade so hes aggressive stance has perhaps moderated to some extent he still doesnt think is that america is being treated as fairly as other countries are by trade and still wants to sort of tweak to make changes around the edges but ripping up and completely doing away with free trade agreements he seems to be pulling back from that so that as well as you mentioned he has done that on the t t p ps made noises about nafta what has his protectionism stance is so far meant for the rest of the world i think there is somewhat nervous of nervousness because of course the u. S. Is the biggest Global Economy having access to that says important for many many countries i mean for example mexico trade flows with america equates to nearly forty five percent of mexican g. D. P. So if theres any blockages to that. Thats going to be hugely significant for the likes of the mexican economy so i think what were seeing is a greater recognition that perhaps deals that were negotiated twenty thirty years ago perhaps do need to be rewritten to a certain extent and concessions do have to be made in that environment makes it more likely that we will get a deal done that wont be too damaging for the Global Economy lets talk also if we could about the Global Capital flows spoken about bringing money back home to the u. S. How is the trumpet ministrations policies so far impacted the global flow of f. B. I. So far theres not that much evidence that its really been that impactful i mean i guess the most direct method hes been using so far has been tweeting basically threatening or Rewarding Companies that have or havent decided to invest in america particularly american based companies of course so those sorts of threats and rewards has influenced policy to some extent but of course also weve got tax reform that was agreed on in december this is mean meant that the u. S. Companies which have perhaps got up to two and a half trillion dollars of overseas foreign earnings sat there they didnt want to bring them back because they would have had to pay thirty five percent tax on them or now theyre getting special lower tax rates of eight or fifteen percent depending on the asset and that is incentivizing some of the u. S. Corporates to bring money home most notably apple which has said that its going to be investing in a lot more in the u. S. And paying a lot more tax in the u. S. But also the tax cuts in general have incentivized well more companies to consider putting money to work in america as well if you get to keep more of your profits than thats a good source of or a good reason to invest and of course with the American Economy growing so strongly that it was also helping those invest more and so its incentivized some to bring the money home looking for do you expect more companies to follow suit how will that tax reform impact the banks the u. S. Economy and the rest of the world as i get you to try and. Look into a crystal ball yeah i certainly think that more u. S. Companies will consider bringing money back of course also youve got to look at the global stories where the Global Growth environment is very very good as well so its getting a balance isnt it a you still want to have access to those overseas markets and and have the ability to invest in those markets too so it depends very much on the companies and how they see their own individual situations but in terms of other things you know the u. S. Economy was already growing very very strongly its group growing at three percent annualized in the Second Quarter in the Third Quarter going to Fourth Quarter u. S. G. D. P. Numbers next friday and thats for going to be another three percent growth rate we think were going to get more than three percent growth this year so having tax cuts in addition to that is just more fuel on the fire so its a very positive u. S. Growth story we think for the next year or two but also im very encouraged about the Global Growth prospects for so long its just been a u. S. Growth story in the Global Economy but now youve got the european story really firing up youve got asia firing up your start to get some positive news coming out of latin america as well so what was just a Global Growth u. S. Growth story is becoming much more global and i think that offers some real positive news flow for employments and economic prospects for the next year year and a half or so or you mention latin america there so lets talk we have to talk about immigration dont we how as stance on immigration thus far impacted countries like el salvador honduras each of which rely on eight percent of its g. D. P. Coming in from the remittances of undocumented workers in the u. S. Thats right theres only see donald trump has theres been a lot of concern about some of the comments that have been attributed to donald trump in recent weeks about immigration and of course youve got these these dreamers this eight hundred thousand people which are the sons and daughters of. That came to the u. S. Illegally or theyre still being threatened with deportation so that factor is adding to concerns for these these countries in particular as you mention to rely on remittances to such a degree so yeah it does still suggest that theres tough news ahead but if you can get Global Growth if you can get jobs being created and that spreads more evenly and gets spread around the world and that can help mitigate those those impacts a certain extent and a final one of the fears of a currency war with china now dissipated james i think were starting to see a bit of softening the chinese are letting their currency appreciate to a certain extent were seeing some really strong Growth Numbers coming out of china as well so if youve got growth in the u. S. And jobs in the u. S. And growth in china in jobs in china then its less likely that youre going to get the animosity and the the risk of a crashing into a confrontation on trade and i think you know if people feel confident people feel relaxed theyre more likely to Work Together to try and get a good long Term Solution thats beneficial for both sides lets leave on a positive note of working together of and james like me there thanks so much chinas economy grew by six point nine percent in two thousand and seventeen its fastest pace in two years economists are surprised policymakers of pulled it off thats because its happened while credit growth has been slowed down but joining us via skype from shanghai is rubin bondage are rubin is offensive for asian initiatives for the i. E. S. E. Business school good to have you with us so were talking about the first acceleration in Economic Growth since two thousand and ten is this mean the slowdown is over or is this just a one off do you think. The the current picture looks like that the a macroeconomic policies are working the bank in the two thousand and seventeen has been a good year which i would call a very successful us stubble a station year guarantee were stabilised and several other things and that made very good a very good year for china is many things either ran up slightly or have been stabilized thanks to the effect of the policies that have been done in the us two to three years but can it continue rubin if the policies are are continuing i think we will have a good another good year in two thousand and eighteen and how everybody is doing with those are saying that maybe a slowing down in the profit Property Market controls on Infrastructure Spending on local governments all of that might lead to a good year but not a continuing acceleration in Economic Growth we might go back to the slowdown in Economic Growth. But thats being offset by good policies in manufacturing which is attracting the foreign Foreign InvestmentsForeign Direct Investments in two thousand and seventy in and i think is in those same areas that will give a good year for two thousand and eighteen are especially if the reforms point when you for example one of several. Foreign chambers of commerce have been asking china to open up more r. Sectors of the industries and if china response well that will be good very good for two thousand and eighteen three regions have admitted to faking their darter in two thousand and sixteen requiring their g. D. P. Contributions now to be revised down are we getting an accurate picture of g. D. P. Growth in two thousand and seventeen well this has been a big year project of presidency human being i must say i dont think the only three regions are doing the. Muddling the accounting figures its not just them but if its not just i am valen you know is growth picking up or is it picking up even faster if in previous years other regions were sort of under reporting their economic woes. You know because this has been discovered precisely the inflation thats being done after some regions are trading it but theres also in the past as an academic what we usually do is then when the National Figures are up we would press them down and when they are down we would press them up we would do additional work but in this particular year it seems that despite those regions that have been over reporting there there has been adjustments being done from the top to put them down precisely to create a better picture but how do i know is it just means i think for them i must say that we have to leave that to the experts because it is very difficult in china because officials always give figures that you know they the painting be the real figures now for us looking at these figures we will review them and in two thousand and seventeen we think that this seem to be to be the real picture that we are seeing ok if is the real picture how is china achieved both economic acceleration and the same time a credit slowdown. Well we have to begin with the government efforts to correct the picture if you will remember to something fifteen and two thousand and sixteen china was sort of quote in quotation marks a quote trade hundred manipulating of the star stock markets and and also giving kind of Financial Information financial sort of these things that were very much doubt so that has been corrected in two thousand and seventeen again the the effect of those policies has not only stabilize things but being given rise to also new products which offsets what was in the negative effect so you may see it as a contradiction in terms but when you look at the overall effort so the effects of the economic policies are actually are overridden the negative consequences of you know bad budget activities by deporting. Falsely reporting and all of those things in the end the big picture i think we are seeing a two thousand and seventeen which was a more clean. Figure reporting and we expect that two thousand and eighteen will be will be the same if not the the watching dog mentality of the government continues to be done in the correct way would you say then that china is now on track to meeting one of its important goals the reduction of debt i think that is go much an assumption to say because we are looking only two thousand and seventeen so on with a big hope for two thousand and eighteen i think to make a judgment that now they are on a clean bill of health i think this is too much to say but i would say that the progress is positive i will have to have you come back then perhaps next year when we look at things again for now thanks so much rubin my pleasure still to come on the. Counting the cost of bad publicity businesses do what it all goes wrong. Now one of the Worlds LargestDairy Companies is facing millions of dollars in damages over a baby milk Scandal Police are now investigating after a French Company like tallis was accused of trying to cover up the extent of salmonella contamination at one of its plants like dallas exports to dozens of countries across Europe Africa and asia and the recall could affect around twelve million tons of the products that tasha butler reports from paris. After weeks of silence over the contaminated baby milk powder scandal the boss a French Company like tallis has responded to critics who say the manufacturer covered up the extent of the risk emanuel binya has told a french newspaper our priority has always been to handle the crisis and make sure that no more children become sick we have never minimise the risk of salmonella we consider that there was no breach of procedures on our side in december like tallis began recalling some of its baby milk products in france it had discovered the salmonella bacteria in this factory in the northwest but its only now that the extent of the contamination has become clear like tallis has now withdrawn twelve million tins of baby formula for more than eighty countries salmonella can be deadly for Young Children and dozens of families in france say that their children became sick after drinking luck tellus baby milk they have found lawsuits against the company saying that it tried to hide the risks and failed to help it crept up on families were lied to shamelessly and that the fear was spread by the telephone hotline number which was provided at the time or can you believe an operator who tells you that your milk is not affected but then three weeks later you learn that it is. The french president a man or mark or says locked alice could face penalties and on friday the finance minister said the government would do Everything Possible to end the crisis like that is actually swell take back all baby milk products manufactured at cow regardless of their production date from wherever it is being sold in particular from supermarkets and chemist the aim of this radical step is simple not to avoid problems insulting but is in the risk of human error like dallas his boss says his company has launched its own investigation and will pay damages to the salmonella victims for parents the focus will be on making sure their children are not exposed to the life threatening bacteria. Well joining us from london is david hague david is the founder and chief executive of london based Brand Finance david this story how does a Company Balance back from a story about poisoning babies. Good question. Theres a long history of companies that have actually produced products that have been damaging to babies and sometimes they handle them very well and they recover fairly fast and sometimes they dont so for example in one hundred seventy four nestle was producing baby milk that went all over the developing world and it got involved in a lot of very adverse practices to sell product to mothers and it denied and denied and it absolutely damage their reputation and ruin their business in that market and here we are forty years later they still have not recovered in the baby milk market from that scandal whereas farleys rusks which was a product in the u. K. Had a salmonella scandal they instantly withdrew the product from the shelves did a very good Information Campaign and they bounced back and theyre back to square one in china for example theres a product called sand lou which was implicated in the melamine adulteration scandal for baby milk. And they were damaged very severely because there was quite a gap and the secret of it is you identify the problem you get the c. E. O. Involved and you communicate firmly and decisively and take action or take us through a little more details there about the stages of Crisis Management what a company should do first what it needs to do after that in terms of follow ups to make sure it gets its reputation back in order well first of all you have to have a plan i think one of the problems is that Many Companies dont have a plan and they also are not clear who the spokesman is going to be and there are many chief executives who are extremely reluctant to get involved in these media storms so the famous example in the last few years where it turned into a disaster was b. P. Where tony hayward the c. E. O. Was really not prepared for doing media interviews and kept putting his foot in his mouth getting everything wrong and it just made the scandal worse so Good Companies have a well briefed. C. E. O. Who knows exactly whats going to happen and they do role playing and what if situations in advance they have a playbook they know exactly how to bring everything into into sharp focus and make sure everyone is saying from the same hymn sheet right from day one even how however good your plan is though is damage control getting a lot difficult now in the era of social media where you could argue that in the things reverberate around the world and go around consumers very fast using social media but i think you could take it the other way around if you actually manage social media well it allows you to get your message across much more quickly and much more forcefully so it isnt necessarily the case that wider faster and deeper coverage is going to damage you it really depends on the way you deal with it all right so managing a crisis you could argue both ways what about stopping a crisis from breaking out in the first place is that part getting a lot more difficult now again in the era of social media where you dont have an editor sitting there to check facts and information before he puts it on his front pages that one can just go tweet happy on anything they think right now well i think one of the one of the issues is what donald trump goes on about which is fake news you know i mean it isnt necessary fait use it might just be wrong wrong information and wrong information goes round and round so yes its true that it is. Theres more chance that it can go wrong but i think what it comes back to is the level of preparation and the way in which Companies Deal with it in a company is a got to be open and to begin with theyve got to be doing things which are acceptable in the u. K. At the moment theres a case going on about roe bank of scotland that had a unit which allegedly intentionally sent its customers bankrupt in order to sell their assets and thats going round and round because apparently they behaved in a very bad Way Companies the behave in a bad way will get found out in the current era. Now when you add celebrity power into the mix of changing dynamics as well as social media makes quite a powerful combination there is that impacting the job of p. R. Practitioners too well certainly i mean celebrity power has always been extremely strong brands try and get celebrities to endorse their products and the reverse of that is if you know someone like Angelina Jolie stands up and says she doesnt approve of a product because its behaving the wrong way or any other film star or celebrity its going to have a lot of power but they can do it now and harry reid has we saw over the the controversy over h. And ms ads you can have a famous person come out and say im not going to buy a close anymore and hes got a lot of followers then what do you do yes yes absolutely well i think each of them have responded very fast they pollard almost immediately they said they got it wrong and theyre now taking corrective action on that particular issue all right thanks so much for your thoughts on that. Apple says its going to create twenty thousand jobs for American Workers the i phone maker says the investment hundred fifty billion dollars the u. S. Economy over the next five years the u. S. Tech giant has faced criticism in the past for employing huge numbers of workers in asia its also taken flak for avoiding u. S. Taxes by keeping cash reserves in foreign bank accounts. B. P. Has revealed it will pay an additional one point seven billion dollars this year towards the deepwater horizon accident the two thousand and ten environmental disaster continues to weigh on the companys finances now the total cost including lawsuits has come in about sixty five billion dollars the explosion at a well in the gulf of mexico killed eleven people and dumped around five hundred Million Barrels of oil into the sea. Emirates airline says it struck a sixteen billion dollars deal with air asked to buy thirty six super jumbos had recently warned it may be forced to abandon production over three claims unless it received more orders liveries are scheduled to start in twenty twenty. And finally my number of the week is one point one degrees celsius scientists at the u. N. Say two thousand and seventeen was one of the warmest years to be recorded since the Nineteenth CenturyEnvironmental Research is part of a worrying trend Greenhouse Gases driving up Global Temperatures and changing our environment while we are now edging towards the one point five degrees celsius ceiling that was satyrs the top limit for Global Warming under that two thousand and fifteen paris climates agreement. And thats our show for this week but remember you can get in touch with us via twitter use the hash tag see when you do or drop us an email counting the cost of aljazeera is our address theres more for you online of aljazeera dot com. Thatll take you straight to our page which has individual reports links and entire episodes for you to catch up on. For this edition of counting the cost and sam is a done from the whole team here thanks for joining us news and ill just sirrah is next. Rio has big plans to turn its largest into spectacles. But inside the. Big plan such as. Building since the age of twelve untrained yet skilled architect has as good a chance as any at seeing his vision come to light. The federal role and the master plan are the concluding part of rebel architecture at this time on aljazeera. We understand the differences. And the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it aljazeera will bring you the news and Current Affairs that matter to. Aljazeera. Fully back to bill with a look at our main stories here on aljazeera the u. S. President is claiming a big win for republicans after Congress Approved a bill ending at the