Transcripts For BBCNEWS Asia Business Report 20170407

Of the European Council donald task that the sovereignty of gibraltar is not up for negotiation during the brexit talks. Lets cross over life to singapore for the latest business news. Face to face for the first time, as xijinping and face to face for the first time, as xi jinping and donald face to face for the first time, as xijinping and donald trump meet in mar a lago. And we look at how a Government Crackdown in india is affecting the Worlds Largest exporter of buffalo meat. Welcome to Asia Business report. The chinese president has arrived in the United States for a meeting with his counterpart president donald trump. Mrtrump is counterpart president donald trump. Mr trump is hosting xijinping at his mar a lago resort in florida. The meeting today is the very first time they are talking in person. Theres lots to discuss. Security, are both men in agreement on how to handle north korea . And on. Can these dealmakers avert a potential trade war . Joining us with some a nswe is we trade war . Joining us with some answers we hope is our Asia Business correspondent. Lots of big issues. North korea, the south china sea, but focusing on trade. Despite all of the tough Campaign Talk that we heard from president trump, branding china a currency manipulator, slapping it with punitive tariffs, none of this has happened. They still have the rest of the net to get through, lets wait and see what happens. Rest of the night. At the tone has changed a great deal before the meeting and now when they are meeting face to face. Just look at the peak is of that historic handshake. Everyone waiting to see offcou rse handshake. Everyone waiting to see offcourse what kind of camaraderie the two men will build. It is arguably the most important political relationship in the entire world. On the face of It Everything seems to be quite congenial. Mr trump speaking at dinner earlier this evening has even set that china and the us, the two men, are going to have a very great relationship. He was using his fabulous word g reat yet he was using his fabulous word great yet again. When they sit down and have the conversations, high up on the agenda is the trade deficit. Last year, 31r7 Million Dollars trade deficit. Half of that due to china. Billion. Mrtrump says that is one of the key things he will raise during these talks. Both of these leaders dont want to be seen as weak and are really playing to their domestic audiences to some extent. What should they be coming away with . A major success will be if this trip goes off without any faux pas. For the chinese it is very much about face. President xijinping has chinese it is very much about face. President xi jinping has effectively what is an election in china at the end of the year. He is going to want to make sure that this meeting comes across as a relationship between equals. President trump has offered some political setbacks over the course of the last couple of weeks, so course of the last couple of weeks, so he will want to make sure that it looks like he has managed to secure some major agreements from the chinese president. But weve still got a day and a half left, so lets see what happens. Thats right and the crucial Working Lunch tomorrow. Thanks very much. In other news , twitter has refused to reveal the user behind an account of post to president trumps tough Immigration Policies and says it is challenging the demand for records in court. The account describes itself as Immigration Resistance and the person behind it claims to be a federal employee. Samsung electronics has shrugged off the effects of a major recall and involvement in corruption scandal, posting a bullish estimates of its profits. The company says its First Quarter Operating Profit are likely to have risen 48 on the year, coming in at 8. 7 6 billion dollars. And could this be the year of travel . According to research, falling fs, higher capacity across several airlines may encourage more people to pack their bags and venture beyond their borders falling airfares. An Online Travel booking firms is more flights are adding destinations, including dubai, india and china. I spoke to the president and Chief Executive at xpedia. We are seeing the rise of inter asian travel. Many asian travellers are going all around asia. Bangkok my singapore, hong kong, taipei, tokyo. We are all growing quickly. In osaka, Search Volumes are up 90 year on year. Japans focus on expanding Japanese Tourism and japan as a destination really seems to be working and the quality of the product is excellent. So we see expedias asian customers increasingly searching japan as a destination. I want to ask your outlook for the Airline Industry. We are outlook for the Airline Industry. We a re lots of outlook for the Airline Industry. We are lots of competition. Lower airfares as well, with all of the Budget Airlines out there. Does that automatically translate to more travel for travellers in asia . More supply means lower pricing and we are absolutely seeing lord pricing, especially on international theirs. Internationalfares. Especially on international theirs. International fares. That especially on international theirs. Internationalfares. That means more travellers. It is a great time to travel and we see more capacity coming into the Asian Pacific market. I think the next five years will be excellent for the asian consumer. You mentioned some of those destinations earlier, osaka, bangkok and others, but because of the terror related attacks, have we seen reduced demand for places like london and paris . We have seen paris, for example, was weaker earlier. But demand has really bounced back. London has benefited funnily enough from brexit, as the British Pound came down. London became a much cheaper destination and asa became a much cheaper destination and as a result which seem pretty enormous demand coming into london and the rest of the uk. We have 15 seconds. How has this impacted your company . Well, in generaltravel is growing incredibly quickly. Were going from a society of growing toa going from a society of growing to a society of experiences, so we are happy now. That was the Chief Executive of expedia. Across india, the killing of cows has been outlawed for years. A few weeks ago they started cracking down on the killing of buffaloes as well. Hindu nationalists have been campaigning against the slaughter for decades, but india is the largest exporter of buffalo meat and more than half of that supply comes from one particular state. We found out how it is impacting the industry. This is a thriving industry with exports alone amounting to 5 billion a year. But for more than two weeks this plant has been operating at less than 20 of its capacity. We are getting less orders. Indian buffalo meat goes to most countries. They are apprehensive. They want to serve their own Supply Chains in neighbouring countries. They arent sure whether we will be able to supply them on time. It all started when a hindu nationalist became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He opposes the slaughter of cows, considered sacred by the hindu majority in india. Cow slaughtering is illegal in most parts of india, including Uttar Pradesh. But the slaughter of buffaloes is legal. He said his policy is simply aimed at slaughterhouses that dont have government licences. But legal pla nts government licences. But legal plants are feeling the effects as well. Around 2000 buffaloes would get delivered at this facility every day. Now, less than 200 remain. Look at the site. It is completely empty. Asign of at the site. It is completely empty. A sign of this bans wider effects. Supplies have also stopped delivering buffaloes because they are concerned about being targeted. At the local cattle market, usually a hive of activity, its a similar story. Traders here fear that local groups are taking the law into their own hands. Translation farmers arent bringing their buffaloes to market. They said the police are harassing them. Some vigilantes groups are also attacking them. No one registers a complaint because these groups have political backing. The State Government stands by its decision but says anyone acting outside the law will be dealt with. Translation if the buffalo traders are doing their business legally and are doing their business legally and are being stopped, thats illegal. Action will be taken against any groups housing terrorists. Tens of thousands of people work in the Meat Business in Uttar Pradesh and most are minority muslims. There are fears this kind of policies could fuel religious tensions. For now, with so many people out ofjobs, the supplied hit both at home and abroad, most are looking for answers about the future of the industry. A quick look at the markets before we go. Some gains for the nikkei, are almost i . Its reversing the four month lows. It closed at yesterday. A lot of caution still because of the ongoing meeting between trump and xi jinping. A because of the ongoing meeting between trump and xijinping. A lot of investors watching that. Thats it for this edition of Asia Business report. Thanks for watching. Lets bring you up to date with our top stories. Chinas resident has arrived in florida and held his first meeting with donald trump. President. The americans briefly previously said they wanted to use the opportunity to discuss north koreas missile programmes. The Basque Separatists movement eta said it would disarm this week, formally ending the conflict with the spanish state. An inquest has opened into the death of a British Airways pilot. British airways. 43 year old Richard Westgate had complained for years of severe headaches and vision problems, and was convinced he was being poisoned by toxic fumes leaking onto planes. Duncan kennedy reports. When this 43 year old pilot date aged 43 it came after he complained after Long Term Health problems but he said were due to breathing cabin air. His mother and brother have come to the inquest today, also believing he was the victim of toxic cabin air. He breathed it for many yea rs cabin air. He breathed it for many years while flying and they say it affected his nervous system. This 2015 flight from florida to new york shows an example of what the industry calls a cabin fume event. Richard was not involved with this flight. Richard was not involved with this flight. The pictures appear to show what can happen when oil vapour from the engine is sucked into the aircraft itself. Tristan says he also suffered air toxicity as a pilot and he showed me the kind of pipe that links and and entered the cabin. This is all commercial and flights can be affected by this and flights can be affected by this and the industry must accept what is happening. You assume it is safe. You board a train and you assume it is safe. The Airline Industry is an incredibly safe industry, but the reality is on this particular issue, this is the Achilles Heel of aviation, contaminated air. This doesnt just affect british aviation, contaminated air. This doesntjust affect British Airways. Both ba and the Civil Aviation authority denied there is a problem with cabin air. Ba says it wouldnt operate an aircraft if there was contamination. It says there has been substantial research into cabin airand none of been substantial research into cabin air and none of it shows there is a risk to Long Term Health. The coroner has made clear that this inquest is not a public enquiry into cabin airfumes. Inquest is not a public enquiry into cabin air fumes. While the industry is insisting that cabin air is clea n, is insisting that cabin air is clean, the westgate family and others believe this issue is real and must now be taken seriously. We have lots more on our website. You can also get in touch with me and some of the team via social media, or on twitter. Now lets catch up with the sports news in sport today. Hello. This is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. Coming up on this programme Dustin Johnson withdraws from the masters without hitting a shot, as his back injury gets the better of him. On the course, Charley Hoffman leads by four strokes after his first round. And kenyas olympic champion, jemima sumgong, has tested positive for the banned blood booster, epo. Hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with the news that world Number One Dustinjohnson has withdrawn from the masters without hitting a shot. The 32 year old fell down some stairs in his rented house on wednesday, injuring his back. And despite hitting the Practice Range early on the morning of the years first major championship, felt that by the time hejoined his playing partners bubba watson and jimmy walker on the first tee, he wasnt in a position to compete