barriers. now on bbc news, all the latest business news live from singapore. negotiators from the us, canada and mexico meet today to lash out a new north american free trade agreement. one of the world s biggest shipping companies releases its latest earning numbers. what will this tell us earning numbers. what will this tell us about the state of global trade? good morning, asia, hello, world, glad you could join us for asia business report. i m rico hizon. later today in washington, dc the first round of negotiations will start for nafta, the north american free trade agreement, a pact between canada, the us and mexico. the us president made a campaign to promise to renegotiate the deal signed in 1994. any other disagreements are between the us and mexico, but there are also issues in canada, one of them softwood lumber. to get to the root of this problem we sent our correspondent to the state of maine. there s a lot of uncertainty. nobody knows where this will go. there s