Hello im daryn jordan this is counting the cost on aljazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week. We are now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world. We are independent and we do not the. Middle east Oil President trump wants u. S. Troops out of the middle east we take a look at the trillions spent on wars and the billions of men taining us military bases. Also this week the hog and pork industry has taken a hit from african swine flu in china and asia but does the Meat Industry need to change to save the planet. Frances digital tax on. Big Silicon Valley tech good could escalate a trade will with the United States well right now there are 200000 u. S. Troops station that more than 800 bases in 70 countries and territories outside the United States despite President Trumps pledges to end the endless wars the number of troops in the middle east has increased well the assassination of iran 2nd most powerful figure a cost him sin the money by u. S. Drone strike as led to the deployment of more troops to iraq and won iran hit back contentions appear to have eased for now a shot a war go zone which raises the question how much does the United States spend them its presence in the middle east well since 911. 00 taxpayers in the United States have spent 6. 00 trillion dollars on wars in afghanistan iraq and syria thats according to the whats an institute of international and Public Affairs at Brown University more than 800000 people have died as a direct result of fighting according to u. S. Central command theyre all between 60 and 70000 u. S. Troops in the middle east well this is just a quick snapshot of that Troop Deployment 14000. 00 in afghanistan more than 7000. 00 in kuwait 13000. 00 and cattle and 3000. 00 in saudi arabia and the cost of maintaining bases and troops including in war zones is as much as 200000000000. 00 a year thats according to david vine author of base nation how u. S. Military bases a broad harm america and the world well hopes nations do pay directly or indirectly for that deployment after sending 3000. 00 troops and patriot missiles to defend Saudi Oil Fields following and attacked which washington blamed on iran trump said the south is a paying for it jordy arabia at by requests has degree to pay our or everything were doing at deferred but 30 arabia and other countries through dow but 30 arabia as agree to pay for everything were doing out there well joining me now via skype from boston is glenn coll glenn is a former Deputy NationalIntelligence Officer at the cia the Trans National threats hes currently an assistant professor at Boston College and is the author of the interrogator and education glenn the u. S. Maintains numerous bases right across the middle east and the Rand Corporation estimates it cost between 50. 00 to 150000000. 00 a year per base and that takes up a huge chunk of the annual 700000000000. 00 u. S. Defense budget so do the host nations really pay anything towards those costs well ive done a Little Research on this too and the answer is a little murkier than i expected to find. It depends on which country were talking about japan south korea pay substantial amounts and in europe there are substantial contributions of various natures financially accountable for the American Military presence in iraq im not so clear that they are actually making a formal contribution to hosting us and much as they are happy to have as im sure so there will be ancillary or secondary indirect costs that the host countries paying certainly and i dont think that theyre paying some serious wish to host 6000 american soldiers known simply as yet lets just stay with us issue of cost then because the u. S. Seems quick to get into a war but its not very good at winning the peace is it on this it will its very very costly Something Like 6 trillion dollars spent on wars since 2001 and here we are again with iran how do you see this all playing out then oh goodness well thats the question that no ones been able to work out. When the american political system is largely paralyzed so that any sort of coherent set. Action in International Relations is very hard to do theres been strong inclination on the part of half the country to to remove the american presence from iraq which is viewed as a disaster and and yet most i would say professional National Security officials are preferred or individuals think that its necessary for us to have some sort of a presence there. Which is independent of whether we are the ones who broke the crockery or try to put it together but that to leave now would be a problem so i dont see us leaving anytime soon unless the inquiry into here and in the precious man in the oval Office Actually manages to act upon his and potions yeah and thats an interesting point you make then because President Trump says the us doesnt need middle east oil and wants to get us troops out of the region so whats the main reason then why the base thats still there one of the actually doing well i think in the broad sense the american. Presence in the middle east is in a recession evidently are slowly withdrawing i would say from it being used as an existential vital National Security interest because it is true that just in the last 2 years i thank you for the 1st time since 959. 00 the u. S. Has become a net exporter of energy and alternative sources to petroleum are rapidly rising so so that is true the u. S. Says it less direct Energy Financial interests there nonetheless. Petroleum will be central to the World Economy political systems the ability for the remainder of your in my life times and therefore the middle east is a strategic the vital area and i dont see us losing our National Interests there in that regard. The time soon there glenn lets just take a look if we can irans pasta in the middle east i mean we know it has proxies in iraq syria yemen lebanon but of course lets remind our viewers that iran is on the crippling us sanctions on how is it funding its influence and its wars right across the region yeah well im glad you raised that point is something to that we should bunk right away is the assertion that donald trump has made since he came on to the National Scene politically and just made recently again he makes it all the time that the nuclear deal with iran gave obama then gave 150000000000 dollars i think he said it was the figure to iran with which iran is now funding terrorism thats a typically grotesque misrepresentation of the truth what happened in the agreement was that the funds that had been sequestered or are frozen as a result of the seizure of the American Embassy in 1979 were released so this was a rainy and money that he was going back to them it is does appear true however that the iranians used some of those funds to fund their proxies and their activities in the in the beyond the Iranian Border rather than building highways or schools so that is true. You know you can always print more money and the people can it can tighten their belts a bit more so that you can buy more guns i mean this tends to be Governments Fund themselves so those who suffer most immediately from financial sanctions and penury are the average citizen rather than the governments militaries that which are as i call we have to leave it there thank you very much indeed for talking to counting the cost and time well as tensions between the u. S. And iran escalated the economics editor of a downy caught up with the chief executive of Rolls Royce Motor Cars the luxury brand was reporting record sales as a strong presence in the middle east when he began by asking toast and voss about uncertainty in the region and would that have an impact on the company. Are in there is very hard to forecast as you can imagine we are always watching closely what happens in all our markets worldwide i mean we are not immune as a luxury brand thoughts and you just drop sions like political things going on or whatever so for that reason we are looking we are watching it but i cant tell you anything on what will happen over the next weeks or months so lets look into it so far i can tell you that the order bank coming from the middle Eastern Market is pretty robust for us and looks good and we havent seen any decline over the last days so for that reason it is as it was in 2019 but lets wait and see what happens i want to focus on Climate Change and were seeing the impact of that around the world what is rules royce doing to make sure its reducing its Carbon Emissions in this decade rolls royce will go electric thats already decided were working on it it will happen step by step by step and our Long Term Strategy is also clear we launched you might remember a couple of years ago the you want all 3 excel we call it our vision car which was the lighthouse for 2040 and that clearly set the pass and electrified future so we will go electric step by step by step and that happens over or in this decade and over the next decades rest assured that we are on it and there we are aware of it. Now home production and the pork market in china were valued at 213000000000. 00 in 2018 but african swine flu a contagious disease has wiped out 200000000. 00 pigs on farms all over asia particularly in china well the chinese love eating pork but shortages of their favorite food has pushed chinas Consumer Price index to its highest in 7 years chinese demand has also reshaped global meat markets and the government looking overseas to satisfy domestic appetites katrina you reports now from beijing. You shredded pork and braised. Just some of the most popular dishes served during the Chinese New Year holiday. But as families in china welcome the year of the rat few a pork items may be on the menu in recent months prices have more than doubled not knowing where you would be if prices keep going up like this then i will order and eat pork or even try not as frequently as before. African swine flu has wiped out hearts of chinas heads up to 200000000. 00 farm pigs have died or been culled since the outbreak began a year ago harmless to humans the contagious disease kills pigs within 10 days there is no vaccine. China has 26000000 people. In the 3. Has caught everyones attention including Farmers Consumers and the garment. The Chinese Government has released more than 100000 tonnes of Strategic Reserves to ease demand and lifted environmental restrictions on. China consumers hoffs the worlds pork and during the Chinese New Year holiday demography seeks to address the source its the Chinese Government has a. Wide spending spree to buy more. And its pushing up poor prices worldwide beijing is ramped up pork imports from the European Union and despite the trade is awaiting tariffs on u. S. Pork its also boosting imports of other meat protein including australian musson beef and chicken from brazil. Agricultural experts say that could affect eating habits in the long term. For now maines chinas Favorite Meat but with no when to the shortage in sight it will continue to be more costly to bring home the bacon. Now the whole question of how we get our protein fix has gained prominence against the backdrop of Climate ChangeAnimal Agriculture is responsible for about 9 percent of human caused Carbon Dioxide emissions globally and with a growing population a rising middle class that can only increase so lets bring in a leading expert in this field from tract in the netherlands we have Justin Sherrod and justin is a global strategist on Animal Protein and dutch bank robber bank just in so lets pick up on this issue of animal production we know its a huge contributor to global c o 2 emissions so tell us what needs to change or are we just so addicted to meat thank you i dont think were addicted to mate i dont think thats the right way of thinking about it mate is a staple part of diets of most people around the world in the way that you think of of rice in the way you think of bread as being a staple part of the diet so i dont think its about addiction what it is about is how were going to change the emissions signature associated with make production and consumption in the future and in on a Positive Side we start to see commitments being made by some of the larger lady Animal Protein companies in europe and in the United States about reducing the Greenhouse Gas emissions associated with the whole supply chain were not seeing the action just years were not seeing enough companies and as many players as we need to see along the supply chain making those commitments but i do believe were going to see much more of that as we move through the 20 twentieths the decade where we really need to deliver on the World Sustainable Development goals the 20 yet and just and we know that african swine flu has taken a devastating toll on the pig populations in china and asia but its also reshaped the International Market with more exports from places like europe from latin america so what can we expect for the rest of the year youre right its had a devastating impact and and. It that they the level of devastation is something that will continue with us for over the coming years we have never seen in in our living memory the type of reduction in Coal Production in an Animal Protein production in the world that we saw in 2019 as an impact of african swine fever and principally that was because of the impacts of this deadly disease with on the pork production on the pig population in china this year we are going to see more reduction in pork production in china china which constitutes about half of the worlds total pork production up until 2018 last year sorra a quarter taken from its total production so down 25 percent in 19 it will be down by about 10 percent to 15 percent maybe closer to 15 percent 12020 ok so lets talk about your outlook for this year 2020 you talked about wildcats seafood being in decline is this due to warming sea temperatures i mean whats causing this oh look wild catch seafood this is were talking here about tom hundreds and hundreds of different species across the pacific the indian the atlantic oceans its not easy to put your finger on just one thing that is contributing to year to year changes in some cases warming sea temperatures may be contributing to a decline but probably the bigger factor than that is the way that regulation. Around the el hour will catch is the legal catches it made it is starting to do well is continuing to tighten up and we see a slight reduction in total allowable catch in some of these fishing waters just in lets just talk about the move to non meat based products like plant based theres plant based sausages we see Companies Like impossible foods making. A big statement in the marketplace whats the potential for the industry here well i think theres 2 points to make about this type of product the plant based at the plant by sausage citrus the 1st point to make i think is the obvious one which is there seems to be enormous attention and enormous potential around these products and the 2nd point to make you know its equally important is that they are starting from quite a lot of bodies and we need to take that into account when we think about what their potential is what they contribution is to worlds population of feeding the worlds population with protein in the future as a category in general in places like north america and europe weve probably saying growth of somewhere around 15 in some cases maybe as high as 20 percent year on year in this category when you Start Talking about something growing at 15 to 20 percent and doing that over a period of a couple of years its not surprising that they get a lot of a lot of attention and and they and they are set to continue growing well into the 20 twentys but they are still at quite a load bias in europe for example if you think about they scattered greek you probably have at the moment somewhere around 200000. 00 tonnes of these products being consumed per year now while that might sound like a big number 200000 tonnes you probably need to compare that to Something Like 16000000 tonnes of meat and seafood which is being consumed at the same time just ensure out we have to leave it there tha