The programme that pitches some of the uks most prominentjournalists against International Writers who file their stories with the dateline london. This week, how domestic politics is dictating Foreign Policy for both the United Kingdom and the United States. Theresa mays fellow eu leaders rebuff the brexit compromise she hoped would hold together her party. Donald trump ratchets up his trade war with china that could strengthen his hand in novembers mid term elections. To discuss that, with me are isabel hilton, from chinadialogue, which fosters debate about chinas environment. Isabel is a former newspaper columnist and broadcaster in the uk. Agnes poirier writes for the french magazine marianne. Janet daleys column appears every week in the sunday telegraph here in the uk. Michael goldfarb, the us born journalist, hosts the podcast frdh the first rough draft of history. In salzburg on wednesday night, theresa may was expecting if not the sound of music at least that her European Partners would take her in their arms and try the new brexit steps she was suggesting. Instead, eu president donald tusk, who had previously praised the positive evolution of the uk Prime Ministers fancy footwork known as the chequers proposal now labelled it unworkable. She would have to dance to the eu tune. Mrs may left salzburg, and on friday made clear that if this was the only option, she would prefer not to dance at all. This was an interesting end to a challenging week, to say the least, for the Prime Minister. This was an challenging week. Why did they allow this to happen . Allow what to happen . I will try to be respectful. Nothing new happened in salzburg. The eu leaders have been saying what they said in salzburg for two years now. The day after salzburg, look at the european press, you get some lines on the salzburg meeting, a few articles here and there, and then in the uk, youre looking at the British Press and youve got macron on half the front page of the daily telegraph, forjust repeating what he said before, that is to say, he respects the referendums outcome but brexiters lied to the british people. And tusk, he had a moment of humour on instagram there is nothing worse than the spectacle of a humourless britain. Jeremy hunt is now summoning the spirit of dunkirk. We are not at war with the nazis. I know you have lots to say, janet. But what i just want to say that the only people disrespecting theresa may are brexiters and they do it on a daily basis. There is the irish border question, which has to be resolved and there is only one solution, it is the norway minus because it means Customs Union and no hard brexit no hard border anywhere. But stay with salzburg first. Janet, did theresa may overplay her hand with this big my deal or no deal . Nobody expected chequers to fly, thats not the issue. The issue is how it was treated by the eu figures who definitely overplayed their hand. They have now reinvigorated the credibility of her leadership to an extent that i never dreamed possible last week. Macrons use of the word liars about a significant proportion of the Political Class in this country was extraordinary, thats the kind of language you use when you are about to declare war on another country, not in trade negotiations. They have not said anything different from the last two years, that is the problem. There has been absolutely no movement, absolutely no attempt. Negotiation is a french word, right . We should know that what they call cherry picking is you like some bits, you dont like other bits. The idea that you dont budge on anything, the british think theyre doing politics, the europeans are doing theology. Thats the difference. This is a Franco German metaphysical system. When macron talks about the integrity of the single market, these are trade negotiations. This is not. I am going to deny that they were ever theological. But his is being treated as sacred text. What about the integrity of the Democratic State . Thats whats being put forward. Now you are really going back in history. To the 18th century. Absolutely. Back to 1992 and the maastricht negotiations. The last british Prime Minister who was so abused by his own party was john major who kept britain out of the euro. The eu, at that time, they made genuine concessions, we got out of the social chapter, but they are not negotiating now. I bet you and i probably agree on much of the mistakes the british side has made. A full year of david davis going to meetings with nothing in his briefcase is not negotiating. Chequers was presented in late july, Boris Johnson left and since then, he has called it a suicide vest. Now, thats humiliating. Lets just go through the history of this week. No, lets not. Here is the specifics, the most specific thing that was said by any senior tory politician last week was by our old colleague on this panel, michael gove, who once again reiterated that any agreement reached. He supported chequers, he has discredited himself, im sorry to say. He went on to reiterate, and im sure he will do again before we leave, that this parliament will not be bound by any agreements. Let me say, i have a real horse in that race because i am afraid i may have started that particular avalanche when i said in print everybody was saying chequers is the worst possible deal and well be locked into it permanently and i said, i somewhat regret now, nothing is permanent in international relations, these treaties can always be renegotiated, particularly trade negotiations. That is the line that the chequers apologists are taking now, that this would not be permanent. You need to start somewhere. Yes, absolutely, but i do not think chequers is the right starting place. To what extent do you think, isabel, this bust up was going to happen now, and it may be a good thing it happens now because it may help theresa may through what would have been a very difficult Party Conference and might mean the europeans carry on negotiating with someone they might be able to do business with, as opposed to a future tory leader who might be considerably less amenable. Possibly, but i think it was inevitable in that theresa may has been struggling to deliver the undeliverable in leaving the eu and retaining the benefits. I dont find it surprising that eu leaders are pointing this out if you want to leave the club, its going to be tricky. Because we have a committee of people with their own interests who are not part of your fantasy world. Brexit was premised on a fantasy world, a fantasy about how europe would behave, about how europe saw britain and how europe needed britain more than britain needed europe. About a fantasy about the unexplored opportunities outside the eu, which is the biggerfallacy. Now, none of these are deliverable in the real world because you have to have a Counter Party to deliver them. Whether or not theresa may survives and whether or not she is challenged, that reality will not change. On the club metaphor, what sort of organisation threatens people who want to leave . They are not threatening, they are just saying we would be sorry if you left, but that is your choice. We are supposed to be friendly nations. Her original speech, the lancaster house speech offered in the most diplomatic language continued friendship and security. But the fundamental one of the memes of the last month has been 80 of the deal is already done, i dont know what the 80 is, but i do know the 20 that needs to be done and that is the Northern Irish border. This is not a club membership, and it is coloured by the fact it is deeply political. The 27 nations, the 26 plus ireland, are backing ireland. When you say backing ireland. There is no credible. Ireland has said it will never enforce a hard border, the eu has also said this. The uk has said the same. Where is the problem . This is a complete fiction, something blown out of all proportion, with a very inexperienced irish Prime Minister who has become a world star as a consequence. I wonder if some of this is a consequence of the decision taken early on, which was to split this process, you have the divorce deal and then the trade deal. If you did this together, you would resolve this because the uk would have a trade deal with the eu, which would then mean that you would not have there would never be an issue. They should not have triggered article 50 so quickly, but theresa may had to prove to her party that brexit meant brexit. The negotiation should have been simultaneous and that was the decision of the eu. The preliminary discussion should have stretched for longer but theresa may could not have consolidated her hold over her party if she did not trigger article 50. This business of theresa may trying to get reforms, at one point, she was positing something that would have been tantamount to associate membership, which would have been a solution to not only our problems, but the problems of the eu. Lots of countries who would jump at the possibility of an associate membership without all the difficulties about schengen and so on. They did not take that solution even when David Cameron offered it. He was offering the mildest conceivable kinds of reforms and they would not give him anything. Free movement of people is critical. Yesterday, she said there is three million eu citizens living in britain and you are welcome to stay and that was the most significant thing she said. That is something that should have been negotiated on six months ago. Free movement of people effectively amounts to importing Unemployed People from poor countries to supply cheap labour for rich countries. Is there a deal still to do or is there no deal . There will be, i think, a paper thin deal that will please no one. Can ijust add something, we talked about europe, but we should have been talking about british domestic politics because its is about the dup, weve not spoken about labour, labour is completely awol on the brexit debate. In western europe, the first few months of the Second World War is often described as the phoney war it was officially on, but there were few military clashes. Donald trumps trade war with china feels much the same. His trade officials spent months preparing evidence of what he regards as chinese transgressions, theres been Public Consultation on how to punish them, and thereve been exemptions. With the us economy apparently booming, American Consumers may hardly notice tariffs imposed on chinese imports. But what about china . There are signs that its economy is slowing. From monday, at least 44 of its exports to the us will be affected. Isabel, you are literallyjust back from china on friday night. We are very grateful for you staggering into the studio after a journey like that. What was your impression of chinas economy . The economy was scheduled to slow, there is a planned slowdown. That is not surprising. China has to move through the middle income trap and transform its economic base. That has been long anticipated. At the same time, it has a number of problems like a towering massive debt, and some difficulties in getting the consumer and innovation part off the ground. But that is all growing. I think it would be a big mistake to attribute the incipient trade war for creating the slowdown. I was at the World Economic Forum Meeting last week where the Prime Minister turned up to do the thing they now do at davos. It is very curious to watch these chinese leaders turning up talking to the Business Elite about, stay calm, we are with you, it will be fine, and defending the multilateral trade system. He addressed questions about the domestic economy because people are worried about chinese debt. Presumably worried about the chinese Banking System as well. The assumption is the state will not let it go and most of the exposure is domestic, so its not quite lehman brothers. People are worried about it and they are worried because since the financial crisis china has over relied on investment stimulus, in effect, Building Infrastructure and so on, for its continued growth. If it is not going to do that any more and were getting to the outer edges of what can be done what will take over . And that is what he was talking about. He said we will not do another big fiscal stimulus, we will not do competitive devaluation, we are doing tax cuts, very reasonable set of pressures that he was putting forward to mitigate the effects of the trade war, but also as an ongoing set of reforms. What he also made promises on, which i think were perhaps less, received with less credulity, was the idea china would continue to open its economy and trade on level terms with international partners. That is the element of Donald Trumps complaint that is widely shared, eu firms, other companies constantly complain. James dyson in the uk used to complain about trade and you effectively have your ip taken. Ip was also referenced in his speech, he said as we are an innovative country we are interested in protecting our ip. You have an interesting multidimensional chess game going on where essentially the less hysterical part of the world says to china, you are getting to the point where you cannot trade and on favourable wto terms, you were no longer the economy you were when you joined. And the chinese are saying we will do that, i promise you and this is what we are doing. In the meantime they are trying to stop the plates wobbling on the many places that could be wobbling in the real economy. This tariff war that donald trump launched, looking at the figures, 189 billion of chinese goods will be hit on monday. The retaliation amounts to 60 billion, the logic would say it will hit china harder in america, at least initially. Look at the goods. So soy beans are going to be more expensive for china . They will purchase them from argentina. They ship us the finished goods and that is part of the imbalance, they ship them for cheaper than it would cost us to manufacture them. The thing people have to understand about donald trump in this trade war, i cannot imagine he would have sat still taking in these words of real powerful analysis from isabel. He would have been on the phone. He operates at a different level, his trade advisers, a former ucla professor. Its like the 19805 all over again, but instead ofjapan, we have china. These are villains. The thing about american trade policy, it has become an executive decision, its not Something Congress does, so his inclination is to say, these guys from asia are messing with us, or canada is messing with us because the guy crushed my hand when he shook it. And then that is the real world. And in the real world is foxconn, which was a villain for a long time, has opened up a plant in wisconsin, which is a state whose governor is a tea party republican, who gave away the store in tax breaks to china, a chinese company, to make iphones in wisconsin. It is total hypocrisy at one level. In terms of the politics, how were the. A senior figure suggested around three quarters of the products are intermediate, consumers will not feel it, so come the mid term elections they will be saying, good on you, donald trump, fighting for americanjobs. Donald trump in the time he has been president has not brought any new supporters to him, he held onto the ones he has got. They mostly do not care because the super rich got their tax cuts and the other ones say, we are beating up on the chinese who have been taking advantage. That is the level of they understand it on china takes advantage of us, we need to punch back. There are many midwest farmers. So far they have remained very loyal. There are not as many Small Farmers who will be hit by this, these are people working for agribusiness companies. I dont know. I think there are not that many votes in it. The chinese were wise enough to try not to negotiate anything before the mid term elections, so for the moment they choose to retaliate. The us is imposing tariffs, they are substantially produced the products that they are imposing ta riffs the products that they are imposing tariffs on, by American Companies in china and they are part of a long and complicated supply chain which affects all of chinas neighbouring countries who run the trade surplus with china. My bet is production will move out of china, which it has been doing anyway because chinese labour is now more expensive, so low end production will move to vietnam, cambodia, african countries and therefore avoid tariffs. It will still be chinese manufacturers but operating abroad. And the higher end companies, some will move to the us. Presumably this is with the idea of bringing jobs back home, ha ctually labour costs in the United States make it very hard to think you could bring many of these jobs home. Donald trump is trying to wage the war on globalism, and globalism is a big problem in europe as well, the business of importing labour and goods, the hopelessness of trying to impose tariffs, everybody is adjusting, the whole Political Class is adjusting to the Global Economy and globalisation of labour. The problem is he seems to not grasp the complexity. I dont think he does complexity. We did not talk about apple. He wants apple to not only conceive everything in california but also produce everything in america. Fine, but then nobody will be able to afford their products because they will be three times more expensive than they already are. Most of how does it affect us, in terms of the kind of impact on peoples daily lives, even the tariffs. But it is a tax on consumption, it will make everything you buy more expensive. One thing that will become more expensive almost instantly is clothing, chinese clothing in america has swept the board on what we call the high street, retail chains. That will be hit quite quickly i think. Is there a broader point in terms of the model we have developed that applies to the eu as well, this just in time process, everything has to be available just like that, nobody keeps stock. That is becoming a real issue because the politics does not match that. We may be coming to, and i dont want to sound marxist, at the moment of synthesis. The nation state needs to fight the idea of ethno nationalism, which steve bannon is running around europe trying to get victor orban and the tory party to be really good buddies. So there has to be a moment of synthesis but hopefully it does not the ethnically derive nationstate has to be ready. So there has to be a moment of synthesis but hopefully it does not involve shooting because there is really no easy solution to the process of how america, i think the working age population that is actually in work is around 65 , you cannot have that many people who are able bodies. This is going to get much worse. Part of the us and china row is who owns the future and who sets the standards and who sets the trading blocks up. The more this pressure is put on china the more china puts effort in to creating its own trading blocs. It can do this. It will be setting the standards and owning the licences of the future. That is not a win for the United States at all, that is pushing china further down the path it was aspiring to. Can i make a point about the ethno nation state it is also the democratic nation state that is at risk with an Accountable Government one that has been elected directly by its population and accountable to its population that is being undercut by globalisation. And taxes need to be imposed by the government. One of the things that struck me, from Bob Woodwards book fear on the donald trump whitehouse is apparently during the transition, and gary cohn said to him, if you are here for eight years, you will deal with the automation of the car and the truck, and about 25 of the American Population make a living driving vehicles. Those are the bigger problems. There are lots ofjobs for robots, fewer and fewerjobs for the kind of people who vote for donald trump. And robots do not pay taxes. And we, unfortunately are out of time. Thats it for dateline london for this week. Were back next week at the same time. Goodbye. Hello. After a rather autumnal sort of weekend, the weather is looking a little bit better for many of us, as High Pressure builds through this week. On monday after a chilly start to the day things are largely dry and sunny with a few showers out there from showers for the north and west of scotland, perhaps some for Northern England north west island. Lighter wind, more sunshine, temperatures a degree or so warm a. Still operates at this time of year but it will warm up in the south. Monday into tuesday stays dry and clear so another chilly night. A touch of frost as we see temperatures getting a few degrees above freezing. A chilly morning first thing tuesday. A couple of mist and fog patches that will clear away quickly. Tuesday bring sunshine from most places. The sky clouds over from Northern Ireland from most places. The sky clouds overfrom Northern Ireland with rain and breeze down towards the south and breeze down towards the south and east temperatures will reach the high teens. Welcome to bbc news. Broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. My name is lewis vaughanjones. 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