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 a lot of talk about free trade and fairtrade. need fairtrade. money may not grow on trees by the softwood lumber isa not grow on trees by the softwood lumber is a billion—dollar business. canada and the us have been arguing over the industry for decades. so what is softwood lumber? it's a kind of wood that comes from softwood trees, obviously. trees like cedar, pine and and it is primarily used to build houses. —— and spruce. it is big business. in 2014 the industry contributed 21.2 iliad dollars to the canadian economy. —— billion dollars. and over 350,000 people work industry the us. they are good paying jobs. we are not investing elsewhere, all the money is put back into the community and it helps make a community live and be vibrant and survive. what's the problem? because it is subsidised and they have advantages that we don't have and we are competing. we can't compete against the government or subsidies, we need fairtrade. for years the us said the canadian government is u nfa i rly said the canadian government is unfairly subsidising it lumber industry and canada says that's not true. so both sides took their arguments to a nafta panel and they we re arguments to a nafta panel and they were created to hear these kinds of complaints and repeatedly the americans lost. so now the us wants to get rid of the panels altogether and find another way to resolve conflicts. not so fast. the canadians say they will quit the nafta talks if these panels go. so what now? well, nafta negotiations will be testy and will take time and these panels will be a sticking point. mexico says it wants them to stay and even if the americans get their way they will still need to find a way to settle arguments that may come up in the future. if one thing is clear from this, may come up in the future. if one thing is clearfrom this, even friends disagree. the executive director of the apex secretary joined me the executive director of the apex secretaryjoined me earlier the executive director of the apex secretary joined me earlier and the executive director of the apex secretaryjoined me earlier and we ask if it was time to modernise this pact. most people would agree it does. since it was put in place there have been the development in supply chains and an energy revolution and more importantly, despite the talk about merchandise trade and manufacturing, actually the future is in services trade, so it needs of staff on data movements, services trade, small business, intellectual property protection and all of those sorts of things. a lot of areas to be covered in this renegotiation process, but how complicated the youth think will be whole process be? —— do you think. it will be complicated. trade agreements are always complicated and it will take a while. recently we have the apec business council meeting and they said they want to see it happen, they don't want to see it happen, they don't want to see reversion for trade protection. there are all of these new areas and it is complicated. what will be the main sticking point between the us and mexico, the us and canada and the other way round? there are some particular high—profile things across the mexican border and the canadian border. timber across the canadian border. timber across the canadian border, energy across the canadian border, energy across the canadian border. but as i say i think the big benefits for the future of those. they are the new generation stuff because that's what is really driving those economies and it is stuff like software and intellectual property and dispute resolution, all of those things. also it is pretty clear that all those three leaders are very focused on being clear about who benefits from this trade now, so it is what the canadians are calling progressive trade agreement. this whole negotiation process was started by the us president donald trump. would he want the upper hand when this whole thing plays out? will the mexicans and canadians give in? it has to be a win-win for this to become an agreement. it might ta ke to become an agreement. it might take time but in the end they will have to walk towards that. tension surrounding north korea and the us have driven some investors to look for safe havens for their money and old has—been one beneficiary. —— gold. the price for an ounce of the metal has risen by $70 or 6% since the beginning of the year and that is when president trump took office. although there was a slight sell—off overnight. earlier i spoke with a resource analyst in sydney and asked whether it was more than just current events driving up the price. you would have to look at the demand—side and jewellery makes up most of gold demand. it has been quite poor. with only seen in the last couple of months, with india moving into his wedding season, we've seen a lift in demand for gold, otherwise it has been somewhat disappointing for the course of the past 12 months. what has been driving the price has in fact probably been more the direction of the us dollar and four this year it has been downward and that's been very good for the price of gold. what do your charts tell you? where are we going to see the price of gold before the year's" mac at this point in time he would have to suggest that we believe that by the end of this year inflation, looking into 2018, will be somewhat of a problem. that's going to cause the rise in gold prices. the other side of the coin, the us dollar, if defence stays on the sideline, we will see that dollar weaken and again that will be good for gold. the imf is sending out a warning that china's credit boom is on a dangerous trajectory. the organisation says in a new report that there is a massive growth of debt fuelled by the expansion of credit. the imf urged beijing to press on with reforms aimed at achieving long—term sustainable growth, including efforts to boost consumption. new zealand's largest construction company posted more than a $290 million lost within its construction arm for the year and tilljune. fletcher building mr windfall from the national building boom due to a series of issues, especially with two major projects in christchurch and auckland —— missed. moving to the shipping business. the container industry has been bellwether for global trade. one of the industry's biggest players maersk will announce its second—quarter earnings later today. until recently it has been tough times for shipping companies like maersk, is a good thing starting to turn around? here is the view from an industry analyst. 2016 was a difficult year for maersk. they announced a one —— $1.9 billion loss. they have now announced a profit. their cyber attack that happened about two months ago, we've never seen something like that in the industry before. analysts say there could be a financial impairment of up to £450 million... dollars, before the day's half—year results, but we will have to wait and see. of course last year we had this major bankruptcy which affected the shipping industry. but we've seen the container business turning the corner. can this be sustained? we turning the corner. can this be sustained ? we have turning the corner. can this be sustained? we have seen rates increase. they went from an historical low at the end of 2016. we even saw a seven—year—old containership being scrapped. this is crazy and an historical low. the average asian footy strips is about 25 -- average asian footy strips is about 25 —— average age. there has been growth in global age but the problem with the shipping industry is a supply and demand imbalance. there are too many ships and not enough cargo. owners need to take note of this. let's have a look now at the asian markets. as you can see, little changed. the dowjones is up i five and a quarter. the asian markets are quite flat at this hour. thank you so much for investing your time with us. sport today is coming up time with us. sport today is coming up next. the top stories this hour: president trump has defended his response to deadly protests in charlottesville at the weekend, again stating that both sides were to blame. the american secretary of state has said it is up to north korea to decide if it wants to talk to the united states about its missile and nuclear weapons programmes. millions of rail passengers are facing the biggest rise in train fares for five years. tickets are going up by 3.6% in january, because of a rise in the rate of inflation. our transport correspondent richard westcott reports. quick coffee. good boy. little treat for einstein the cat. and catch the train. rebecca's commute from taunton to bristol costs £3,500 a year, and it's due to go up by £130 next year, as most commuters face a 3.6% price rise. there's this gradual erosion of your actual real wealth that's happening to an awful lot of people, where you will find that your salary may have gone up, but everything else is going up so much faster and so much more that year on year we're all actually, feels like, worse off. it's not the train companies that set around half of our rail fares, it's actually the government. they've been putting the fares up for years because they want to change who pays for the railways. it's all part of a plan to shift the financial burden away from taxpayers, most of whom don't commute on trains, and onto passengers. fares used to account for about half the cost of running our trains. that's risen to around 65%. across britain, people are facing tough choices. if it goes on, i probably won't be able to afford to go to work. i'll have to get the car to work. because it's cheaper to get the car to work. i work in the public sector. my pay rise is maximum 1%. that makes us worse off when they put up fares like that. i wouldn't mind the rise if you got a better quality carriage and everything else. they're pretty tatty these things now. campaigners have criticised the use of the rpi rate of inflation, which is usually higher. but the rail firms say they face the same increases. railway companies' costs are going up in line with that inflation as well. so they have to cover the costs in order to provide the services that we want as passengers. ministers argue that the money is needed to pay for a £40 billion upgrade to the network. a lot of it is still victorian and it's struggling cope with record numbers of passengers. critics claim fares have outstripped wages for years and say it's time for a price freeze. the government could still change its mind in the autumn budget. richard westcott, bbc news, luton. that's it from me for now. i will be back with newsday again tomorrow. tynemouth sport today. —— time now. good morning. i'm tulsen tollet. welcome to sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on the programme: liverpool will take a 2—1 lead into next week's second leg of their champions league play—off against hoffenheim. real madrid prepare to face barcelona in the second leg of the spanish super cup minus cristiano ronaldo. and maria sharapova will play at a grand slam for the first time since her drugs ban ended as she's given a wild card for this month's us open. hello and welcome to the programme where we start with footballing news from the champions league play—off round. five—time european cup winners liverpool will take a 2—1 lead into next wednesday's second leg at home against hoffenheim. the german's were the better of the two teams early on as they created chances but missed a penalty when simon mignolet hardly had to move to make the save. liverpool then struck with trent alexander—arnold's wonderful free kick and a first goal for the local product who's been at the club since he was six. james milner‘s deflected curling shot saw his side score a second vital away goal. jurgen klopp wasn't completely happy after his side conceded a late consolation but he'll take it heading back to anfield. if somebody would have told me we