Bill blair in ottawa, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you very much, stephen. Its a pleasure to have you on the show. As Minister Of Defence in canada, how embarrassed are you that your country is still significantly failing to meet the collective commitment of nato Member States to spend at least 2 of your gdp on defence . Stephen, im not embarrassed at all because canada, under our government, has been investing very significantly in defence and theres been a very strong upper projectory of Defence Spending. Weve just introduced our latest Defence Policy, which injects a significant amount of new investment into Defence Spending. It builds up greater capabilities, it moves us much closer to the target of 2 , and with some of the other things that weve articulated in this Defence Policy, i think we are on a strong and inevitable path to achieving that 2 goal. Canada is well aware of its responsibilities to our nato allies, to our continental allies, through norad in the United States, and
The fed raises Interest Rates and says it will start unwinding its 4. 5 trillion stimulus programme. But is the us economy really Out Of The Woods . Plus roam if you want to. The eu scraps extra mobile charges for travellers from today after a decade long battle. But will users end up footing the bill anyway . Welcome to World Business report. Im sally bundock. Also coming up the end of an era forjapan inc. Toshibas set to sell off its Chip Division as it battles for survival. We start in the us where the central bank, the Federal Reserve, has raised the cost of borrowing, as was widely expected. Its the second increase in three months, and comes despite some fairly mixed data on the health of the us economy. Lets show you the details. The fed has raised its main Interest Rate by 0. 25 . That takes its target range to between 1 1. 25 the highest it has been since before the 2008 financial crisis. And its set to go higher the fed is forecasting one more increase this year. It also annou