hello i'm adrian finnigan this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week tariffs on the products the biggest trading giants on the planet just escalated their trade war. also this week india's rupee it's not the worst performing currency in asia we'll take a look at why. plus why an upcoming election is causing ice cream sales to melt

away in kabul. when the world's two biggest economic powers engage in a trade war the rest of the world is left watching and wondering where it will all end if this week is anything to go by it could mean an escalation the ongoing protracted tit for tat trade dispute between china and the united states did intensify this week so much so that it prompted a warning from the o.e.c.d. the paris based think tank says that the world's economy can't keep growing if things don't improve on the trade front china has now slapped tariffs on around sixty billion dollars worth of u.s. goods that move a retaliation for the latest round of u.s. tariffs on two hundred billion dollars worth of chinese products al-jazeera scott hides the reports now from beijing. within hours of the u.s. announcing a second round of tariffs on chinese goods beijing responded. the chinese commerce

ministry saying it had no choice but to retaliate and it hopes the u.s. changes its behavior one official saying the move is poisoning trade talks. regarding his new round of tariffs china has no choice but to retaliate it was expected that the ongoing trade war could heat up this new round of tears from washington confirmed that it will be a lot of money coming into the coffers of the united states of. america a lot of money coming and a lot of money in the form of tariffs on an additional two hundred billion dollars of chinese imports the u.s. government will begin collecting a ten percent tariff on those good starting on september the twenty fourth through the end of the year then on january first the tariffs will jump to twenty five percent and if china at any time retaliates the white house says an additional two hundred sixty seven billion dollars of chinese imports practically the remainder of all chinese products sold in the u.s. will also fall under the terrorists the increased tensions will likely even got

a renewal of trade talks between beijing and washington. while about five thousand chinese products including household goods vacuum cleaners to bikes will be targeted many u.s. businesses are expected to suffer as well just before the tears were announced in washington the chinese commerce secretary said that u.s. protectionism will only impact the two nations involved in this trade war but it could hurt the global economy as well and some analysts here feel that u.s. companies might face a chinese consumer backlash if the chinese people believe that they're being maligned. they will boycott and that's that's not something you know you're going to see you're already starting to see some anti american sentiments and want to buy that it's america right i mean this is the one thing to donald trump thinks that the only people who are nationalistic are. and as the world's two largest economies refused to concede any ground in this trade war the impact will be felt around the

world joining us now from london is greg swenson gregg's the founding partner of london based brig market a finance company which focuses on advancements in emerging and frontier markets good to have you with us greg what is the endgame here we perhaps being a little naive in seeing these these terraces as nothing other than protectionist is this more about a battle for global economic activity yeah i mean it's a it's a great question i don't think this is the goal has been demonstrated or the goal has been articulated well by the president what he seems to do well on is to trade deficit and he picks these arbitrary numbers or targets for trade deficit reduction which i think is a mistake or what he should focus on is that china is violating all kinds of free market and open market policies and rules you know they've taken them to the sixteen times in the last couple of years and they've won all sixteen times but that doesn't seem to be fixing the major problems which are you know theft of ip

and. you know the complete disregard for free marc. principle so what i wish that there was a better way and perhaps there is he's picked this one and i think that he's what he's somewhat lost the narrative or lost the messaging battle because it looks like the u.s. is provoking a trade war when in fact what they're what he's trying to do it is fix something that needs to be fixed i don't think these these tariffs will stay in place because they're there self-defeating it's not going or it's not not really going to hurt the american consumer of the american economy you know in many ways that the president's playing with house money the you know the economy is is kicking on all cylinders or what about commodities what will the impact be on commodities given that the china requests huge amounts of imported rule materials i mean when china moves in the market everyone sits up a list yeah and i think that's important especially for countries you know for like australia which which is close by and produces a lot of coal and ships

a lot of coal to and other minerals to china well look disruption in supply chains is always a challenge i don't think it's meaningful for the u.s. economy i think that the chinese have a lot more to lose if there are you know if in a trade war but the commodity issue is a big deal for global commodity prices and how much potential does this have to cause damage to the the digital economy for instance rare earth minerals on the list smartwatch is on the list and yet things like frogs legs right beal's all yeah i mean i look the president you know is is he is a politician is not a politician by nature unease and this is new to him but there is definitely some politics involved he quite purposely left you know mobile phones off the list of rare earth minerals are important the last time the chinese put a stop to tech sporting or put a cap on exports it really shook up the rare earth market to the point where there was a lot of development in canada in the us and assert to a certain degree and in australia but again that's just another example of the

chinese. shorting the private market and not behaving in a free open market model what do you make of object loss comments about quantum computing and an ai in basically. a cooking us nuke a the usa we're already there our economy is going to be way ahead of the us because we've got this technology well yeah because they're they're still in the technology so that means that the u.s. clearly and not just the u.s. but our allies in training partners around the world are are are seeing china and this two thousand and twenty five you know model that she has put in place is a threat of course it is because theft of of ip is is is clearly a violation of free and free and open market i think there are other ways to to deal with this than get rather than getting into a trade war but in this case it seems to be the only way that's that's going to get a body's attention i'm not sure it's being perfectly executed but jack my brings up

some some interesting points but i think something clearly has to be done greg you say that u.s. consumers are going to be hooked by this what potential does this have to to damage china's economy and what leverage does china have in the talk about a bargain he was saying that he can't deliver on his promise the president trying to create one million jobs in the u.s. blaming the current trade tension. if the chinese president xi really wanted to up the stakes for the could he do something drastic like colin u.s. debt yeah i mean that's that's always out there as as a potential i don't know what else they would do with that money they they absolutely absolutely need to own u.s. treasuries but look there's a few things they can do and this is worrisome because they they control the economy it's a top down economy they control the press she could surely sort of have a media campaign a state run media campaign against u.s. products he could also devalue the currency it's dangerous game to play but he can do it and have done it in the past and he can also regulate even more so what's

happened in the last few years especially. since the crisis is the state has lent money to the state owned companies at at ridiculous levels which is you know obviously putting other companies and foreign competitors out of business but remember that the u.s. is importing five hundred billion of goods from china often because of the low cost and low labor cost the chinese are only importing one hundred thirty billion so the u.s. has a lot more a bill of a much better ability to punish china here and that's something obvious but also the san francisco fed made a very good point recently that eighty eight and a half percent of them of goods and services that are consumed by american consumers are produced in the u.s. it's not it's not really a huge importer compared to what we produced domestically so yes we are big importer yes we import a lot of cheap goods from china but that's not going to move the needle that that much because again eighty eight half percent is produced

a mess to clean so again as a conservative or as a businessman as a capitalist i don't like tariffs i don't like trade wars but it seems to be the you know the last resort at this point and i don't think the message is clear but i but i think something obviously has to be done and he's got support on both sides of the aisle greg really good to talk to you many thanks david being with us on counting the cost nice to be here a dream thank you all right still to come on this week's counting the cost a japanese billionaire as named as the world's first space tourist. but first a sabotage scare is threatening to hurt a stray has strawberry grow as they've warned about an overreaction to several people found sewing needles inside the fresh fruit vendor troublous reports from sydney some reports on hoaxes but the devastating impact on the industry is still the same. the lady who posted this video says it illustrates the worst thing to ever happen to her family the family business growing strawberries

has been forced to dump its product at the busiest time of the year supermarkets won't buy the fruit in normal quantities because their customers fear what the strawberries may contain last week there was what seemed like an isolated case of a sewing needle inserted in a strawberry probably by a disgruntled employee at a strawberry farm but since they have been reports of more than twenty copycat instance around australia in relation to the motivation in relation to these offenses we still haven't. have any confirmed motivation or reasons why a person want to do this there is speculation that some cases of children putting needles into stories while they're sitting on shop shelves other cases are complete hoaxes people pretending to find needles in strawberries once they're home it's not a joke it's not funny you're putting the livelihoods of hardworking strains at risk

and you're scaring children and you're a coward and you're a grown up. and if you do that sort of thing in this country we will come after you and we will throw the book at you the government plans to bring in emergency legislation with prison sentences of up to ten years for hoaxes and up to fifteen years to contamination in danger and others. those in australia strawberry industry are recommending that people cut up their brains before biting into it but some are choosing not to buy only strawberries at all and the industry worth maybe one hundred million dollars a year that a crisis strawberries that are being sold are heavily discounted almost as low as the equivalent of one us dollar upon it and farmers of other fruits are fearful to someone has claimed to have found a needle in a banana and in sydney an apple just freaked me out but i'm thinking my daughter normally just grabs and just biting the apples the strawberry scare threatens disparate. as consumers become more aware of the health effects of consuming sugar

so the giants are doing everything to stay profitable the coca-cola company is even looking at experimenting with a new in gradient it's a bit to looking at the market for cannabis related products coca cannabis anyone not quite there is a chemical found in marijuana known as c b d it's already used in beverages in locations where the drug is legalized but it's not psychoactive drinks containing it there are higher priced than sugar infused soda coke is also on a buying spree it bought costa coffee for five point one billion dollars earlier this month and on tuesday it stepped up in australia and fermented tea company. since the united states invaded afghanistan in two thousand and one one song is echoed across cobbles neighborhoods it's at the birthday a blast from the speakers of hundreds of ice cream carts across the capital but the recent surge in violence ahead of the upcoming election there has caused their profits to plummet al-jazeera schalit ballasts reports now from kabul.

happy birthday floats over the blast. the music comes from an ice cream car the man pushing. the thirty five year olds not from kabul but its streets and the stroller give him an income but lately even in the heat of summer people don't want his ice cream the streets have become too dangerous. during the karzai government life was very good we just crossed the street and be sold out of ice creams now from morning to evening we console them all. he starts his day at eight am and finishes at eight pm fitting in the habits of normal life along his route he started this job in two thousand and two when the americans invaded back when he says he made a lot of money now there are more attacks more checkpoints and fewer people on the streets to sell to. what i'm passing checkpoints they think i have

a bomb in my car so they stop me and start checking and it's ruining my icecream because they open the carton of your belts and his friends can relate twenty two year old chums the law has sold burgers outside a mosque for four years his income is just twenty five percent of what it once was we ask him if he sees a link between security and sales. very much we used to have a very good business but it's deteriorating day by day this week we have sold very little. for afghans even twenty cents for an ice cream is twenty seems too much in the last quarter the international monetary fund found the continued violence and to listen to around the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections as pursing economic confidence and growth. there are dozens of ice cream sellers and sure elise patch of kabul he competes with fifty most mean does make about one hundred dollars a month from this year elise supports his wife and four children he says he's

looking for change in upcoming elections on their. i want security for my country and peace for my country and a prosperous future but i will not vote for president ashraf ghani. ghani came into office as international combat forces pulled out taking with them billions in military spending since then security has worsened and so has the economy. surely keep talking happy birthday rings hopeful over the neighborhood and used to draw people out of their homes now not even ice cream control afghans to the streets emerging market currencies have been a big focus for us here on counting the cost these past few months and this week we saw turkey unveil its long awaited plan to find a way out of crisis it's finance minister but it's albay iraq was put in charge of the economy two months ago by his father in law president richard typer the one he sharply cut turkey's growth forecasts for this year and next he also promised to

slash public spending by the early ten billion dollars and blame some of turkey's problems on a spats with the u.s. . but this period is a period when economic sanctions are being used like weapons it's a global each challenge in period on the tenth of august turkey became part of this process because its economy and currency were targeted with a tax. currency was in india too where the government a struggle to defend the rupee non-essential import restrictions announced this week of left businesses unhappy and there are fears of protectionist policies being put into place the rupee is now the worst performing currency in asia despite government efforts to turn the tide india is often referred to as the world's fastest growing large economy but its currency has hit a series of record lows versus the dollar over the past few months that weakness in the currency has coincided with rising global oil prices compounding the pain all

of this means that the current account deficit has widened it's not two point four percent of gross domestic product so far growth has held up gross domestic product grew eight point two percent from april to june and that's its fastest rise in two years but there are worries that it may take a hit to the finance minister it india is out and jaitley he's blamed the depreciation of the rupee on global factors including the us china trade wall but joining us now from glasgow is greg irwin gregor's chief economist at global counsel greg good to have you with us again on counting the cost of what is going on at the moment with the with india's economy what are you advising clients. well india is suffering from a currency crisis at the moment the rupee has fallen by twelve percent that's quite significance there are a few factors that are contributing to that the price of oil is going up for a country like india which imports much of its energy that pushes up the import

bill and the export side is supposed that are concerns about the global environment for trade u.s. protectionism. but probably above all there are concerns about divergence and global monetary conditions u.s. interest rates rising that's exposed vulnerabilities are quite a few countries argentina turkey also you see in currencies from across asia and india has not been immune to that that's probably why the currencies and the pressure and that's that's a concern for the governments you mention one of the factors is the price of fuel india buying oil of course in dollars and as the repeat falls all just gets more and more expensive well exactly and keynes for quite a large parts of the the bill for average indians. the

price of energy so it really does squeeze living standards and it's a political concern as i suggested and there's not a whole lot that the the indian. economy ministry the finance minister the governments can do about that other than try and address other factors that are helping to put downward pressure on the on the repeats so factors such as raising interest rates that's a move in the right direction by the reserve bank you mentioned turkey on thursday turkey announced a new economic plan which is well it's failed to impress really it cut its growth forecast in that he can. amik plan is india going to be forced to follow suit. well i mean turkey actually today he is trying to deal with. concerns that it that its economic plan has been to the that its response to what is

a much more significant. currency crisis facing turkey as has has been a adequate turkish leaders fall in something like forty percent over the course of this year the country is a new finance minister it turns out it's the president's son in law that is arguably damaged credibility of economic policy making insert and the new finance minister is trying to flesh out its tuckey's policy response india's not quite in the same situation as turkey turkey has a much larger current account deficit inflation is much higher in turkey that there are greater concerns about the stability and sustainability of growth in turkey and while the indian policy response so far. arguably has not been adequate more bill will be required and the direction of

policy in india is questionable with import curbs turkey has a bigger challenge in convincing markets that actually the substance behind the headlines of the economic plan that the finance minister is fleshing out today gregor really good to talk to your counting the cost but he thinks they for being with us you're very welcome. now in japan a teaming up to manufacture electric cars the new nine billion dollar project involves building several factories from scratch the new industry is expected to be up and running by twenty twentieth's for the first consul roll off the assembly line will be called qatada it will be launched in conjunction with the fifth a world cup qatar twenty twenty two the project is backed by all of japan and finally this week space the final frontier for tourism if you're to believe rocket company space x. this week it they had its first custom of the tour again can be has more on plans for what would be an historic trip around the moon.

the japanese entrepreneur here hopes to be the first person to fly to the moon in a private rocket won't reveal how much it's going to cost but you suck him in south says it will be worth it and he won't be alone on the more than three hundred eighty thousand kilometer journey which is shed jeweled the twenty twenty three the japanese billionaire pitched an idea to the california based company space x. he wants to make it an artistic collective experience so he's inviting as many as eight other people including artists designers and architects to join him in what would be an historic moment he hopes ing the moon up close and the earth from space will inspire new creative ideas for mankind through the eighty's the moon has a freer our imagination and without the laws and the respect for them erm our planet's constant pattern now i name to these projects the moon. he'll say says

the c.e.o. of space x. musk might be extended an invite space x. is already logged several miles days in space exploration it was the first private company to launch a spacecraft into orbit and bring it back to earth in two thousand and ten the black folk and rocket which will take passengers to the moon is still being developed musk says there will be several unmanned launches and countless hours of training before the first commercial trip whenever it's the first plate of an of something or a new technology and we're talking about deep space. you know you have to be a very very first interview that this is not no small matter space tourism launched in two thousand and one when a californian businessman paid to go on a russian rocket to the international space station if mays our makes it to the moon he'll join an elite group of astronauts who can look up at the moon from earth

and say i've been there. and that is our show for this week if you'd like to get in touch with us about anything that you've seen this week you can tweet me i am at a sit in on twitter please use the hash tag a j c t c when you do or you can drop us a line counting the cost of al-jazeera dot net is our e-mail address as always there's plenty more for you on line at al-jazeera dot com slash c.t.c. that takes you straight to our page and they will fight individual reports links at a time episodes feature catch up and that's it for this edition counting the cost i'm adrian finnegan for the whole team here in doha thanks for being with us the news of al-jazeera is next. and world of illegal trade what you have here is not just park a logical object you're talking about a political dimension where the spoils of war smuggled in so says private

collectors the gang. artifact is where finances the beheadings of muslims in the middle east don't sound that's one quick solution. trafficking. history is so often told through the eyes of leaders but in amritsar india just thirty kilometers from the border with pakistan this old building is being transformed into a new museum malika a world here is the driving force behind sars partition museum it's really shocking because if you think about the fact that within a few years of nine eleven happening on nine eleven museum was there and there are now numerous holocaust museum this is not beautiful apartheid museum so countries around the world have walked to memorialize these events that have shaped them my dition is not about the political events that led up to partition it's about the

impact on each person who went through it it's really important that we highlight the stories of humanity hopefully one outcome on this would be that we remember our shared humanity and the shared history. this is al-jazeera. hello i'm peter dubey live from doha you're watching the al-jazeera news hour coming up in the next sixty minutes gunmen opened fire on crowds at a military parade in southern iraq the foreign minister says they were recruited by a foreign regime. person's been called a lawyer from the ferry disaster to tanzania because the president blames overcrowding and negligence. speeding.