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Business Matters: Thousands Demonstrate In Brussels As US President Arrives For EU And NATO Talks

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25/05/2017 GMT

Thousands Demonstrate In Brussels As US President Arrives For EU And NATO Talks

BBC World Service - Business Matters, Thousands Demonstrate In Brussels As US President Arrives For EU And NATO Talks

US President Trump prepares for "tough" talks in Brussels with members of NATO and the EU

Donald Trump is in Brussels and will attend his first NATO summit followed by a meeting of European Union officials. He's been critical of both organisations.

Thousands have demonstrated on the streets of Brussels as US President Donald Trump arrives for his first NATO summit. Can he reach a working relationship with the organisation he once described as obsolete and not paying its way? Later he'll meet with European Union leaders; another organisation he's criticised. We get analysis from Kurt Volker, US ambassador to NATO from 2008 to 2009. 

Latvia is one of NATO's smaller and poorer members and one of the less well-off of the EU countries. How is the government trying to tackle economic hardship in the region? And how do the Russian and Latvian speaking population get on with each other? Our reporter Marie Keyworth visits a special economic zone set up this year just outside Rezekne, where companies can get various tax breaks with the aim of boosting investment and developing  industry in the region.

With the ratings agency Moody's downgrading China's credit rating for the first time over 25 years, borrowing costs for the Chinese government could be on the rise. China says the ratings agency is exaggerating the mainland's economic difficulties and underestimating its reform efforts. Roger Bootle of Capital Economics tells us who he thinks is right.

And what if you get your sums wrong? According to some economists who studied the budget presented to the US Congress this week, the administration has double counted $2 trillion. That's the amount it says it will get in extra federal revenue growth over the next 10 years. It says it will spend it on the biggest tax cut in history...but also that it will spend it on reducing the US budget deficit. Not everyone in Washington is convinced. But the world of politics is full of things that don't quite add up. We hear some leaders who just couldn't work it out....

All this and more discussed with our two guests throughout the show; Peter Morici, Professor of International Business at the University of Maryland, in Washington, and in the studio  in London, Youngsuk Chi, Director of Corporate Affairs at RELX Group.

Photo: People carry effigies of US President Donald Trump and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel during a demonstration against the US president in Brussels. Credit: Getty Images.

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