25/04/2016 BBC Business Live


25/04/2016

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This is Business Live from the BBC with Ben Thompson and Sally Bundock.

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The clock is ticking, but can the massive transatlantic

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trade deal be saved before the end of the year?

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Live from London, that's our top story, today - Monday 25th April.

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Despite fierce protests on both sides of the Atlantic,

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talks resume on the controversial Transatlantic Trade

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and Investment Partnership - but is there even a future

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for the trade deal once Obama leaves office in November?

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Also in the programme - on the brink of collapse -

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high street giant BHS is to enter administration,

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We'll be live at its flagship store in London.

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And a new week, but the same old problems.

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We'll have all you need to know for the trading week ahead.

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We throw away over a billion tonnes of food every year -

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so we'll meet the man who says he can encourage us to waste less -

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And, as a new report warns that 2016 could be the year of the shareholder

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revolt over top boardroom pay, we want to know -

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Has the gap between those at the top and the rest of us, got too big?

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Hello, a warm welcome to the programme.

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Today we are focused on the Transatlantic Trade

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and Investment Partnership - or TTIP.

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The 13th round of talks get under way today in New York

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and President Obama is racing against the clock to complete

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Whilst meeting Angela Merkel in Germany on Sunday,

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he called on all European leaders to support the deal and not "let

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Diplomats from both the US and the EU will meet later

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to discuss the deal which has already been three years

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TTIP aims to slash almost all tariffs on trade between the US

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and the EU and reduce regulation to make business cheaper and easier.

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One study estimated that the potential gain for the EU

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and US economies could top $240 billion dollars.

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However, the deal has faced fierce criticism.

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This includes claims that harmonising regulation

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between the EU and US will lead to lower standards of consumer

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and environmental protection and safety at work.

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There is also widespread opposition to rules

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for investor-state dispute settlement.

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This would allow companies to sue foreign governments over claims

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Critics say it will undermine the power of governments to act

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Stephanie Hare, an independent political risk analyst

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Thank you for coming in. We saw images of thousands of people on the

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streets of Hanover in Germany yesterday where President Obama was.

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What is the likelihood of him achieving his goal before he leaves

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office? He could maybe get the negotiations sorted but there is

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zero chance of congressional approval while he is president. That

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does not mean it can be approved. What are the key hurdles still? They

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have got to talk about all sorts of things. We're looking at data

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protection still, standards for the environment, health, public

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procurement is a big thing, trying to make it so that European

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countries can have access to public procurement tenders in the US and

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vice versa, those will be some of the big hurdles still and there is a

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to do. I think it is very ambitious to have it done by November, and

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remember we have an election going on in the United States. The voices

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of the critics on both sides of the Atlantic are getting louder and a

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lot of criticism that most of this has been done in secret. Is that

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fair or not? I find that criticism to be the oddest because the

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negotiations are, by their very nature, done in secret. The

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democratic process will happen afterwards. Congress could still

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approve. All of the Parliaments will have to ratify this deal. If people

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are unhappy with the deal once it is finalised, they will still have a

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chance to express their will by meeting MPs. Here in Europe, it is

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such a long road ahead, the European Union has to see it through and not

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to mention national governments, and we could be in a situation where the

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UK is not involved at all? That is right, we have a potential Brexit on

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June 23 which would not stop this deal, it would just mean that the UK

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was not part of it. President Obama said if the UK chose to leave the EU

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it would go to the back of the queue when it comes to neb go shading a

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deal. They're also presidential elections in France and Germany in

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2017. These trading geisha nations take a long time. -- these trade

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negotiations take a long time. The real question is, is it a good deal?

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We cannot answer that right now. Thank you for coming in.

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Let's bring you date with some other news. -- up-to-date.

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In other news, figures produced by the Sunday Times suggest

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the Indian Mittal family has seen its wealth shrink

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by nearly $30 billion over the past eight years.

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It's thought the change reflects the heavy losses seen in the steel

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industry since they own Europe's biggest steel-maker, Arcelor Mittal.

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The Indian government has revoked the passport of the flamboyant

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businessman and lawmaker, Vijay Mallya.

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He fled abroad last month following pressure from Indian banks

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to repay $1.3 billion in debts owed by his failed company,

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Some reports have traced him to the UK.

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India is now seeking legal advice on whether he can be extradited

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to face charges of money laundering and financial irregularities.

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In the UK, High Street retailer BHS is to enter administration today,

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The struggling retailer was sold by the retail entrepreneur

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Sir Philip Green last year, for just ?1.

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He had bought the chain for ?200 million in 2000.

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Our correspondent Catriona Renton is outside the chain's flagship

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We are expecting details later today about the feature of stores like the

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one behind you. I know also about the 11,000 jobs. What are you

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hearing now? As you say, this is the flagship store. BHS was once a

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household name, one of the biggest names on the UK high street, and

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this morning we have learned that it will go into administration later

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today. An appointment has already been made with the administrators.

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Once they get into the office, effectively, they will be able to

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start the process. We have been talking to members of staff on their

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way into work this morning. Many of them were far too upset to speak to

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us, because all they knew was what they had seen and heard in the

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media. Over the weekend, there had been two sets of talks, one with a

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private investor looking at a possible financial deal, another

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with sports direct will stop clearly those talks have failed. We are

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looking at the business going into administration. If the administrator

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cannot find a buyer, that would spell the end of an 88 year history

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of British home stores, and that would be the biggest collapse since

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Woolworths in 2008, which had a loss of 30,000 jobs. For now, thank you.

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She and the rest of our business team will be keeping us up to date

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on that story as it progresses. There is more detail on our website.

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Shares in Mitsubishi Motors continue to fall -

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after the revelations it falsified fuel economy data on its vehicles.

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Tim McDonald is in our Asia Business Hub following this for us.

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Tell us more. I understand they are coming out with their results on

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Wednesday? That is right. Shares today in Mitsubishi motors continue

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ground by the end of the session. ground by the end of the session.

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This comes on the back of a bad few days for Mitsubishi. The stock

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plummeted by 40%, its worst decline since it first listed in 1988. The

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company admitted it cheated on its fuel efficiency tests. The company

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has since stopped sales and production of those models. It

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remains to be seen what the long-term effect of the scandal will

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be but it appears that the company is very concerned. Mitsubishi will

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announce results on Wednesday. There are media reports it may skip its

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earnings forecast which is usually on the same day and was scheduled

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for Wednesday. That is something we will watch closely. Thank you, Tim.

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Investors are probably trying to lock in some games after the highs

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we saw on Friday. Japan's Central bank is considering more stimulus.

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So - a new week - but the same old problems.

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Last week was largely positive for European markets

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It was also another really strong week for oil prices,

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That implies that investors are betting that the problems

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We'll discuss that more in a moment, but what about Wall Street?

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Michelle Fleury has the details from New York.

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The week gets off to a quiet start. A report on new sales for March is

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due out on Monday. It should give a sense of the strength of the

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upcoming spring selling season. For Wall Street, the big event this week

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is a meeting of federal policymakers. Investors expect

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interest rates to be kept on hold. We are also in the middle of the

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first quarter earnings season and it is fair to say there is not much

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optimism surrounding Halliburton which reports this Monday. Given

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plummeting oil prices, results for oil companies has been challenging.

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A number of new technology companies will publish results including

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Apple, Twitter and Amazon. Lots going on. That was Michelle in the

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US for us. Stick with us as our cameras decide to whizz around the

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studio, sometimes they do their own thing!

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Joining us is Lawrence Gosling, editor-in-chief of Investment Week.

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BHS? Gets, exactly. In a sense, it is not as a surprise it has

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happened. We had the discussion a few weeks ago when they were

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negotiating with the landlord. It is a business which has been teetering

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on the edge for some time. It is always a surprise when it comes.

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Retailers are downright Next? There is absolutely no Harold L between

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the wake Next trades and the way BHS has been trading -- no parallel.

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These stores are the main stays of the high street for so long and we

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talked about Woolworths, the way we shop has changed and what we are

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looking for is about more nimble faster fashion which BHS has not

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been able to do? And very focused shots. You want to go somewhere

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knowing exactly what you are after. You go to BHS and you can get

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everything from children's pyjamas and lampshades. You do not expect

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that these days in shops like our parents might have done. It is the

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unfocused nature of these stores. I got a knit your own staff kit from

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BHS for Christmas. Swiftly moving on, the rest of the market malaise,

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or oil prices headed down again stopped and the share markets. I

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think we have seen traders take a few profits on oil. The currencies

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are always the talking point now, particularly we have had a balm in

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London last week. This will carry on until the Brexit debate on the 23rd

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of June for us here in London. The currency is where the story is at

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the moment. -- we had Obama in London last week.

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Tackling soaring levels of food waste.

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We'll examine what's been done to tackle the trillion dollar

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problem and meet the man behind one company that says it has

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the answer and there's money to be made in doing it.

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You're with Business Live from BBC News.

:13:47.:13:51.

The government is to force all companies that make cold calls

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to reveal their phone numbers when they make contact

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The new rule is part of a crackdown on unwanted calls -

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but campaigners say the changes don't go far enough.

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Christopher Graham is the UK Information Commissioner.

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Good morning to you. Just talk us through what the changes are. This

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is a very welcome change. It is a small step but it is significant. It

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means when a call comes through, instead of saying number withheld,

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it will give the number. That will give you a chance about whether you

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want to answer the call. You have the information and you can retrieve

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the information and report to the Information Commissioner's website.

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It helps us in our job of investigating and stopping these

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unwanted calls. Do you think it will stop them which, if we are all

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honest, they drive us round the twist? We are making progress bit by

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bit. Last year, we persuaded the government to change the rules to

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make it easier to impose fines. We are imposing our 90th find dealing

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with this problem. We will have fined over ?2 million. It is making

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the direct marketers think again. Respectable direct marketers are

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sticking to the rules. The chances are finding it is becoming

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increasingly difficult. I think the directors of these companies should

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be made personally liable so they cannot just close down the operation

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and start again the next day when they are hit with a fine. There are

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still a lot to be done but this is a little step forward.

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What's the geographical implication of this? We have a network of data

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protection companies around Europe and the world, so where we have

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operators in Russia, or whatever, we can talk to operators to get them

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closed down. It's a never ending issue, but we are on the case and

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making progress. Christopher Graham from UK information Commissioner,

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thank you for your time. Interesting development in the UK. It could

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certainly make a big difference. Talks continue over the

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transatlantic trade partnership, whether they will get the go-ahead

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and get the deal done between the EU and the United States before the end

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of President Obama's time in office. "One man's trash is

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another man's treasure" - Well, our next guest is taking

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that quite literally. Roughly one third of the food

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produced for humans every year That's 1.3 billion tonnes of food

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that ends up in the bin at a cost of around a trillion

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dollars each year. So tackling that problem is proving

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to be a lucrative business. One of them - Winnow - wants to cut

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down on the amount of food waste They do that by installing

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electronic scales into kitchens and the software processes a report

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highlighting areas where food Customers pay an annual subscription

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fee for the service. And the company claims

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that the technology can help improve Marc Zornes is the founder

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of the company and he joins us now. Good morning. Let's pick up on the

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6% figure. It's very specific. How did you come up with it, and it's a

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big difference for business. It's a bold claim. Absolutely. We believe

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that food shouldn't be wasted and technology can fundamentally change

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the way we work with food. We work with businesses like Compass Group

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and core hotels, large businesses who produce food in advance, and we

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put into is to monitor and reduce the waste. We find anywhere between

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ten and 20% of food going into the kitchen is often thrown away. If you

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monitor that and equip chefs with the right data we can cut back on

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that. Where would the scales go, what do they way and what report

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does it produce? They go to the same place the food is thrown away, and

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as it is thrown away, there is a change in the weight that makes the

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scales wake up, so if they throw away aches, it can block that. It

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goes back to staff, so it shows what they are throwing away. It raises

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the awareness of the waste in kitchens. The chefs can then

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identify where they need to make improvements in production. Are the

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staff quite surprised by results? We often find kitchens underestimate

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how much food is being wasted. When we put in place the tools to monitor

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it and equip the chefs with the data, we can cut food waste by half

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or more in just a few months. I understand nobody else is really

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doing this. You started the company around two and a half years ago in

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the UK and are now operating in five other countries, notably China and

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Singapore. What gave you the idea? I used to work for McKenzie and

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company where I was leading research on resource productivity and found

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the enormity of the problem of food waste, $1 trillion of food waste,

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that's more than 1% of global GDP. We can't have that in today's's

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economic climate. We focused on the is that our tea industry where if we

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save the clients food waste they save money. We talked about one

:19:58.:20:02.

man's trash being another man's treasure. We have seen this happened

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in recycling. A real gold rush for the firms that get in first and get

:20:11.:20:15.

their systems in place, they could cash in. Is this the next gold rush

:20:16.:20:21.

as far as waste and rubbish is concerned? We absolutely think so.

:20:22.:20:24.

One company that has taken a big step forward is core hotels, the

:20:25.:20:28.

largest hotel chain in Europe who have made a commitment to reduce

:20:29.:20:33.

food waste by a third by 2020. We have challenged other companies to

:20:34.:20:38.

make those reductions. Fascinating conversation. Thank you for coming

:20:39.:20:39.

in today. Let's see what other

:20:40.:20:44.

stories are being talked When will driverless cars

:20:45.:20:46.

finally hit our streets? Well, the race is on between

:20:47.:20:49.

developers to come up with a mass market, affordable

:20:50.:20:51.

and reliable autonomous vehicle. And they could be on our roads

:20:52.:20:53.

sooner than you think. The boss of Ford has told the BBC

:20:54.:20:57.

he expects to see them Our Economics Editor Kamal Ahmed

:20:58.:21:00.

spoke to Mark Fields and asked him where the the biggest threat

:21:01.:21:10.

to his company would come from - traditional rivals, or newer

:21:11.:21:13.

competitors like Google. There's a lot of traditional

:21:14.:21:17.

competitors we have in our business, There's a lot of new nontraditional

:21:18.:21:20.

competitors who are looking at the automotive space and that

:21:21.:21:26.

addressable market, and saying, So from our standpoint

:21:27.:21:28.

we are looking at a number of the technological changes

:21:29.:21:34.

in the industries and we are viewing that is an opportunity,

:21:35.:21:37.

not as a threat. There will be some things we do

:21:38.:21:40.

on our own to be able to satisfy those customer needs

:21:41.:21:44.

that technology enables. And other times we will

:21:45.:21:47.

partner with others. That's the reason we set up a big

:21:48.:21:50.

research and innovation centre in Palo Alto,

:21:51.:21:53.

because we want to collaborate with and participate

:21:54.:21:55.

in that environment. Do you think Apple want to build

:21:56.:21:59.

their own car? I read what everyone

:22:00.:22:01.

else reads in the paper. Our working assumption

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is that they are, and that again provides us the right motivation

:22:06.:22:09.

to make sure we stay very focused, not only on the product,

:22:10.:22:12.

but overall on the experienced not only on the product,

:22:13.:22:19.

but overall on the experience the customer has interacting

:22:20.:22:21.

with the product and services Could you imagine building

:22:22.:22:23.

a car with Google? Contract manufacturing is not

:22:24.:22:26.

something that appeals Other aspects, as we work

:22:27.:22:28.

with others, who knows? But that aspect of being a contract

:22:29.:22:34.

manufacturer is not something that Does that appeal to you? A

:22:35.:22:49.

driverless car? It's that whole debate about their always being in

:22:50.:22:53.

element of risk driving a car. What if you are late and want to go a

:22:54.:22:57.

different way? I contact with another driver is so important,

:22:58.:23:02.

because you can assess whether they will let you pull out. You can't do

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that with driverless cars. You are already stressed about it! Lawrence

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is back with us to talk us through the papers now. Normally we would

:23:14.:23:18.

look at the tablet but we have not charged the battery. It's not

:23:19.:23:23.

working, and it's not my fault today! We can talk about the

:23:24.:23:29.

stories. We will start with the story on the pay ratio between

:23:30.:23:33.

bosses and employees. It will be the hot topic of the year. We saw it

:23:34.:23:37.

kicked off in a big way with the BP AGM. It's fascinating. We are in

:23:38.:23:44.

this period where big insurance companies and pension funds in the

:23:45.:23:47.

UK are beginning to protest against the level of executive pay. We had

:23:48.:23:53.

BP last week. We are expecting to see Shires, the pharmaceutical

:23:54.:23:59.

company, this week. This story from the Guardian is talking about the

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suggestion from legal and general that there should be a direct link

:24:03.:24:06.

between the pay of the average worker, which in the UK is ?27,500,

:24:07.:24:11.

and the Chief Executive 's various companies. We have talked about

:24:12.:24:17.

shareholder activism before, and Barclays was subject to it before

:24:18.:24:22.

last year. We talked about the power shareholders could wield, but in the

:24:23.:24:26.

past when it has got to the crunch moment, they have not followed

:24:27.:24:29.

through. Is it any different this year? I think your cynicism is

:24:30.:24:38.

correct. Even legal and general talk about inverting in 93 cases. But

:24:39.:24:45.

even when you do vote, as we saw with the BP case, it can be

:24:46.:24:50.

overturned, even when the vote went one way. It remains to be seen. A

:24:51.:24:58.

lot of the executives of big Footsie companies are very well paid. One

:24:59.:25:05.

viewer says executives are paid too much, but they also decide their own

:25:06.:25:08.

wages. It's like wardens having the keys to the prison. It's not

:25:09.:25:14.

strictly true. There are remuneration facilities. Tackling

:25:15.:25:21.

climate change is a good news for the economy. Mark Carney talked

:25:22.:25:24.

about this last week, and he talked about the stimulus it could give to

:25:25.:25:28.

the global economy by increasing productivity. We heard about the

:25:29.:25:35.

effects of pollution. The governor of the Bank of England. We always

:25:36.:25:38.

think of Beijing when we see images like that. They have seen people

:25:39.:25:44.

choosing to leave or not post their international staff there because of

:25:45.:25:49.

the problem. It is one of the major cities in China, and it's having a

:25:50.:25:53.

huge effect on the population and the health in China and other

:25:54.:25:59.

countries. Thank you, Lawrence. We will rely on the trusty papers from

:26:00.:26:01.

now on.

:26:02.:26:02.

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