15/09/2016 BBC Business Live


15/09/2016

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This is Business Live from BBC News with Victoria Fritz

:00:00.:00:08.

The Hinckley Point deal is back on; the UK government has given the go

:00:09.:00:13.

ahead for plans to build the first new nuclear plant in

:00:14.:00:16.

Live from London, that's our top story on Thursday 15th of September.

:00:17.:00:37.

The UK Government gives green light to build the first new nuclear plant

:00:38.:00:40.

T-Tipping point. in the programme.

:00:41.:00:49.

Could the biggest free trade deal in history be about to collapse?

:00:50.:00:58.

Here are the markets. The FTSE opening flat across Europe.

:00:59.:01:05.

Digging for the future; companies around the world are mining

:01:06.:01:08.

The boss of a leading exploration company will be here to explain

:01:09.:01:14.

We want to know if nuclear is the fuel of the future. Let us know, are

:01:15.:01:26.

you concerned about the impact? The first nuclear plant to be built

:01:27.:01:33.

in the UK for 20 years has Prime Minister Theresa May

:01:34.:01:43.

has given the go ahead for the ?18 billion,

:01:44.:01:49.

around $23 billion. Hinkley Point C nuclear

:01:50.:01:53.

power plant station The decision was postponed

:01:54.:01:58.

by the Government in July. France's EDF had agreed to pay

:01:59.:02:04.

for two-thirds of the project, There has been no official

:02:05.:02:08.

confirmation that the deal will go With me is our Business Editor,

:02:09.:02:21.

Simon Jack In Brussels the US With me is our Business

:02:22.:02:29.

Editor, Simon Jack. They want to say there are

:02:30.:02:36.

components of the deal we are worried about. The key is the

:02:37.:02:41.

involvement of CGM, state-owned in China. They are taking a third stake

:02:42.:02:45.

in this. There is an understanding they'll take a stake in the next

:02:46.:02:49.

project at Sizewell, but the real prize for China is they are going to

:02:50.:02:54.

use their own reactor and run a plant at Bradwell in Essex. They

:02:55.:02:59.

came into the Hinkley deal which would have failed without them, on

:03:00.:03:03.

the understanding they would run their own reactor, get British

:03:04.:03:07.

approval for that in Bradwell. These conditions talk very much about a

:03:08.:03:12.

legal framework for future investment by foreign Governments in

:03:13.:03:14.

British near. What the conditions look like will be key as to whether

:03:15.:03:19.

this offends the Chinese government. Could it be a situation in which

:03:20.:03:22.

they are so onerous that actually the deal doesn't go ahead anyway?

:03:23.:03:29.

It's possible that basically they'll say actually this rips up our

:03:30.:03:32.

gentleman's agreement that we had, the understanding that we were going

:03:33.:03:36.

to do that, without that we don't do this, without them doing this,

:03:37.:03:40.

without Chinese involvement, it doesn't happen. The practicalities

:03:41.:03:48.

will break out. Just a bit of window dressing, put our people in with

:03:49.:03:52.

your people while building a reactor, there is a precedent, a

:03:53.:03:58.

Chinese company came in with bit in 290s, they put some personnel in

:03:59.:04:02.

with that to make sure. If they are saying we fundamentally don't trust

:04:03.:04:06.

you and we are going to put in monitoring and security surveillance

:04:07.:04:11.

on that, then who knows, the Chinese may say, the President in the G20

:04:12.:04:15.

said a few weeks back, you have got to trust us. If they feel that

:04:16.:04:21.

message is not heard, who knows. If the deal were not to go ahead, what

:04:22.:04:25.

does it mean for the future of nuclear power in the UK? This is

:04:26.:04:29.

about keeping the lights on. Some say this project is a project from a

:04:30.:04:35.

by gone era, a dinosaur in a new energy environment where we talk

:04:36.:04:39.

about renewables and decentralised production and also digital, using

:04:40.:04:42.

better resources, and we don't actually need this. Others say,

:04:43.:04:49.

listen, on that cloudy, very calm day in February where the renewables

:04:50.:04:53.

aren't producing anything, you need the base load, something that will

:04:54.:04:56.

be on all the time. Just yesterday in fact, the price for electricity

:04:57.:05:01.

which if you wanted to buy it now, the now price, spiked up to 180 to

:05:02.:05:10.

200. That shows you you need the base load load, the reliable source

:05:11.:05:13.

of carbon that nuclear gives you. Plenty still think this is a duff

:05:14.:05:19.

project. It seems risking this relationship with China but also

:05:20.:05:22.

France was too much for the new Prime Minister to bear. She's

:05:23.:05:25.

obviously had a look at this and the detail, but this is a very political

:05:26.:05:29.

deal isn't it? Well, there is a School of Thought which says, this

:05:30.:05:33.

is all a bit of political posturing in the sense that, I'm not going to

:05:34.:05:40.

go through a deal which was done by my predecessor. There is been a real

:05:41.:05:44.

effort to draw a line under the previous administration and say I'm

:05:45.:05:47.

in charge now and this was a way of proving that. The teeth in the new

:05:48.:05:51.

conditions will tell us whether that was a real security concern or

:05:52.:05:55.

whether Theresa May just wanted to say, I just wanted to remind

:05:56.:06:01.

everyone there's a new boss in town. Carrie Gracie joins us now via Skype

:06:02.:06:06.

from her home in London. I know you have been across this from the point

:06:07.:06:12.

of view of China's situation, as it were, what are you hearing in terms

:06:13.:06:16.

of China's reaction to the fact that this is now back on?

:06:17.:06:24.

Well, there is no official reaction yet. I'm sure it will come from CGN

:06:25.:06:29.

and the Chinese Government. Exactly what they say will remain to be

:06:30.:06:33.

seen. They'll want to look closely at the detail of the kind of

:06:34.:06:38.

conditions that have been put in place here. To look at the language

:06:39.:06:42.

coming out of the British Government, it's been carefully

:06:43.:06:46.

structured to make it seem and read that this is not directed against

:06:47.:06:50.

China, that there's not a specific Cold War mentality going on, as the

:06:51.:06:54.

Chinese would put it, a sense that the Chinese are not to be trusted,

:06:55.:07:01.

that this is the UK trying to ramp up its security component with

:07:02.:07:03.

regard to political infrastructure and that there's not a direct

:07:04.:07:09.

element. For China, the concern will be, are we going to get Bradwell,

:07:10.:07:14.

our own technology into that nuclear power station so that we can then

:07:15.:07:18.

export it around the world with the stamp of approval of one of the

:07:19.:07:22.

highest, the UK industry standard is very high, and therefore other

:07:23.:07:26.

jurisdictions across the world will say, if it's good enough for the UK,

:07:27.:07:30.

it may be good enough for us. For them, that is crucial, so they think

:07:31.:07:34.

that, as a result of these conditions and these new rules being

:07:35.:07:38.

put in place that they can still get that, then I think they'll probably

:07:39.:07:42.

still want the deal even if they're fed up at having to wait for seven

:07:43.:07:47.

weeks and they don't like the language of the new conditions per

:07:48.:07:54.

say. Carrie Gracie and Simon Jack, who

:07:55.:07:58.

was first with the news on your blog a few days ago. It was an

:07:59.:08:02.

uncomfortable couple of days because the Government made it clear there

:08:03.:08:04.

were no certainties around this and were no certainties around this and

:08:05.:08:07.

they wouldn't be rushed so it's a relief. Still plenty of detail to

:08:08.:08:11.

run through. We'll talk about this again. We definitely will. Thank

:08:12.:08:13.

you. Trade Representative Michael Froman

:08:14.:08:15.

is due to meet the EU's Trade Commissioner,

:08:16.:08:20.

Cecilia Malmstr m, in a last ditch attempt to save the biggest

:08:21.:08:23.

trade deal in history. It's the Transatlantic Trade

:08:24.:08:27.

and Investment Partnership or TTIP for short that aims to break down

:08:28.:08:30.

trade barriers between Europe and the United states and boost both

:08:31.:08:34.

economies by billions of dollars. But despite three years of talks

:08:35.:08:38.

the prospects of a deal We'll be speaking to a trade expert

:08:39.:08:42.

in a moment about what might happen next first here are some facts

:08:43.:08:50.

and figures about TTIP. Plans to create a free trade zone

:08:51.:08:59.

between Europe and the US have stirred up controversy from the

:09:00.:09:04.

start. The pact would group 850 million

:09:05.:09:09.

consumers into one market. Those in favour say it would offer tens of

:09:10.:09:13.

billions of dollars of benefits to both the EU and US economies.

:09:14.:09:19.

But sceptics disagree, saying it would favour big business and lower

:09:20.:09:26.

product safety standards. Recently, they've been voicing their

:09:27.:09:30.

opposition. When President Obama visited Germany earlier this year,

:09:31.:09:35.

thousands of protestors rallied against TTIP. Many in France,

:09:36.:09:39.

including the Trade Minister, have criticised a lack of concessions

:09:40.:09:43.

from the US side. Now there is a real possibility the

:09:44.:09:47.

talks could stall altogether. With me is Stephanie Hare,

:09:48.:09:50.

senior Europe analyst We have talked about this before,

:09:51.:10:00.

it's been going on for some time. Do you think we'll make headway today

:10:01.:10:04.

in Brussels? The negotiations take years, we are entering a critical

:10:05.:10:08.

phase politically with the US election coming up in November.

:10:09.:10:11.

Right now, there is a lot of signalling that is happening. France

:10:12.:10:14.

has got an election next year, Germany has an election next year so

:10:15.:10:18.

right now, the comments that we are hearing are as much to each

:10:19.:10:21.

politician or trade negotiators politician or trade negotiators

:10:22.:10:23.

domestic constituency as it is to one another.

:10:24.:10:27.

It's worth mentioning that there has been widespread opposition to this

:10:28.:10:32.

deal at a grass roots level as well as the more political sphere as

:10:33.:10:35.

well? Grass roots right there hits it on the head. This is a deal that

:10:36.:10:40.

will benefit multinational corporations, less clear whether it

:10:41.:10:43.

will benefit ordinary people. That's what we have seen in a lot of

:10:44.:10:47.

discusses on both sides of the Atlantic with the economy, so the 1%

:10:48.:10:52.

movement, the 99% movement, we are seeing benefits in trade but they

:10:53.:10:55.

don't necessarily trickle down. From the point of view of the US, without

:10:56.:10:59.

the UK involved in TTIP it's a different proposition isn't it?

:11:00.:11:03.

That's the irony of this situation now, as with Brexit, the UK, one of

:11:04.:11:07.

the most vocal supporters of this deal, and still supports it, is

:11:08.:11:11.

going to end up leaving and the UK is a really important trading

:11:12.:11:16.

partner for US exports, 25% of EI exports are from the UK, so this

:11:17.:11:23.

matters. -- the EU. Particularly matters for the financial sector.

:11:24.:11:24.

Thank you very much. Let's have a look at the markets.

:11:25.:11:41.

Sell off in bank stocks following reports that Japan's Central Bank

:11:42.:11:46.

will consider slashing interest rates deeper into negative

:11:47.:11:50.

territory. There are worries that the Fed could lift interest rates as

:11:51.:11:52.

soon as this month in the US. Let's hear from Samira Hussain about

:11:53.:12:10.

this. Two thirds of the US economy depends on consumer spending.

:12:11.:12:14.

Excluding vehicles, it's believed retail sales are expected to go up.

:12:15.:12:25.

The kind of rise that we could see is expected to mean a growth.

:12:26.:12:33.

Donald Trump will participate in a question and answer period. Finally,

:12:34.:12:40.

earnings will be reported. Voters will want to know how the

:12:41.:12:49.

Brexit vote will affect things. Brexit everywhere right now in terms

:12:50.:12:56.

of the impact. James Hughes is with us from GKFX. Tell us what is

:12:57.:13:00.

occupying your attention at the moment because there is so much

:13:01.:13:04.

going on with, as Victoria mentioned, looking ahead to next

:13:05.:13:07.

week, the Bank of Japan, the Fed, but oil has been all over the place,

:13:08.:13:12.

there is quite a bit going on? Yes, we have had that week where the

:13:13.:13:15.

markets get back together when the kids get back to school, the volume

:13:16.:13:18.

picks up and the markets then tend to move all over the place. Today is

:13:19.:13:22.

particularly busy, so much data coming out. We have the Bank of

:13:23.:13:26.

England where Mark Carney is going to give himself a huge pat on the

:13:27.:13:32.

back again for doing so well. Then ECB numbers or eurozone numbers in

:13:33.:13:34.

terms of inpolice station will move markets so we are going to see

:13:35.:13:44.

currencies, indices moving volatile. We just wait for any kind of bit of

:13:45.:13:49.

data around the Fed. So you can't relax at all? Well, we try, but...

:13:50.:13:57.

This next week or so is so busy. You mentioned the Bank of Japan and the

:13:58.:14:02.

Fed. We try to look at other data because we do have UK and European

:14:03.:14:07.

data today, but we all just always jump back to the Fed and look at

:14:08.:14:15.

when they are going to make the hike on the rate, probably in December.

:14:16.:14:18.

You will be back with paper stories later on. See you soon.

:14:19.:14:22.

Lithium is the super-material being used to develop

:14:23.:14:26.

But can we get it out of the ground without wrecking the environment?

:14:27.:14:30.

We'll meet the boss of a major exploration company.

:14:31.:14:32.

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

:14:33.:14:42.

First, some fairly surprising news from John Lewis.

:14:43.:14:47.

Surprisingly bad news, we are used to hearing good news from the

:14:48.:14:52.

partnership and better than expected news from the supermarket chain

:14:53.:14:54.

Morrisons. You would expect it to be the other

:14:55.:14:57.

way around. Not today. Which one shall we start

:14:58.:15:05.

with? John Lewis or Morrisons? Two very different story. Let's

:15:06.:15:12.

start with John Lewis. The problem there is pre-tax profits for the

:15:13.:15:17.

first half are down nearly 15%, although sales, oddly, are holding

:15:18.:15:22.

up well, up 3%. So what is going on? According to the chairman of John

:15:23.:15:27.

Lewis, there is profound structural change going on in the retail

:15:28.:15:30.

business for a start, they are trying to prepare for that, they are

:15:31.:15:36.

investing a lot in their IT systems, important for online trading, and

:15:37.:15:39.

trying to boost pay for their workers, as well as the price war in

:15:40.:15:44.

the supermarkets, the John Lewis partnership owns Waitrose. But John

:15:45.:15:49.

Lewis says, watch out, because most of their profits are made in the

:15:50.:15:52.

second half of the year in the run-up to Christmas so they should

:15:53.:15:55.

be judged on the second half of the year more than the first.

:15:56.:16:02.

Let's talk about Morrisons, normally at the sharp end here in the UK, but

:16:03.:16:06.

they are doing better? Morrisons is in a period of recovery

:16:07.:16:12.

which began last year when Dave Potts took over as chief executive.

:16:13.:16:17.

They have had three successive quarters of increasing profit. ?157

:16:18.:16:22.

million for the first half of the year, up 11%. If you look at the

:16:23.:16:26.

share price graph here, we have the downward trend in the middle of June

:16:27.:16:30.

around the EU referendum, a lot of companies saw their share prices

:16:31.:16:35.

fall then. There has been steady recovery since and to date up 5%

:16:36.:16:39.

largely because these results from Morrisons were a lot better than

:16:40.:16:45.

expected. So, John Lewis, a bit more disappointing, Morrisons doing

:16:46.:16:47.

better than expected. Time will tell, we have got the

:16:48.:16:53.

Christmas advert race still to come. See you soon, Villon.

:16:54.:16:56.

We have been asking for your tweet about Hinkley Point and what you

:16:57.:17:01.

think. This one, Hinkley Point C will

:17:02.:17:08.

produce the waste of the future. Also, all it takes to understand

:17:09.:17:11.

nuclear energy is not safe is another Chernobyl or Fukushima.

:17:12.:17:15.

You're watching Business Live - our top story:

:17:16.:17:17.

The UK Government has given the go-ahead for plans to build

:17:18.:17:20.

the first new nuclear plant in Britain for 20 years.

:17:21.:17:26.

Lots more on that story on our website, take a look. Let's remind

:17:27.:17:34.

you how the trading day is faring in Europe, going now for about 15

:17:35.:17:38.

minutes, and pretty flat, not much movement. China was closed today for

:17:39.:17:43.

a public holiday so no action today in Shanghai.

:17:44.:17:44.

We've spent a lot of time recently bemoaning the state

:17:45.:17:46.

of the commodities market, which has been under

:17:47.:17:49.

a lot of pressure because of the slowdown in China.

:17:50.:17:51.

But one commodity sector that's booming is lithium.

:17:52.:17:55.

It's the metal used as a key element in many next-generation batteries -

:17:56.:17:58.

and demand is expected to grow further because of the increasing

:17:59.:18:01.

Our next guest is the boss of leading exploration company

:18:02.:18:08.

The firm shifted its focus towards lithium projects this year,

:18:09.:18:13.

anticipating big growth in demand from those new technologies.

:18:14.:18:16.

And it is specifically pushing into Chile, which has one

:18:17.:18:19.

of the largest lithium reserves in the world.

:18:20.:18:23.

Wealth Minerals has specifically highlighted Tesla,

:18:24.:18:25.

which is currently building a huge Gigafactory in Nevada to manufacture

:18:26.:18:28.

Wealth Minerals says demand for lithium will be given a big

:18:29.:18:35.

boost by the factory when it comes online.

:18:36.:18:38.

The company's boss is Henk van Alphen, and he joins me now.

:18:39.:18:44.

Good morning. Thank you for having me. You have been in this business

:18:45.:18:53.

for quite some time but lithium seems to be the new kid on the block

:18:54.:18:57.

when it comes to mining and you are focusing very much on Chile as the

:18:58.:19:03.

place to dig it up. Tell us more? Delay has been, most of the lithium

:19:04.:19:12.

in the world is in brines, and the place to be for Brian lithium

:19:13.:19:16.

happens to be what they called the Golden Triangle of lithium, which is

:19:17.:19:24.

Bolivia, Argentina and Chile, which, by a fluke of nature, has the

:19:25.:19:29.

largest lithium brands in the world, which is why we have focused on

:19:30.:19:34.

Chile. And that as far as I understand it, is a type of

:19:35.:19:40.

saltwater? Yes, dry lakes that exist in the high Andes and because of

:19:41.:19:45.

evaporation use the increase in lithium concentration. If it is just

:19:46.:19:49.

sitting on the surface, quite easy to get hold of, why are we seeing

:19:50.:19:54.

prices rise in the way that we are? An extraordinary level of rising

:19:55.:20:00.

prices. Supply has to catch up with demand here so there is an enormous

:20:01.:20:04.

increase in demand for obvious reasons, timing is everything and we

:20:05.:20:08.

are talking about a nuclear power plant being approved, so alternative

:20:09.:20:13.

forms of energy here. The worm is changing radically and lithium

:20:14.:20:18.

batteries are part of this, it is an enormous growth industry and the

:20:19.:20:21.

supply of lithium is going to have to catch up at some point. Just for

:20:22.:20:27.

our viewers' information, lithium batteries are in so many devices

:20:28.:20:30.

that we use all the time, smartphones, tablets, not just

:20:31.:20:34.

electric cars? And there is an increasing that but really the big

:20:35.:20:38.

increase will come from electric cars. China will be a huge market

:20:39.:20:45.

for that. Electric buses, when you go to the humongous cities in the

:20:46.:20:49.

world, they are all polluted so electric buses, electric trucks, you

:20:50.:20:54.

name it, it all need lithium batteries. You are a company based

:20:55.:20:59.

in Vancouver, you decide you will go for lithium in a major way in Chile,

:21:00.:21:04.

how do you make that happen? You have to work with governments and

:21:05.:21:07.

local organisations, you need a man on the inside? I have been working

:21:08.:21:12.

in South America the 25 years so I have a lot of connections and one of

:21:13.:21:20.

them is a friend, I opened up the idea that we should be focusing on

:21:21.:21:25.

the lithium potential in Chile and we discussed this and he saw the

:21:26.:21:28.

same potential that I saw so he joined the company and it has been a

:21:29.:21:33.

pleasure ever since. Regardless of the relationships you have, when the

:21:34.:21:37.

oil price is collapsing and we see the lithium price rise, surely there

:21:38.:21:42.

is not the same profit incentive for governments, policymakers, to start

:21:43.:21:45.

investing in alternative forms of energy just yet? That is an economic

:21:46.:21:51.

pressure but I don't think that is going to change. The world is

:21:52.:21:55.

polluted, CT 's need to clean up their acts, and it is where most

:21:56.:21:58.

people live so I think governments have no choice, they have to go with

:21:59.:22:03.

renewable sources of energy. We have a long way to go here, this is a

:22:04.:22:09.

huge growth industry. Where else would you look in the future? We

:22:10.:22:15.

will stay focused on Chile as a company. We appreciate your time

:22:16.:22:17.

today, very interesting. In a moment we'll take a look

:22:18.:22:21.

through the Business pages but first here's a quick reminder of how

:22:22.:22:25.

to get in touch with us. The Business Live page is where you

:22:26.:22:31.

can say ahead with the breaking business news. We will keep you up

:22:32.:22:36.

to date with the latest details, with insight and analysis from the

:22:37.:22:40.

BBC's team of editors right around the world. And we want to hear from

:22:41.:22:44.

you. Get involved on the BBC Business Live web page. You can find

:22:45.:22:55.

us on Twitter and Facebook. Business Live on TV and online, whenever you

:22:56.:22:57.

need to know. James is back to talk through some

:22:58.:23:09.

of the papers. The law of unintended consequences, in Russia they are

:23:10.:23:13.

drinking a lot more wine? Yes, this is a lot to do with the fact that

:23:14.:23:17.

the West has imposed all sorts of sanctions on Russia since, well,

:23:18.:23:25.

pretty much forever! That hampers the ability to import wine from

:23:26.:23:30.

elsewhere, the big Russian oligarchs have been drinking it before,

:23:31.:23:34.

however now it seems that within Russia their own wine is becoming a

:23:35.:23:39.

boom area. Interestingly part of this is that one of the key wine

:23:40.:23:44.

producing regions of Russia is Crimea, which fell into complete

:23:45.:23:49.

disrepair under Ukraine but now under Russia is being sold off to a

:23:50.:23:54.

number of different vineyards and is producing this supposedly amazing

:23:55.:23:58.

wine. I have not tasted any myself but supposedly it is the next big

:23:59.:24:03.

thing and is being consumed in its gallons in Russia currently. This

:24:04.:24:09.

story in the business standard in India, Google and Apple lock horns

:24:10.:24:13.

with the Government, explain what this is? It is a Government

:24:14.:24:18.

initiative to help people access their information by smart devices?

:24:19.:24:26.

Absolutely, the biometrics and... When we talk about Apple, Samsung,

:24:27.:24:33.

Google, it is the fingerprint recognition, I respected mission,

:24:34.:24:36.

things you use on your body to confirm what you are doing, and this

:24:37.:24:40.

programme in India is a way for a lot of Indians to be paid money they

:24:41.:24:45.

are owed in terms of jobs they are doing all money in view of food

:24:46.:24:49.

because of the fact that a lot of Indian people don't have bank

:24:50.:24:53.

accounts, have not set foot into banks, let alone have bank accounts,

:24:54.:24:56.

so this programme is a great way for them to get the money they are paid.

:24:57.:25:01.

What Apple, Google and Samsung are involved for is because the growth

:25:02.:25:05.

in smartphones in India is a massive growth area for those companies,

:25:06.:25:12.

they want, the discussions between them to try to get some kind of

:25:13.:25:17.

tired, but it is not going particularly well. Discussions have

:25:18.:25:21.

been going on, India has been trying to get these huge corporations over.

:25:22.:25:26.

Did you find your biometrics works? The fingerprint does. It always

:25:27.:25:32.

works for me, I bought my breakfast on my phone this morning using my

:25:33.:25:34.

thumb! I was amazed by that! That is the

:25:35.:25:40.

way forward, it is what is happening in India. That reveals on-air how

:25:41.:25:46.

backwards I am, good old pounds and pence for me! May a plastic ?5 note!

:25:47.:25:52.

Exactly right! Thank you for coming in.

:25:53.:25:54.

There will be more business news throughout the day on the BBC live

:25:55.:25:58.

webpage and on World Business Report.

:25:59.:26:13.

Hello. Today brings us the last of our hot

:26:14.:26:14.

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