09/12/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Rachael Horne

yep a cash pile twice the size of the US economy - hidden offshore.

So the question is what can be done to tackle the tax dodgers?

Live from London, that's our top story

Clawing back what they are owed, governments and campaigners

will today sit down for a major pow wow to discuss how they can get back

the trillions of dollars in tax revenue that's been

Also in the programme, South Korea's parliament has voted

the capital for the latest on this developing story.

On the markets another day another record -

a record close on wall street - a record high on the

Nikkei - and in europe the markets are up.

And we'll be getting the inside track on the biggest

financial stories of the moment, with our Economics Correspondent

Andrew Walker, including that long talked about Fed rate rise.

Come January United will charge you to put your carry on bag in the

overhead locker. Do you think the difference between full-service and

budget carriers is blurring? Get in touch.

We are talking tax - and why many big businesses

and wealthy people seem to pay so little of it.

Today politicians from all round the world are in London

for a Global Tax Transparency Summit.

They'll be discussing how to promote tax transparency

According to the Tax Justice Network, as much as $36 trillion

That's twice the GDP - of the world's biggest

In other words - double the value of all the goods and services

It's not just about tax evasion - but also legal tax avoidance.

Bloomberg estimates that US companies have stashed $2.1 trillion

in profits overseas as part of a perfectly legal operation

On Thursday McDonald's said it's moving its non-US tax base

from Luxembourg to the UK due to the "significant number of staff"

But there's more to it than that The Luxembourg tax affairs

of the fast food giant are under formal investigation

It says McDonalds has paid no corporate tax in the city state

despite booking profits worth hundreds of millions

Alex Cobham is the chief executive of the Tax Justice Network. That

figure, $36 trillion, that is monumental. It would be the world's

biggest economy. You need to think about the income and revenues we are

forgoing every year in countries all around the world to understand why

this is such a big problem. The services we are losing, the

inequality we are suffering because that income is not being taxed as it

should be. After back -- after McDonald's is moving its operations

from Luxembourg to the UK, is that a sign that the tide is turning?

Public opinion and outrages working? The EU is changing its attitudes?

Things are moving, but moving slowly. We are still lacking the

kind of transparency that would allow us to know that McDonald's are

declaring profits in the places where they are doing business. The

OECD requires multinationals to report on a country by country

basis. The activities and profits they are making. We need that in the

public domain, so the public can see that McDonald's are playing fairly

UK is not playing the same UK is not playing the same

Luxembourg is playing, in order to take profits from elsewhere and not

tax them. What needs to be done to change the situation, we talked

about the President-elect talking about an amnesty, bringing all that

offshore revenue back in, and then charging at a reduced rate. That is

based on a flawed understanding. 90% of US companies profits were shifted

offshore -- 19%. That is up to 25%. This is not a problem that the

effective tax rates are too high. That is a problem that

multinationals realise it is optional to pay tax. Lowering the

tax rate will not stop that. We need transparency that makes it obvious

and allows the consumers and citizens to vote with their feet.

Are you going to the summit? Absolutely, I think we will get some

great action today. South Korean parliament has voted

to impeach President Park over There have been mass rallies every

Saturday for the past six weeks calling for Park to quit,

and opinion polls show overwhelming Let's cross to Steve

Evans, who's in Seoul. The vote goes to the highest court

in the land, basically the parliament, saying we wrote that she

should be sacked. The highest court in the land accepts the vote, and

has its own investigation, looking at the matter. And we'll either say,

we agree with you over some months, or implement the sacking, in plain

language. In the meantime, President Park seizes to have any power. --

ceases to have any power. She remains president, but all the power

passes to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is talking about the

uncertainty. Saying the military needs to be on heightened alert in

case Kim Jong-Un in North Korea decides to press the situation

because of the uncertainties of power here. Check out our website.

Japan going bananas for Fife. The Irish -based fruit distributor, sold

to a huge Japanese conglomerate for 751 million euros. About $800

million. Bananas are big. Supplying one in three bananas in Japan. Also

the King of the banana. Let's touch on some of the other big stories.

Australia has given approval for the sale of the country's

largest private land-holding, the Kidman estate.

It's being bought by Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart,

and her business partner, Chinese developer Shanghai Cred.

The estate makes up about 1.3% of all Australian land

and is about the size of South Korea.

The sale has been halted several times due to concerns

Concerns about Chinese buying land in Australia.

The US government says it will investigate whether the planned

sale of an almost 20% stake in Russia's biggest oil company

The Swiss based commodities trader Glencore and Qatar's soverign wealth

fund are supposed to buy 19.5% of Rosneft in a deal the Kremlin has

presented as proof foreign investors are still interested in Russia.

Wholesale prices in China have surged at the fastest

The Producer Price Index - that tracks the cost of goods

as they leave the factory - was up 3.3 per cent in November,

They were driven by the rising cost of commodities like coal and steel.

Record closes on Wall Street yesterday.

The Dow was up. Let's look ahead to Europe.

In Europe, one of the biggest factors impacting on the markets

is the European Central Bank's decision to extend its bond-buying

programme until at least December 2017, but cut its purchases by E20bn

a month - could that spark another taper tantrum?

And Samira Hussain has the details about what's ahead

The University of Michigan's consumer survey is out on Friday.

This is important because two thirds of the US economy depends

on consumer spending, so just how confident Americans feel

will really influence how much they spend.

The expectation is that consumer sentiment will be up

and this comes off the heels of a six-month high

signs that people are feeling increasingly good about

In earnings news, the maker of Ski-Doo snowmobiles and Sea-Doo

BRP is expected to report a rise in profits, as the company has been

Investors will be looking for the company to comment

I can imagine that would be a fun company to work for.

Joining us is Richard Fletcher, Business Editor

Good morning. They can hear you. This rally at Wall Street. One day

after another. Last night in Japan, the McKay went over 19,000. -- the

Nikkei. Looks like we will get to the magic number before the end of

the year. Is it the Santa Claus rally for the Trump hump? Apparently

the technology stocks could be in trouble next year. It is the

infrastructure stocks. Goldman Sachs up 32% since the election. The Dow

up 12%. Nasdaq only eight. There are winners and losers. All driven by

that positive sentiment what they might think Trump may do. We have a

dead on search for a rate rise, the stocks should be nervous, they

shrugging it off. You have to be brave to bet against the market,

even though it looks quite fragile. Why would the markets be nervous

about interest rate rise? Companies, the cost of capital will increase,

therefore you would find markets a bit nervous. You will come back and

take us through the papers. Some good stories.

Next week could be a big one for this lady, Janet Yellen.

She is expected to announce a rise in US interest rates.

We're going to be discussing that and much much more

with our Economics Correspondent Andrew Walker.

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

30 trade associations representing the whole of the UK's

food and drink industry have joined forces to make the case

for continued access to EU workers post-Brexit.

In a letter published in the Guardian, they argue that EU

workers play an important role in the supply chain and some

Our Business Correspondent, Theo Leggett, has all the details.

Is this scaremongering? Serious stuff. The industry is genuinely

worried. 30 trade organisations, the National Farmers' Union, the British

Retail Consortium. Food and Drink Federation. I don't think this is a

blast. They rely on seasonal workers, they have a big pool of

potential employees from the European Union, skilled and

unskilled. They are saying, we know we are leaving the European Union,

you have to think about the impact it will have on our industry. If

we're not able to access this pool of very useful workers, food and

drink prices will rise, the industry will suffer. How many employees are

we talking about, EU workers working in these industries? As a whole, it

employs about four million people. A large proportion are seasonal

workers for work from the European Union. If these people cannot get in

there may be a shortage. The industry is asking for an

unambiguous reassurance from the government that EU workers that are

here can stay. Longer term, recognition that EU workers provide

an essential reservoir of skilled and unskilled labour. A commitment

from the government that if work permits are introduced, there is a

point system, the food industry must be treated equally with the

financial sector and the automotive sector. Not place at a disadvantage,

and they can still get hold of the workers they need. Great stuff. Have

a great weekend. Here is a quick look at what we have

got on our live page. Here is something on crowdfunding, which has

been successful very quickly and there are not many rules. The

Financial Conduct Authority are setting out new rules to protect

people who are in the crowdfunding market.

You're watching Business Live - our top story:

A global tax summit is taking place in London today,

aimed at trying to work out how to claw back the trillions

of dollars that have been parked overseas.

A quick look at how markets are faring...

And now let's get the inside track on the ECB saying it

will extend its bond-buying programme until at least

December 2017 as it kept interest rates unchanged.

The E80bn a month quantitative easing scheme had been

due to end in March, although the bank had been

expected to extend it for at least six months.

This is known as the taper, and we mention the taper tantrum. Well, the

markets seem uncertain. We firstly had the euro rising. Then it fell

back, suggesting that maybe it was not a tapering. Mario Draghi, the

European Central Bank president, hates the word. He remembers the US

taper tantrum, which was when the Fed started indicating that it was

going to start slowing down its quantitative easing programme, its

purchase of bonds in the financial markets. The dollar rose sharply and

we had serious turbulence affecting some of the emerging markets, with

money flowing back to the US. Clearly, Mario Draghi wants to avoid

that kind of turbulence affecting the euro particularly because if

anything equivalent happened and you saw money flowing into the Eurozone,

you would see the currency strengthening, and he does not want

that to happen. You can interpret the policy statement either way.

They are continuing the programme for longer than they had previously

indicated. On balance, it means they will be spending more money than

they had previously committed to do. More than half $1 trillion. You

mentioned that the euro reacted at first because they thought I would

be some tapering. Do they want to see Europe being weaned off this?

This is like a drug. It is not sustainable or realistic to have all

this cheap money. I think what the markets and policymakers want is to

be satisfied that the Eurozone economy is strong enough to be

weaned off. Once out in that position, they would love to see,

but the ECB and Mario Draghi himself would love to see the Eurozone being

strong. It will take a lot longer. Let's talk about oil. We have Opec's

agreement last week. We have another meeting this weekend. Opec did

manage to agree, somewhat to people's surprise, that it would cut

production for the first time in many years. But this was conditional

on a commitment from non-OPEC countries to make a cut of 600,000,

half of what Opec was committing to do. Yes, Russia had already made a

commitment to provide half of that non-OPEC cut, but at this meeting

this weekend, they will be discussing with other members

including Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, Mexico, Oman and several others

whether they will also make some contribution. It has been quite

striking as markets have taken different views of how likely some

sort of deal is and the price of oil has moved up and down, but it is

still comfortably above the levels it was at before the Opec meeting,

when they made this provisional agreement. But isn't it the case

that it is one thing for Opec members or non-OPEC members to say

we will do it, and actually doing it? Yeah, there are always issues

over whether members comply with their run commitment and implement

the cuts they have made. But clearly, the financial markets think

there is a decent chance of at least some of the members doing it, in

particular the big one, Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have had a big

change of strategy. They were thought to be wanting to do a lot of

harm to the American shale industry by keeping prices low. Looks like

they have given up on that. Let's talk about the Fed. We are expecting

interest rates to rise. How much by? Most likely by a quarter of a

percentage point. They have a target band for this market rate that banks

charge one another for overnight lending. The expectation is that the

top and bottom of that band will rise by a quarter of a percentage

point. But some think it could be a larger rivals. Like half of 1%? That

would be a shock. It probably will not be that, but the fact that some

people are even thinking in those terms is an indication of how the US

economy is doing relatively well. The labour market is pretty strong.

Unemployment is down 4.6%. There are still a lot of people who are not

active in the labour market who could come back into it, so perhaps

things are not as strong as that headline figure suggests. But it is

a striking contrast with Europe, where the unemployment rate is 9.8%

and around 20% in a couple of countries. Have a good weekend.

In a moment, we'll take a look through the business pages

but first, here's a quick reminder of how to get in touch with us.

keep you up to date with insights from the BBC's editors around the

world. And we want you to get involved too. You can find us

online, on Twitter and Facebook. Business life, on TV and online,

whenever you need to know. -- Business Live.

What other business stories has the media been

Richard Fletcher, Business Editor of The Times

Australia has been a contentious deal, but the government have

approved the sale of this large chunk of land the sound -- size of

South Korea to Gina Reinhard, but also the Chinese partner, which is

the controversial part. So Australia supplies all the raw materials for

China's infrastructure, and now we are going to feed them. It is

intriguing. The size, for a little Brit like me, is difficult to even

contemplate. 300,000 head of cattle. It is huge! Obviously, you will know

it has been controversial in Australia because of the whole idea

of Chinese control etc, so they have got a minority stake and the

Australian partner appears to have control of the board, which appears

to have kept people happy. The size of it is immense. It is bigger than

Ireland. It is 2.5% of Australia's agricultural land. It is massive.

The controversies about China owning too much land in Australia. I wonder

if this paves the way for other deals to be done with China

partners. Australia does need agricultural land to feed a lot of

people. Although interestingly, beef was not part of the Chinese diet.

Neither was ice cream, but they are the second biggest consumers of ice

cream in the world! Let's move on. As we were discussing earlier, oil

prices have been putting all year. The airline industry has had eight

years in the black, so they have had a good time. There is that joke, if

you want to turn a large fortune into a small fortune, by an airline.

It is slightly more bumpy. There is a bit of turbulence ahead.

Richard Fletcher, always a pleasure. Have a great weekend. See you again

next week. Bye-bye. We have some cooler weather to

arrive this weekend, but today will be another mild day. We have the

wind is coming in from the south