10/11/2015 World Business Report

The shadow boxing is over as David Cameron rings the starting bell

on the renegotiation of Britain's European Union membership.

And, Portugal primed for a new direction.

The anti-austerity parties of the left now say they now have enough

In a minute we'll have the details on some big deals

David Cameron is due to write to the president of the European

Council later today, setting out his demands for reforming the EU.

Britain's Prime Minister has promised the UK an in-out

So, what will the letter to this man, the

President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, likely include?

Top of the list of demands is expected to be an opt-out

from the ambition by some within the EU to forge an ever closer

The British Government is also likely to do everything it can to

negotiate a restriction to benefits for EU migrants living in Britain.

Another of Cameron's renegotiation points will be to see if he can gain

greater powers for the British parliaments to block EU legislation.

The UK also wants measures to prevent vast migrations from any new

Something strongly opposed by other members.

Stuart Thomson, public affairs consultant,

You know I am going to say it. Thankyou very much for coming in at

this ungodly hour. This is important. This shadowboxing is

over. The first time now, he is writing this letter. It is not

likely to be a long shopping list. It is these four key areas, they

enable Cameron and George Osborne to negotiate. They are vague. They will

do a deal and come back with the package that will appeal to business

audiences and other politicians. Especially the electorate. It is a

political list. The four points on their hammer home the point is that

Osborne and Cameron have been saying. -- there. No big surprise.

Those watching at the moment all around the world, they are watching

this... If they are vague will these objectives make any difference

really to the voter when it comes to the referendum? That is absolutely

the point. Will it do enough to reassure the people who are moving

back and forth. The other two groups... Stay and go... There is

free little that Cameron and Osborne can do. They have done a huge deal,

everyone says, wow, fantastic. You have reassured us. That is not

really going to happen. The vast majority, that bit of the electorate

in the middle that they are trying to reassure that Europe is the place

to do business, that they don't just impose political solutions and

things that favour other countries over the UK... Does this make a

difference to voters? What about the rest of Europe? Mixed views. Some

countries will be very worried about what they would see as a free

market, are geologically driven... Who, for example? France would be

the obvious example. They have a way of doing business. Their economic

model is different from the British one, still. They have their own

pressures. Indeed, Europe itself has been trying to put a much more

business focused on all the policies. Antiregulation, anti- red

tape, they looking at the impacts on business. That is very much at the

start of that racist. But it is something that written has wished

for, is already doing. -- process. If they tighten it up businesses may

be reassured, but is it much different from what they are doing

now? Unlikely. What about the letter, Donald opens it, he reads

it, then what? David Cameron goes on a? Detailed negotiating with the

officials and then the deal. -- charm offensive. Is it early next?

2017? They have a window in which they can win the referendum, and

Cameron wants to win. Indeed he does. Thankyou very much. We will

keep across that, of course. General Motors may face larger

penalties in trials related to the A bankruptcy judge

on Monday ruled GM could be charged with punitive damages for knowledge

it had about faulty switches. GM argued it should not face these

charges because its 2009 bankruptcy An absence

of big civil aircraft orders on the second day of the Dubai Airshow has

underlined a slowdown in the rate of Defence deals were again

the main focus, although Emirates Airline signed

a $16 billion deal for GE Aviation The previous Dubai show, in 2013,

notched up a record $206 billion General Electric has won

a $2.6 billion contract from the Indian government to build a fleet

of new trains for the country. The US-based industrial company said

it would supply India will 1,000 new diesel trains over

the next 11 years. The deal includes

a $200 million investment by GE to The Portuguese Prime Minister,

has warned that abandoning the path of economic reform would be

ruinous for the country. Mr Passos was seeking support

for his government programme in the The left-of-centre majority wants to

reject the programme and now says it can form

a coalition government, which would Marc Ostwald, from ADM Investor

Services International. Great to have you with us. Thank you

for waking up so early. We haven't talked about Portugal for a while.

Paint a picture. How is the economy faring? What sort of austerity has

it seen? A lot of austerity measures. The economy is going OK.

Doing better than some other countries. GDP growth of about 1.5%,

2% per annum. Unemployment remains substantial, though. Youth

unemployment? Again, it is a major robber. A problem with them... --

problem. The balance between economic reforms and suggesting that

economic reforms could be constructive in a different way,

which is essentially what the current, oh, the new left coalition

is saying. We can do this differently. Can we compare

Portugal? Is what we have seen happen with Greece and the

anti-austerity party is, is that what is happening with Portugal?

There is a different. The vote for Syriza was an antiestablishment

vote. With Portugal, this is actually coming from within the

political parties, basically saying, we are voting against the Social

Democratic Party, the one in power for the last two years. And we can

do this differently. -- few. It is a slightly different movement. Could

be left of centre... Could they bring down the government? That is

certainly the expectation today. We will see the vote, the government

failed with the confidence votes. Then you have the anti- social

Democrat coalition coming in. However, it is a real hodgepodge of

the Socialist party... -- Social Demorat. Then you have come in as

and communist greens. -- communist. But they don't have much, ground

between then. The suspicion locally is that they could vote down the

current government. -- them. They have an agreement to bring down the

current one. But it will fail within 3-6 because they have not got a lot

of a man ground. And then we are back to, what, square one? That is

where the risk for the economies lies. Business people are saying we

don't know what will happen. Are we rolling back austerity? And... You

took the words out of my mouth... Thankyou very much. We will keep

across that. Don't forget you can get

in touch with me and some of the I will be back later to take a look

at some of the papers around the world.

The government's plans to relax Sunday trading laws in England

and Wales are facing defeat in the House of Commons.

The SNP has told the BBC that the party has decided to vote

against the changes amid fears they could drive