06/09/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Ben Bland and Sally Bundock.

The flags are flying and so are the insults.

President Obama has cancelled a meeting with the Philippine leader

at this week's ASEAN meeting in Laos after being called

Could the spat now derail the world s biggest trade deal?

Live from London, that's our top story on the 6th of September.

The ASEAN summit has started off with a diplomatic spat,

with President Obama's refusal to meet his Philippine counterpart

It's now feared that the issue could overshadow Obama's efforts

to get the half a trillion dollar Trans Pacific Partnership

Also in the programme, following on from a rock-star.

Urjit Patel takes over from Raghuram Rajan as governor

But can he convince the markets that he has what it takes to tame

And here is how the European market to start their trading day. We will

look at those in more detail later in the programme.

And we'll be getting the inside track on how we can

all learn something from the 'super-humans'.

With the Paralympics set to kick off tomorrow we speak to the head

of Inclusion for London 2012 about how to increase diversity

New research has found that women are as likely as men

to ask for a pay rise - but are less likely to get one.

Today we want your thoughts on what can be done to address

With the G20 done and dusted, attention is now moving to yet

another major global pow wow with a confusing acronym.

The US ASEAN Summit gets underway in Laos today - while the leaders

of the ten Southeast Asian Nations will of course be there,

the meeting is also being attended by President Obama and the leaders

Things are already getting heated at the summit after resident Obama

cancelled the meeting with the Filipino president who had earlier

called him a son of a whore. The TPP, or Trans-Pacific

Partnership will take centre stage at the meeting, with Obama desperate

to get the controversial trade deal signed before he leaves

office in January. The deal covers 12 nations and 40

percent of world commerce - its supporters say it could boost

global growth by close to half The other big financial talking

point at the summit is the ongoing An estimated $5 trillion worth

of global trade passes In July, an international tribunal

ruled against Chinese claims to rights over

the majority of the Sea, backing a case brought

by the Philippines. China is standing firm on its claim

though, while the US has been flexing its military

might by sailing warships I'm joined by Allie Renison,

Head of Europe and Trade Policy Ben was talking through some of the

key issues and I know that Barack Obama is very keen to push ahead

with the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. But will he make headway, do

you think? It depends on what happens back at home. He does not

need to convince the leaders of the summit that they need to sign it. If

you look at the Philippines, despite the ongoing row, we have a new

president that is not as pro American artist his predecessor.

There is no doubt that these countries will want to push ahead

with it. -- as his predecessor. But Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, we

have to match candidates who are both either opposed to or want to

renegotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The question is, can

Obama convince the partners at the ASEAN summit that he can get it

results of the Transatlantic Trade results of the Transatlantic Trade

and Investment Partnership, which looks like it is also on the rocks.

-- there is also the. When it comes to trade policy, it is rearing its

head like never before. You have to go back to the days of NAFTA to see

this kind of anger and populism surrounding trade policy. I think it

is likely that they will get it signed. Whether they get it done

before Obama's term in office is up for grabs, it will depend on the

composition of Congress as well to see whether this and TTIP get

signed. There is a danger that the insults overshadow the main business

but there is a lot riding on this. Certainly. The South China Seas

dispute is going to be an ongoing issue. Delicate waters to tread.

This was supposed to be about Obama cementing his legacy but really it

has not been as concrete as he would have liked. And in the meantime, the

leaders at the G20 vowing to do more when it comes to protectionism and

yet we are all listening to that outcome and thinking, hang on, all

we are seeing is trade between nations falling down and walls being

built. Yes, trade wars tends to seem like a thing of the past but it is

reactionary. If you look at whether it is TTIP running into challenges

or TTP running into trouble, and even when we look at Brexit, we are

seeing trade policy becoming a real bone of contention in politics

again. It will certainly be in the run-up to the election. Very

interesting. And as you are aware, Barack Obama is speaking at the

moment at the ASEAN summit so if we get any nuggets, we will fill you

in. In the meantime, let's round up some other news.

British Airways passengers are facing delays after an IT glitch

saying its IT teams are "working to resolve this issue".

On Monday customers in the US and Canada reported delays

at several airports due to IT problems.

People flying from San Francisco, Washington DC and Atlanta reported

Germany's Bayer has raised its offer for Monsanto to $65 billion in a bid

to create a global seeds and pesticides giant.

Bayer said it was in advanced talks with Monsanto,

but warned there was no guarantee a deal would result.

Combining Bayer and Monsanto would create the world's biggest

agricultural supplier and be a market leader in the US,

European planemaker Airbus has announced orders worth $6.5 billion

Vietnam Airlines, JetStar Pacific and the country's only private

carrier, VietJet, together ordered 40

French President Francois Hollande, who is in Asia for the G20 meeting,

and also to drum up business, was present at the signing.

We talked about British Airways' technical issues. It cause real

problems for passengers yesterday but today, City Airport has pretty

much come to a standstill. This is the airport in London. As you can

see from that picture, it is very close to Canary Wharf. Flights have

gained access to the runway. The gained access to the runway. The

protesters are part of the black lives matter movement. They are

taking the action in order to highlight the UK's environmental

impact on the lives of black people locally and globally. A lot more on

that on our website. Now India is the world's fastest

growing major economy. And today it has a new

central bank governor. What more can you tell us about this

new character? Well, it is coming at an interesting time because Raghuram

Rajan was very well-known globally. It was thought that he would carry

on for some time but that did not happen and Urjit Patel got promoted

ahead of many others in the race. Mr Patel has a strong track record. He

has a Ph.D. From jail and he has been an adviser to the government on

many issues. His significance has been that he has always focused on

inflation and that is what he and his predecessor, they had the same

point of view. Many think that choice is right because Mr Patel

will keep the focus on inflation. It is down to 6% but the central bank

wants to bring it down to 4%. That would help India's economy.

Remember, the standard of living over here gets affected by inflation

because so many people live below the poverty line. In the last three

or four my dears, he was responsible for setting up this new committee,

which will now decide interest rates, so it will no longer be the

sole prerogative of the bank, but a company that will be taking a

decision a committee like in the UK and the US. He was be taking the

reins of the committee, and many see that that will be crucial as to how

interest rates change over the coming months. Overall, confidence

that he is the right man for the job. I give very much indeed. --

thank you very much indeed. Japanese shares edged higher

on Tuesday as banks were among The Nikkei was 0.3% higher,

hitting a three-month high. In China, the mainland

Shanghai Composite was flat while Australian equities were down

as the country's central bank decided to hold interest

rates steady at 1.5%. US markets were closed

on Monday for Labor Day. Let's look at the European markets.

The price of oil going up, helping energy stocks.

Joining us is Jane Foley, Senior Currency Strategist at Rabobank.

And then we'll sneak back on set to join the conversation. Nice to see

you, Jane. Let's talk about oil. A 5% spike in a short period of time

on Monday. It is hovering higher again. It has gone up and down. It

is interesting, because we did get their news, and we were having talks

between Saudi and Russia. This is interesting because of you do not

get talks between these two groups. Often words from both but the fact

they are communicating is a positive signal. They will be talking again

in September, October and November but we have to remain sceptical.

Even if there are talks or agreements between those two, the

Saudis have said they are not going to freeze. And at the end of

September, there is an unofficial Opec meeting. So when it comes to

trade and oil, any excuse to have a play. But if we look at Opec

specifically, it is very difficult for them to come through with the

quotas they stick to. Again, the market will very sceptical, even if

there is some sort of agreement between Saudi and Russia, it does

not mean anything, and the likes of Iran will not be included,

potentially. Interesting data from the British Retail Consortium will

stop after the positive deep they -- which is retail Consortium. After

positive data last month, High Street sales dipping. This is

interesting because after the referendum, a lot of the data came

back strongly, including what you are referring to. Some of the retail

sales were strong, in addition to the official data but this survey is

for August, and it is very weak. We have to remember that some of the

strength in July was related to the weather. What we need to see now is

the rest of the survey data, Visa, Barclaycard, that was all strong in

July. Will it be we interesting. Thank you for coming to see us. We

will look at the papers with Jane in five minutes. Still to come, what

lessons can businesses learn from the Paralympics?

We'll speak to the head of diversity and inclusion for London 2012.

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

Let's talk about a story that is really dominating here in the UK

today. Ahead of what could be

a fiery AGM tomorrow, retailer Sports Direct has promised

to make sure all its staff are paid minimum wage and an end to zero

hours contracts for casual staff. Talk us through what we can expect

from this? First, let's mention that promise to allow staff to have an

alternative to zero hours contracts. That sounds like a big thing for

Sports Direct and for its retail staff it may well be the case. But

what Sports Direct is saying is that this will only apply to retail staff

employed casually, directly by the company. That means that it

effectively excludes agency workers. The criticisms that have been led at

Sports Direct over the past few months have been focused mainly on

conditions at its Shirebrook Colliery house in Derbyshire. Most

of the people who work there, nearly all of them are agency workers. So

they will not be covered by this. While it sounds like a positive

step, it is not universal through the company and does not address all

the criticisms. That said, what Sports Direct has done is produce a

report focusing on the criticisms levelled at it by MPs at a committee

hearing in June. If you look at the share price in June, Sports Direct

was looking at a lot of problems, not least of the fallout from the

Brexit vote, producing a fall in the share price. But it also affected a

wave of publicity about working practices at Shire Brooke. In

particular, the six strikes and you are out policy, a disciplinary

policy which the company concedes was our victory. It puts too much

power in the hands of a few people and it should go. That is one of the

bigger elements of this internal report that has come out today, made

on but have all Sports Direct's management. They say they will ask

agencies to immediately suspend use of this policy, but they also

concede that reforming the culture of the warehouse will take what

longer than three months. Just to say Sports Direct's spares

up 2%. Formula One, US media group Liberty Media is said to be in

advanced talks to buy a stake in Formula One. Yes, there is more on

that on the website. Our top story, straight

from the G20 in China, President Obama has arrived in Laos

where he'll meet Southeast Asian leaders for the last time

before he leaves office. Back home, he's trying to sell

the Trans-Pacific Partnership The 12 nation free trade pact has

been agreed but not given the final As are the new presidents in waiting

either Clinton or Trump. A quick look at how

markets are faring. Some breaking news. The Met Police,

there are nine protesters on the runway at City Airport. Yes, the

story we were talking about earlier. The police say they have erect add

tripod and locked themselves together. The disruption started at

5.40am UK time. Officers were alerted to a number of protesters

who made their way air-side at London's City Airport. Officers

currently on the scene negotiating with them. If you are flying in or

out, check before you leave. You may well get stuck in that airport. You

can watch us on the TV! You were doing that the other day, Ben. There

you go, there is always an up side to these things.

With the Rio Paralympics kicking off this week,

the issue of diversity especially in the workplace is at

Stephen Frost is an expert in the benefits of diversity to any

As Head of Diversity and Inclusion for the London 2012 Olympics

and Paralympics, he helped achieve unprecedented levels of diversity

In fact, out of 200,000 staff at London 2012,

40% were from an ethnic minority and nearly half

Meanwhile, 5% of the London 2012 staff were from the LGBT group,

but is there any real evidence of a link between diversity

Stephen Frost is founder and principal at Frost Included.

Thank you Stephen for coming in. I'm told the Paralympics is this week,

not next week, my apologies. Let's talk about that because you're going

out there to help out and it is not been a smooth pathway at all. At one

point we thought ten teams were not being able to participate because of

lack of funding. It sounds like it will be all right though this week.

I think some people have really got involved. The mayor has been great.

Some private sector organisations got involved and colleagues are

working around the clock to make sure it is as successful as it will

be. The ten teams will participate? That's what I understand, yes. What

are the difficulties you face when you're trying to up the levels of

representation at London 2012, did you come across any barriers or any

hurdles in convincing people this would bring a wider benefit? That's

key. It is convincing people. Particularly people who don't think

that they are diverse. This is in their interests too. I think one of

the things, we're all nice, human beings, we want to do the right

thing, but unconsciously we tend to recruit people in our own image and

tend to hang out with people like ourselves, that's natural and

normal. If you want to have diversity, you have got to do

something. It is trying to convince people that having a more diverse

group of people around the table would actually benefit ourselves as

well as the wider society and Games. I must admit when it comes to this

subject and the fact that we haven't made as much progress as we thought

we might have done, I'm always surprised because I feel like for

years we have been banging on about the benefits of diversity and the

benefits to business in particular. Why aren't we making progress? Many

reports in the UK have shown that when it comes to issues of gender

and diversity we've gone backwards? Often we have done this thing

because we have to. It has been a compliance driven exercise or it is

marketing, it makes us look good. Both those things are important, but

they are insufficient. If you want to achieve step change, it is about

leadership and it is about people want to go do this because it is in

our own interest as well as the greater good and that's something

that's tested at difficult times and recent years have been particularly

challenging. I suppose the mark of success is when your organisation is

no longer needed? That's true. That would be wonderful and I can retire

happily, but in the meantime because the default position is that we

understand there are benefits and diversity, we have to make it happen

through recruitment policies, through training, through nudges,

through lots of things that we can do to create a more diverse

workforce. Stephen, we will have to leave it there. Stephen Frost thank

you very much indeed. We asked you to send your thoughts

on the issue of gender pay. We will keep you up-to-date with all

the latest details with insight and analysis from the BBC's team of

editors around the world. And we want to hear from you too. Get

involved on the BBC Business Live web page. :

On Twitter, we're at: And you can find us on Facebook:

Business Live on TV, and online whenever you need to know.

We want to hear from you. Jane has returned to talk us through the

stories in the papers. One is the issue of gender pay. A

viewer tweeted, "Remove the gender gap." Another viewer tweeted to say,

"It starts with bargaining power. Somewhere women failed to improve on

it in due process." It depends very much on where you work, Jane. I did

warn Jane I'd ask her this question in advance. Have you found this an

issue? My age group and above have done so. I remember years ago

finding out that the person I was training was earning more than me.

When I was working for Barclays I was told, "We have to pay you more."

Somebody in their HR was looking at the statistics and was trying to

equalise it. I found out someone doing the same job as me was made a

lot more and I highlighted the issue and I saw a pay increase, but I

could have gone through my working life for that organisation not

knowing being paid a lot less. Let's look at The Telegraph, Telefoniaa to

float O2 and infrastructure business after merger knock-back. They wanted

merge. It was blocked by the competitive authorities. It has 50

billion euro debt pile. They wanted to do the merger. Now they're going

to try and float O2. Does it matter to customers whether they achieve

this or not? I think for customers, it is good service. Really that's

what most customers want, whether or not it is floated to the majority,

it probably doesn't make much difference. Let's look at this story

which is really interesting in the Financial Times, Brazil follows UK

and Australia in search of gambling tax. Brazil looking at every

possible avenue to get some money in? They're saying there is a ban on

gambling in Brazil. Gambling laws are different in countries and in

the UK it is liberalised in, but in parts of the US it is too. In the US

betting on sports is illegal. The reason why Brazil is doing it is to

get the tax revenue. In the UK a significant amount of gambling

revenue comes through, however in some liberalised countries like

Australia, they're going the other way, they are trying to tighten up

on gambling because of the effects on the individual. Jane, do you have

a pet? I don't, unfortunately. OK. You have heard of grumpy cat. We can

say about grumpy dog. Have you soon the photos? They're wonderful and

perhaps the best thing about this. This dog is in such demand from

talent agencies his owner has been able to fund her degree. Fantastic!

What a good, normally pets cost you an arm and a leg, especially dogs,

the walking fees and the vet bills. This is a young woman with a very

entrepreneurial spirit! Dogs do well. A photo of your pet

online. There is a medical issue with a cat, but I don't know about

the dog, but he looks just grumpy! He looks scary as well. If you look

at the other pictures. Grumpy and scary. Nice to see you Jane. That's

it from Business Live today. More tomorrow. See you soon.