10/02/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Aaron

Japan's Prime Minister is in Washington to talk trade

with President Trump but who'll come out on top of the leaderboard?

Live from London, that's our top story on Friday

Yes, touchdown - the leader of the world's third biggest

And when he takes to the golf course with President Trump,

he's going to have to defend why Japan sells more to the US

Also in the programme - it's back!

Greece's debt crisis returns to haunt Europe.

Can its lenders agree a new deal, or will we have

And we'll tell you why some solid numbers from China continue

And those Trump promises pushing Wall Street to more record highs.

And as President Trump orders a review of the financial rules

designed to stop another nightmare on Wall Street, we'll be getting

the inside track from our Economics Editor Kamal Ahmed on that

and the rest of the stories he's been covering this week.

As snow hits New York City, how much do you think it costs

to clear an inch of the white stuff off the streets?

One dollar? One hundred Dollars?

We'll give you the answer at the end of the show.

We start in the US where, as you've been hearing,

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meets President Trump later.

Remember, one of Mr Trump's first actions as President

was to withdraw from the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership trade

deal - signed by Obama - and strongly supported

Mr Trump called it a 'terrible' deal for the US.

He wants a fairer trading relationship with Japan -

Last year Japan sold almost $69 billion of more stuff

to the US than it bought from the US.

That 'trade surplus' as it's called is one of the biggest any

To give you an idea of why - look at this.

In 2015 - the latest figures we have - the US exported a little over

Here's how many Japanese cars were sold

that year in the US - 17.5 million - that's

Here's a vital point though - most of those cars are actually made

Mr Abe is expected to stress that 1.5 million American jobs rely -

either directly or indirectly - on Japanese carmakers.

On top of this - you have the so called

Mr Trump has claimed the Japanese Yen is kept

artificially low against the Dollar to help Japanese exporters.

A weaker yen makes Japanese goods cheaper.

And there's another big figure that is causing tension.

$5.5 billion was the bill to keep US troops in Japan last year.

Japan actually paid for almost half of that -

according to their defence ministry, but Mr Trump says the US

is shouldering too much of the burden of security

So - how best to diffuse all this tension?

Fung Siu, Asia, Regional Manager - Economist Intelligence

Thank you for joining us. Let's start with trade. Aaron has given us

the figures, what looks like a huge trade surplus, but part of that is

caused by the car sales, which are supporting American jobs. So maybe

that headline figure is not as bad as it looks. Completely, most of the

car sales in America are actually manufactured in America by

Americans. Yes, there are exports from Japan, auto exports to America,

that is not the whole picture. You have machinely exports and optical

goods. But America doesn't just have a trade deficit with Japan, it has a

trade deficit with the world and has done for a few decades. President

Trump picking a fight with Japan, he would have too pick a few fights

with the other countries. What do you think Shinzo Abe wants to

achieve from today? He obviously was not pleased that America pulled out

of TPP, in terms of trade agreements, what do you think

they're looking for? I think Shinzo Abe is disappointed that TPP has not

been ratified. Japan had ratified it. But to say that in that front,

Shinzo Abe at the start thought he could persuade Trump to come around

to his idea that TPP is a good thing. I think he has ditched that

idea and I think Shinzo Abe is prepared to enter into by lateral

trade agreements. The US have said Japan is manipulating their currency

you go from there? The weaker yen you go from there? The weaker yen

quantitative easing that Japan quantitative easing that Japan

launched in 2013. One side effect is the weak yen. That is because Japan

is lacking inflation and wants to import inflation. This policy will

go on, but it has ups and downs a and last year the yen appreciated,

so I don't think President Trump has much to say on that front with

regard to that particular year in the yen's performance. Thank you. Do

you know anything about golf? No, #3w I do know that Super Mario is

high on the list and they will play golf. I'm wondering who will win.

They can play golf on the Nintendo. But it is, not quite the same thing.

Some of the other stories making the headlines.

Renault has posted record annual sales -

up 13% with net income rising 16% to 3.5 billion euros.

A series of new product launches boosted Renault last year,

helping it increase its market share in all regions.

Lower-cost models such as the Duster and Kwid also sold well.

Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steelmaker, has posted its first

annual profit in five years, showing signs of recovery

The Luxembourg-based group reported net income of $1.8 billion in 2016,

even as sales fell just over 10%, but its debt pile shrank.

This is in contrast to the $7.9 billion net loss that ArcelorMittal

made the year before - its worst financial performance

since the mega-merger of Mittal Steel and Europe's Arcelor in 2006.

Now golf, Trump and Shinzo Abe will be playing golf. We could join them

for a four-ball. I think President Trump will have to play more golf

with the Chinese president. We had numbers from China. If President

Trump is not happy with surplus from Japan, he won't be happy with the

surplus from China. Lisha, this is an astonishing number

and it is just one month's worth? Yes since we are all about the

numbers today and deficit, according to US data, the US/China deficit

last year was $347 billion. So they will have to play lot of golf to get

through these tensions. So we have been speaking about that call

between President Trump and president Ping and how that

alleviated tensions over the one China policy. But this issue around

trade will be the real battleground. China's trade surplus is at its

highest in nearly half a year, that is $51 billion and President Trump

has been arguing that China is benefitting at the ex-pension --

expense of America and we saw exports rise in China and we are

going to have to watch and see how the game goes. Watching and waiting

indeed. Have a great weekend. Going to keep the market wrap short,

but yes Asia stocks liking those Chinese trade numbers

as well as the continued record Europe, following suit as investors

keep their eyes on President Trump as he promised to unveil a major tax

announcement to lower OK, let's go and find out what'll be

making the biz headlines in the US. Much of the attention on Friday will

be in washing tovn when President Trump meets with Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe at the White House. There is still some other economic news,

including labour department report showing that import prices rose in

January after a 0.4% increase the previous month. The update to

consumer sentiment index is out and it seems it may have spliped

compared to the previous month and for an economy that relies on

consumer spending, it is important to see how confident people are

feeling and how much that will influence how they spend and finally

earnings still continue, the advertising company Inter Public

shows a slight rise, as the economy showed momentum. Thank you.

Joining us is Sue Noffke, UK Equities Fund Manager at Schroders.

Let's start with the markets, because Aaron mentioned about

President Trump's promise to help with regulation and he has promised

a phenomenal new rules on regulation. But still no detail. No,

but a timeline of two to three weeks. The market had begun to pause

a bit about where was the detail, it was looking more complex in terms of

border adjustment trades and taxation and the deregulation with

industries. And he ignited the airlines with further deregulation

and tearing up lots of red tape around that sector. So that got the

market excited again. Pushing it to further highs. It is highlighting

the markets. You said, we don't have any details, he just said in two or

three weeks I will tell you. Phenomenal. About a tax deal and the

markets react. It would be a big deal. If he can do things with

deregulation and stimulate the economy. The markets will love it.

The attempts to tackle taxation, which is very complex and high in

the United States, it has not been easy for any of the administrations,

because they haven't had consistency between political parties. Now we

have got the Republicans in all the various seats, something could

happen. That would be no doubt a corporation tax, you said taxes are

high, they have one of the highest in the world around 35%. For

individuals it is simplification of the tax code and helping investment.

That tax cuts and the corporate boost to the US economy. That is the

plan. If he can get the tax cuts through that would be the result.

You will be back to do the papers. Still to come: We'll get

the inside track on the big economics stories of the week

from our Economics You're with Business

Live from BBC News. The UK's high street has just

experienced its worst January January's like-for-like

sales declined by 0.1%, marking the first negative growth

in the crucial January discounting period since 2013 and comes hot

on the heels of a dismal December. This according to accountancy

and business advisory firm BDO who's head of retail,

Sophie Michaels joins us now. Great to have you with us, really

poor numbers, what is going on here, are we spending less, is it the

weather, is it Brexit? That's right, so January followed a poor Christmas

sales, which will lead retailers concerned into 2017. But if we break

that down, the first two weeks of January we saw positive sales.

Showing that the consumer is out there looking for bargains. The

third week we saw sales were dented by poor weather. And going to the

end of the month, as retailers transitioned from a sale period into

full price, the consumers backed off in terms of spending, leaving an

over all drop in sales in January. Looking at specific parts of the

sales, were there any bright spots? I believe there was an increase in

the amount of discounted home where we were buying, and the seasonal

increase in online sales. That's right, particularly in that week of

poorer weather. The consumer was taking a more comfortable position,

shopping from the armchair as opposed to in the high street.

Overall, we saw a decline, and homeware saw an increase in sales.

But as we move into a period where there is higher expectation of

inflation, perhaps that is the area, the discretionary spend, where there

is more of a concern that it would be challenged. Thank you for joining

us. Let's take a quick look at the tablet. Thunderbirds... I always

wanted a model of Thunderbird two. You can get them. Make your own from

cardboard. ?10 million worth of grants for the development of

spaceports, but not everybody is a fan.

You're watching Business Live - our top story:

Japan's Prime Minister Abe is in Washington to meet

The leaders of two of the world's three biggest economies will discuss

Tokyo's trade surplus with the US, jobs, investment annd currencies.

Let's like a quick -- let's take a quick look at how the markets are

doing. We're waiting to see if anything interesting comes out of

that meeting with Shinzo Abe and Donald Trump.

Today Greece has to pay back 1.4 billion euros to its creditors.

It's the latest instalment on the country's 320 billion

And it's just one in what will become an avalanche of payments over

We're now joined by our economics editor Kamal Ahmed

Thank you for coming in. Looking at the schedule of payments, it's a

couple of payments over the next six months, but they really need to get

it sorted now before Europe gets distracted by elections. There was a

lot of politics in what is going on. This is the sixth year of the Greek

debt crisis, which started in 2010. There is real tension between the

two main creditors, the IMF and the EU. The IMF is split itself. It is

saying that the economy in Greece is growing reasonably, and it still has

on the table the idea of debt relief, that some of Greece's bets

just will not be paid. The EU, particularly led by Germany, and

with elections coming up, do not want debt relief on the table. They

want to keep the very strict conditions around debt relief on

Greece, that it has to provide this primary surplus of 3.5%, which is

very high, and the two are approaching this at loggerheads. We

had this in 2012, and again in 2015, when Greece nearly came out of the

EU row, nearly defaulted. We have the same pressure now, and with

elections in the Netherlands, Germany and France, as you say,

there is a real concern in the EU that this controversy will play into

those elections. Come the end of the year, the Greeks may not know who

they will be dealing with. I have to move on to the next subject, but

with the elections... There could be different leaders. Who may not have

an appetite at all to give more money. And a different approach. The

paper Germany is that if debt relief Greece comes back onto the table, it

will be controversial and could damage Angela Merkel's chances of

winning the election. We want to talk about China, but I want to ask,

briefly, with Brexit already in play, before Brexit we were talking

about the Greeks leaving the EU. Do you think that the Greek exit could

be easier now? I think it is politically less likely. Germany and

the rest of the European leaders do not believe, and even less than they

did in 2015, that another country leaving after Britain has decided to

leave would be so destructive that I think there will be even more effort

to ensure that Greece remained in. Let's talk about China, we had that

overnight phone call between Donald Trump and see Jean Ping. -- Xie Jin

Ping. There was the controversy over the one China policy. Donald Trump

took a call from the leader of Taiwan, which was considered

politically insensitive, but they have gone back to the status quo of

saying that America believes in the one China policy. Importantly, the

temperature has come down between the two largest economies in the

world. Donald Trump accused China of raping the American economy. It was

described as a cordial phone call, and it eases tension and puts off

the notion that America could impose high tariffs on Chinese goods into

America. That means that the notion of a trade war, which I think was a

possibility, is now less likely. In 30 seconds, the regulations in the

US that Donald Trump wants to rip up. Not quite ripped up, but he

wants to reform them. Some people say reform is sensible. The big

thing is, reform of regulation in America, change of regulation in

Europe because Britain is leaving - as soon as regulatory systems

change, it leads to financial volatility. Yellow might very

succinctly done. You have done that before! -- very succinctly done.

The issue of fake news on social media has grabbed

headlines since the 2016 US presidential election.

But how do fake news sites keep themselves going and make money?

Fascinating, wasn't it? You can find out more about fake news on talking

business this weekend. The times differ depending where

you are and are on your screen now. Sue is back. We are going to look at

the papers. Did you find this story? It was Jonathan. Ryan has been

googling. You said the average cost to clean up snow in New York, per

inch, $1.8 million. I asked what you thought and you said about 5

million. I did. There are a lot of streets in New York, and they have

to do it overnight. 6500 miles of road. And the budget was $88

million. So, if it doesn't snow, do you get to plough that back into

schools? Not exactly, because you still have to have the snowploughs

and had people on stand-by. Let's move on and look at Australia,

Aaron. I saw this today, but I have two sisters in Australia, and one of

them said that in the last month, they have had three blackouts. In

Sydney, it's unheard of. It is because it is so hot, and everyone

wants to cool their homes, their offices, to have cold drinks, and

there's not enough power at peak times. It doesn't bode well. I

thought we were better than that. You know, there is just not enough

supply for the amount of demand. They are asking businesses to shed

some load. It is the Chinese, they have bought all our coal. They have

no coal left. We have one story left, from the Telegraph. Banks want

Labour to tear up -- banks tell France the terror at labour code if

it wants Brexit business. Is it shows how long it takes to work

through a notice period, as whereas high pay rates, high taxes and

possible caps on bonuses. Not a lot of flexibility, which is what banks

really want when they are looking to deploy their operations. Hi and who

knows who will be elected? -- and who knows who will be elected? That

is it from Business Live, there will be more business news throughout the

day. Signs of change next week, but for

the time being, the weather is stuck in a rut, a cold rut. We are drawing