13/02/2017 BBC Business Live

Hello, this is Business Live from BBC News with Susannah Streeter

But can the Canadian leader soothe White House concerns about the giant

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

The US president says he hates the North America Free

We'll find out more when he meets the country's Prime minister today.

of Samsung gets ANOTHER grilling as South Korean investigators

probe the country's cash-for-influence scandal.

And this is the picture on the financial markets. Positive

territory so far. We'll find out about the latest

gizmo that can help Today

we want to know : when does Another day, another world leader

arriving to meet President Trump Today it's the turn of Canada's

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He differs in opinion from his host

on a variety of issues - So just how important is Canada's

relationship with the United States? heir countries share one

of the biggest trading In 2015, some $662.7bn worth

of goods and services flowed But that works in the

United States' favour at the moment to the tune of $12.1bn

because whilst Canada sells more goods to the US

than the other way round, America more than makes up

for it when it comes The value of the relationship has

seen massive growth since 1994 when the North America

Free Trade Agreement But during his campaign Mr Tump said

"Nafta was the worst trade deal in the history of this country"

and has pledged to renegotiate it. While most of Mr Trump's ire has

been directed at Mexico, Canada also has a huge amount

at stake, 75% of all its exports go to the United States,

so good relations will be important With me is US Political

Commentator, Kate Andrews. His two chalk and cheese!

Fundamentally different in attitude when it comes to big issues like

globalisation, immigration, refugees, and also their demeanour

and attitudes are different. Trump has come in with this blunt, brash

attitude whereas Justin Trudeau has tried to paint himself as the nice

guy, the guy you would want to have a beer with. Fundamentally different

characters, two major world players but I am sure they will try to be

professional and get along! Have they got any meeting points in

common? From Justin Trudeau his talk has been big against Trump when it

comes to immigration, he's soft and that a little and wants to talk to

him about economics and trade comets in the interest of both countries to

keep this free flowing of services and a relaxed flow of people across

the borders, millions of people are doing overnight stays in each

country and they will want to keep that up. He proposed this idea of

getting together to talk about women in business. That's got interesting.

It comes in with Ivanka as well, brings in cleverly because Trump

wants to be seen as being fairer to women. Justin Trudeau is using a

clever tactic. Ivanka will certainly be at the forefront of that. Trump's

daughter has made herself a world player in the sense of advocating

for women's rights and in the convention she was the one talking

about maternity leave, things the Republican party have not spoken

about for some time. She will be at the centre of that. A clever way for

Trudeau to put forward his feminist agenda while working with Trump and

his daughter in particular to achieve it. The key thing is finding

points in common, isn't it? It is important for Canada to secure those

exports. The pipeline is important, they agree on that. I think they do.

They have different environmental policies although Justin Trudeau

knows this will be a big moneymaker and a huge job creator, 2.5 million

jobs rely on American trade, this will make even more. Similarly,

Trudeau will be going into these talks like Theresa May, looking for

agreement. Thank you. Now onto other news.

Swiss voters have rejected a plan to reform the country's

corporate tax system, sending the government back

Business and political circles in Switzerland

had supported the plan, which was designed to prevent

taxes rising sharply for foreign investors.

However 59% of voters opposed the plan in

The government will now need to find an alternative,

which may involve higher tax rates for multinational companies.

Japan's economy grew for a fourth straight quarter in the final three

months of last year - thanks to strong exports.

The world's third-largest economy grew an annualised 1%

During a weekend meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,

President Trump held off from his previous rhetoric

against Japan for using its monetary stimulus to weaken the yen and gain

But there are concerns that rising US protectionism could still damage

Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong is being questioned for a second

time as a suspect in South Korea's biggest political

Mr Lee was questioned last month as part of the inquiry

into a scandal that led parliament to impeach President Park Geun-hye.

Give us the latest on this? The head of Samsung, Mr Lee, thought he was

off the hook when a court in the capital rejected his arrest warrant

last month. It may have been a surprise for him to have been

brought back to the prosecutor's office today. During the last three

weeks in investigators reviewed the case and decided there were new

aspects to the investigation that needed further questioning. Mr Lee

arrived at the prosecutor's office with a grim face and said he would

faithfully tell the truth. The allegation is that Samsung gave

millions of dollars in return for the votes of the national pension

fund in a big uncontested restructuring of the company. This

time around, senior executives of Samsung may also be questioned

alongside Mr Lee, and if the investigators feel they have

collected enough evidence that may merit his detention, the prosecution

team could file another arrest warrant. Kevin, thank you very much.

Let's check in with the financial markets now

Asian markets built on a global rally on Monday

following another record close in New

York on Friday, Tokyo stocks rose with investor

talks over the weekend between US President Donald Trump

and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

So is that trend continuing in Europe?

Let's take a look. Yes, it is. This is a snapshot of the major

industries just after opening, the FTSE 100, the ducks, and the cack 40

all in positive territory so far. Let's have more on this.

Nandini Ramakrishnan, Global Market Strategist at J.P.

Morgan Asset Management, joins us in the studio.

Everything looking a little healthier at the moment. Why is

this? In the recent few weeks we have seen strong macroeconomic data,

whether it indices that track production or employment, it's

looking good in 2017 which is a good sign for economics... Some of these

stocks of valid, I'm thinking particularly of the USA at the

moment. Yes, prices have gone up, and earnings really backing it, that

is the key question. A lot of exuberance and enthusiasm the Trump

victory. That's a generally market friendly condition, good business

practices, corporate tax rates may be being lower, that rhetoric means

American companies have rallied in the past few months. What indicators

are there that global growth will continue? We had some

better-than-expected figures about Chinese output. Chinese data has

been strong, they are using a lot of commodities, the fear, some quarters

ago, was that China wasn't going to be growing at that same pay the fact

that they are using larger amounts of commodities is helping things.

Commodity producers were some of the highest performers, gaining a couple

of percentage points. What is it about European growth at the moment,

it's getting especially critical when looking at rising debt in

Greece and ongoing debt in Italy, basically the Southern countries. It

will be a big challenge especially this year with so many elections on

the horizon for many years economies. Greece is the problem

that won't go away. We do expect the IMF and European leaders to figure

out a way to get the bailout extended. What about the growth

figures? Some say the growth is much better than people say.

Fourth-quarter GDP numbers of the Eurozone show that they were going

faster than the US are the same period. Normally we wouldn't say too

much about Europe versus the US. In some countries like Germany good

growth figures will help stabilise the region as it gets into this more

troubling 2017 with all these elections and Greek debt troubles.

Some figures said that Germany's surplus is growing by the day. In

comparison, in Greece there is a real disparity among the Eurozone

countries. That's a bigger challenge generally speaking, is at a project

or a union of 19 countries that will last through the test of time with

unemployment rates of almost 40% compared to Germany with

unemployment of four or 5%? It's understanding the dynamics and

hoping that this conglomeration of countries will last, going forward.

OK. Thank you. Thank you for talking us through the markets today.

We'll meet the man who wants to put a camera in your fridge.

I'm not sure about that, are you? They might see something very nasty!

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

The Co-op Bank says it is putting itself up for sale and is inviting

The bank, 20% owned by the Co-operative Group,

almost collapsed in 2013, and was bailed out

Let's speak to our our Business Editor, Simon Jack.

Hello, Simon. What more do we know about the for sale sign going up? We

know that ever since 2013 when it had a near - death experience and

was rescued by its lenders writing of those debts and turning them into

a stake in the company, a debt for a goodie swap, ever since then they've

hoped to earn enough to restore their capital position. And when you

don't have enough capital which the Co-op hasn't had for some time,

there are only three options. Learn your way out of trouble which is

very difficult in this environment, -- burn your way. Ask your owners to

put in more money, Co-op is a 20% owner together with hedge funds is,

that is unlikely because you can't earn a return on that, and the third

one is to find somebody who will take it on, added to an existing

business, get some economies of scale and work through it that way.

What they have decided is to take the third option. And that is a

sale. Who's the likely buyer? A tricky one because with a few

hundred branches and hasn't got the enormous scale some say you need to

succeed in retail banking. It is bedevilled by legacy issues. The

fact they haven't got enough capital, it's not how much any new

buyer would have to pump in to get it back to health. One name springs

out to me which is the TSB. The TSB itself was carved out of Lloyds

after the HBOS Lloyds merger, it has 650 branches and like all small

banks it's struggling to make money. Adding 4 million Co-op customers,

maybe to get economies of scale, they also have these local flavours,

the brand is a good fit, having said that the TSB has other priorities,

they've just separated from Lloyds which is a big IT project, it's not

the top of their list that if the price was right I think they'd look

at it, figure out that price for a troubled bank which doesn't have the

requisite scale will be very tough indeed. A tough moment for a bank

which has been around since 1872. Simon Jack, thank you for that

update on the Co-op bank. You watching Business Live BBC News.

Our top story, the Canadian leader Justin Trudeau meets US

President Donald Trump in Washington today.

The two sides do billions of dollars worth of trade,

but have differences over the future of the North America

A quick look at how markets are faring.

All of them up. All of them fairly perky with the FTSE up. The CAC

doing well and the pound and the dollar pretty stable where it has

been really for most of last week. About 125. Not much change there on

the currencies. We have had a fairly strong start in the Asian markets as

well with the Nikkei reaching a one-and-a-half year high as well

largely on the strength of a weaker yen.

Now let's take a look at how the so-called Internet of Things

The sector is estimated to grow to more than $24 billion by 2020.

Well, the term refers to the connection of devices

like kitchen appliances and thermostats to the internet.

This enables users to control devices when away from the home.

By 2020, some experts predict there will be four of these smart

devices for every human being on the planet.

Thanks to the British tech company, Smarter, the "internet of things"

is now being used in the fight against food waste.

It's set to launch FridgeCam, a wireless camera which can sit

inside any fridge and connect to an app, enabling users to check

exactly how much food is left when out at the shop.

Christian Lane is the founder and CEO of Smarter.

Thank you very much for coming in. You have the electronic eye in front

of you. That's the FridgeCam. Tell us how it works. The FridgeCam is a

wireless camera that you can put inside any fridge and connect to the

internet to make it smarter. I guess the real reason for creating it was

to eliminate food waste. More than 40% of our food on a weekly shop is

going to waste because you put it in the back of your fridge and you

forget what's there. On a practical, it doesn't look like it will take up

more than one shelf of my fridge. It takes the whole fridge. It corrects

it to the size of your fridge. So there is a lot of technology inside

the camera itself. It lasts more about six months. So it sits in

sleep mode for most of the time and it wakes up when you open the fridge

door. How can it tell the milk is low? It tells you when the milk is

removed from the fridge. How many times have we woken up to make a cup

of tea and realised that we're out of milk or you are you're just out.

If you're passing a shop, it will tell you... You will get a bleep?

Yes. It will replenish for you. I can see it might be useful given

that I'm quite small aye can't always see what's on the top shelf

of my fridge! Instead of going to the fridge,

you'll look at your app. It is for lazy people. Can't you look and

think what's in my fridge? What should I throw out? What should I

keep? I guess it is for people who want to be more efficient and for

people who want to see what they have got in their fridge when they

are out of the house of the it is hard to remember what you have got

in your fridge at home and that gives you the exact image that you'd

see if you were standing in front of the fridge. It won't tell you if

something is rotten? It uses object recognition to tell you when things

are going out of date. So every item in your fridge will have an expiry

date on. How does it do that? It has got to look at label? It uses a

learning algorism to tell you when the item went in the fridge and it

assigns an average shelf life. Milk will have an average shelf life.

We're used to CCTV cameras, but now we will have the cameras in our

home. Some people might find it creepy? I think now with the rise of

the connected home and security cameras, this is a normal thing for

people now. They want to be informed with better decisions and it is no

different to having a pet camera that keeps an eye on your dog. This

is something that just keeps an eye on your fridge for you. You started

two-and-a-half years ago. How easy was it to get into the market? This

is the internet of things market. Is it an open market? Is it in the

hands of the big players? I think the big players add pressure to

start-ups. It depends on your products. The connected home has

allowed us to create new products that are practical and useful. As

long as your product is a practical idea then it is very encouraging now

to get more traction. You only do fridges at the moment? We started

with a connected kettle and moved on to a connected coffee machine and

now we're moving on to connecting existing appliances. What's the

connected kettle? Is it popular? Do people want connected kettles? So

you switch on the kettle when you're walking home from work? You can pull

up on the driveway and start billing the kettle for you! Well, that's

going to save a lot of time. I don't mean to be sarcastic. Hackers could

get in and turn down your fridge cam and cause havoc. That's something

that a lot of companies are focussing on. We take security

seriously and we're always doing the latest technology. You moved on

since the opening the garage door. I was so excited when I saw one of

those. The kettle is one of our best selling products. Within two hours

it became a best selling kettle. There is a huge market. Just so you

can turn your kettle on three minutes before you get in your door?

Yeah, exactly. So it is connected with your other devices. It is about

having a seamless way of living now. It sounds fine until the technology

goes wrong. Technology is becoming so much more reliable.

Good to know. Thank you very much for coming in to explain the

FridgeCam. Thank you. 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. The Business Live page

is where you can stay ahead with all the day's

breaking business news. We'll 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 BBC Business

and you can find us on Facebook. Business Live, on TV and online,

whenever you need to know. The front page of the FT. It is the

hot topic. After 20, 30 years of talking about executive pay,

something is being done about it. They are only getting excited

because Theresa May has a Green Paper about executive and threatened

them if they don't do something, something will be done to them. What

is that something? What the big investors are fearful of is

prescriptive rules from Government. They want flexibility and they want

to retain flexibility because they think it works, but they don't want

to be told what to do by the Government. So they are trying to

get their house in order. What about binding votes. There are know

binding votes on the money. No. But this year is an interesting year.

There are binding votes on the pay policy and how the pay is done that

came in 2014 so 2017, lots of the big FTSE companies will have binding

votes on pay policy. Theresa May did pull back from the idea of having

workers representatives on boards and many, you know, campaigners for

lower executive pay and fair executive pay saw that as a blow.

She talked tough on work representation, but ran hard into

company law. She would have to change company law. The story is

interesting. They are talking about L tips. You get your wage and you

get your annual bonus and you have a three or five year deal which gives

you shares in the company. Investors wanted these ten years ago and said

they are a good thing. Now, the wheel has turned and companies are

looking at scrapping them as part of this pressure from Theresa May.

Things are happening. Who do you think is to blame for high executive

pay? Do you think it is the shareholders? They haven't done

anything about it? They haven't had the power to do something? It is

called the agency problem because the big investors at most, most FTSE

100 companies own 5% or 10%, while the shareholders are the people who

should be policing this, it is difficult unless you corrale ten of

people together. Another story that made the business pages. The

Guardian is reporting on it. It is about the Treasury's reputation

coming under fire bass of the Brexit forecasts. George Osborne, you'll

remember before the Brexit vote said there would be an Emergency Budget

and the Treasury backed up the forecasts because it had only

prepared forecasts on the event of us leaving the European Union. It

didn't say what the upside might be. Some of the Brexiteers say the

Treasury's independence has been called into question. Consumer

demand held up very well and employment is holding up fine. They

are not the only one that is forecast doom and gloom. Everyone

bar the seven or eight economists that came out on the Brexiteers

side. Brexit hasn't happened. A lot of the economists would say they are

in the honeymoon period. We are benefiting from a weaker pound with

none of the bad stuff from Brexit come to pass yet. Even so it damaged

the Treasury's reputation. That's what the papers are reporting. It is

down to comments by a former treasury official who says this has

happened. I think we take these things with a long view, we have to

see how the Treasury does on not just one forecast. There was another

story about how gadgets of the future are going to be curved. They

will be our flexible plastic friends. A bit like the FridgeCam.

That's it from Business Live today. There will be more business news

throughout the day on the beb live page. Goodbye.

-- Business Live page. Hello there. Good morning, well it

has been quite cold and quite grey for many parts of the UK recently.

The second part of the weekend just gone typically, we saw temperatures

around about three or four Celsius and there was a little bit of wintry

weather to be had,