30/03/2017 BBC Business Live

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

A $600 billion trade relationship must be re-drawn.

Live from London, that's our top story on Thursday 30th March.

With Article 50 now finally triggered, we'll be looking

at what the options are for the trade negotiators

The world's biggest insurance market confirms it's moving some

of its business to the continent in response to Brexit.

And can a tech firm that makes lists really be

We meet the man behind Listable - the firm that promises to make

Today we want to know, What are your questions

We'll be answering your questions on this Friday's

We start of course with Brexit - as the massive task now begins

of agreeing the terms of Britain's departure from the European Union.

There's a huge amount at stake for businesses here in the UK -

and across the remaining 27 EU countries in the form of a trading

relationship worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

A failure to strike a trade deal would be damaging to all sides.

In 2015 the UK exported $274 billion worth

That's 44% of all the UK's exports and represents 13 percent

The EU exports far more to the UK than vice versa -

So it runs a large trade surplus over $80 billion with the UK.

So you can argue it has more to lose in negotiations.

But the EU as a whole is far less reliant on Britain

Just 16% of all EU exports come here and they account for barely

Of course different countries and industries are more reliant

Germany's car industry is one that has a huge amount to lose as does

Anne Marie Martin is Chief Executive of the Council of British Chambers

Good morning. Welcome. Sally running through the numbers and this is the

start of the long process when it starts coming down to who says what

and who is prepared to give what. What happens next, in simple terms?

Ooh! If I had my crystal ball, that would be very helpful. It's

difficult to know. I think the process of what happens next is

obvious. I think what's more important is to ensure from our

point of view as a business organisation, a business

organisation that is whose members are primarily based outside the UK,

what we can do to assist and to help is to bring the European business

perspective to the table. I think it's really important to understand

that this is just as challenging for European or EU-based businesses as

it is for UK businesses, they face exactly the same sort of challenges.

I wanted to touch on that because, there is an element really about who

has the upper hand, who needs the other one more than each other -

when we talk about that, does Europe need the UK as much as the UK needs

Europe? I think it's the same, it's complicated, it's not as easy as one

needs the other more. We live in a world where businesses operate in

complex environments and networks. It's not so much about the trade

figures. That's obviously important, but the point is that the UK's exit

from those supply chains, those European supply chains are

potentially very disruptive to those businesses. So a lot of the work

that we are involved in at the moment is to try and analyse some of

that impact and to ensure that that is represented both to the UK

Government but also to the national Governments across the EI 27 -- EU

27. Your focus is on Europe and businesses outside of the UK that

are working with the UK. Speak to anyone who is in favour of Brexit,

they'll say this is the best opportunity for UK business to draw

new trade deals elsewhere outside of Europe, with the US, Canada, India,

China, that sort of thing, but also to redraw our relationship with

Europe. Is there any truth in that, that actually this is a good

opportunity to start again? Potentially I think in any challenge

there is an opportunity and I think if it helps businesses to review the

way they do business, then that's a very positive thing. If it also

helps reinvigoration or invigorate export behaviour in the UK, that's

also excellent but we mustn't forget the UK's always had access to the

markets anyway, that hasn't necessarily made a huge impact on

the export activity of the UK. If this is going to be an opportunity

for that to increase, then fantastic. Here begins a lot of hard

work. Ann-Marie, good to see you, Chief Executive of the Council of

British Chamber of Commerce. Thank you very much.

Let's stay with Brexit because the world's biggest

insurance market, Lloyd's of London, has confirmed it will establish

a new European base in Brussels to avoid losing business when the UK

It will be up and running by January 2019.

Lloyds has warned that without the move, Brexit

could have a significant impact on its continental business -

which generates $3.7 billion a year- that's 11% of its business.

Lloyds also says it made pre-tax profits of about $2.6 billion.

Earlier I spoke to the Chief Executive of Lloyds

She explained why they chose Brussels as their new European base.

We wanted to have a really top quality robust regulator, Brussels

or Belgium regulator fits that bill. We also wanted great access to

talent. So we need to hire some really good people. We felt it was

an excellent place to go. We have to think about accessibility, how easy

is it to get from London to somewhere on the continent, how easy

is it from elsewhere on the continent to be able to get to that

place. We also though wanted to consider the likelihood of the

countries staying within the EU in the future because that's an

important factor as well. We were just hearing from the UK Prime

Minister, Theresa May, what she was saying yesterday following the

delivery of the letter which triggered Article 50. What do you

make of her tack as it were, the way she's going about this? I think it's

an extremely difficult negotiation to be having. You wouldn't want to

be in her shoes? Not at all. The world's eyes are upon this whole

thing and it's seldom that you would have such a public negotiation going

on and it will happen for a couple of years, despite the actual Brexit

happening in two years, it will be ongoing for years after that. Do you

think we can kiss goodbye the so-called passporting rights that

are critical for financial services in the City of London? That's

something you have been wanting to keep? We were lobbying but we felt

the chances are lower than they were. Therefore we have set up our

subsidiary or will be setting that up in Brussels. It would be

fantastic if that happened and the thing is, the essence of what we are

trying to get out of that is actually mutual market access

because of course a lot of continental European firms also

benefit from that and are able to participate in the London insurance

market alone. So it's actually a two-way thing. So what you have

announced today is your Plan B as it were, your contingency plan, if the

outcome I assume is a hard Brexit, this is your plan if we have the

worst case scenario? Yes. We want to make sure everything is up and

running and it takes a while to establish a new company. Therefore

we are starting to execute our plan. We'll be up and running by mid next

year, but something else gets negotiated. We can pull back those

plans at that point. Inga Beale there who I spoke to

earlier. Interesting how businesses are coming up with their plans and

arrangement. Let eats tell you how to be in touch with your questions

about this whole process. Tomorrow we'll have some guests on

to answer your questions. One viewer asking about students

working overseas already, health insurance cards, are they still

valid is another question. We'll put your questions to the ex-pers

tomorrow. A judge in Hawaii has indefinitely

extended the suspension It means people from six mostly

Muslim states can enter the country Many of the United States' biggest

companies have spoken out against the measure and it's impact

on their workforces. Mr Trump has argued the ban

will stop terrorists entering the country and has previously

pledged to take the case Toshiba shareholders have approved

a proposal to split off the Japanese company's prized Nand

flash memory unit. It paves the way for a sale

of a majority stake or even all The company needs to raise money

because of billions of dollars of losses at its US nuclear arm

Westinghouse Electric, which filed for bankruptcy

protection on Wednesday. Let us show you the markets in Asia.

We saw a shift yesterday. They were all in the green in Asia and in Wall

Street the night before. We have seen sentiment change. We'll discuss

the key issues as far as the US is concerned, it's an important day for

the US, we'll get growth figures out today and that could mean what the

Federal Reserve will think about and decide to do next. So we'll talk

about that in a second. A look at Europe first, slightly different

picture in Europe, very, very flat, to be honest, very marginal aboves

in the markets. We'll talk you through the reasons why. Here is

Samira with a look ahead to Wall Street's day. How did America's

economy fare during the first quarter? We'll tell you when the

department releases the estimate of the GDP. It's expected to show that

the economy grew at 2% instead of the previously reported 1.9%. Lots

happening on Thursday, SpaceX plans to land its first used rocket. It's

a critical test for e-London must have beening. They made -- Elon

Musk. New York fed President Leon Dudley will weigh in on the hints of

Trump administration's economic plans and of course what that means

for the Central Bank's policy-tightening plan. This will

happen at an event at the University of South Florida.

We'll come back to the theme of the US in a moment.

Joining us is James Hughes, chief market analyst, GKFX.

Nice to see you. The morning after they've triggered Article 50, what's

happened? Markets not really going anywhere? Nothing's happened really

and the problem with brex sit that nothing's happened and we still

haven't got A clue what is going to happen. From a trader's point of

view, we are worried with the uncertainty. We have seen movements

in the pound. That goes up when we hear detail from Theresa May or from

anyone, and that is the big thing we want. Or it goes down depending on

what the detail is? But usually detail means uncertainty goes away,

whether good or bad news, and that's kind of helped, but still we don't

know the answers and that's the biggest problem for us as traders.

The markets hate uncertainties, the old cliche, but unfortunately it's

true. That's why we roll it out all the time. We have no idea how

transparent this is going to be. Exactly. The problem is we are going

to be looking at headlines and hanging on speeches from people in

the EU or whatever it may be. A quick word on America, US GDP,

it's the final reading for the last quarter? Yes. It's expected to come

out in line around 2% which is what we expected anyway, but it all ties

into the Fed. Strong GDP could pointous to more rate hikes this

year, that is the issue. We'll hold you to that. James will be back in a

moment. We meet the man behind

the San Francisco firm that And it makes money from lists -

we'll explain all. Some of you love lists! I'm one of

those, I love lists! You're with Business

Live from BBC News. We are also talking smartphones -

because on Wednesday, Samsung unveiled its latest flagship

models at an event in New York. The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus feature

artificial intelligence and the largest wrap around

screens ever made. They are the first major product

launch since Samsung had to recall, and then scrap, its Note 7

last autumn because of Will the S8 help it win back

customers and regain the market leadership it has

since lost to Apple? The long-awaited S8 Plus and S8.

They have even got their own virtual assistant which can also use the

phone's camera as a pair of eyes. Can you tell me more about this

wine? Here are the wine search results... Samsung calls the S8 an

artform but it is still a familiar sight. The button has moved to the

back but there is also now facial recognition screen are locking and

improved split screen. Unlike Apple, Samsung is sticking with the

traditional headphone jack. It can connect up to a monitor or TV. But

after the disaster of the exploding batteries with the Note 7, there is

no attempt at extra battery power. With the Note 7, we took a lot of

lessons on the battery and we have implemented new types of control,

new quality insurance processes which we are of course implemented

implementing in the production of the S8 and the S8 Plus. It is

perhaps typical of Samsung's newly cautious approach, that it only

speaks US English and Korean, for now. I find that really annoying,

people who talk to you from the phone, does it get on your nerves?

It does. You are either a person who absolutely uses it.

There are people who walk around the office speaking to these devices.

What is the weather like...? You can go to the Business Life page, it

won't talk to you but it will give you lots of information.

A $600 billion trade relationship between Britain

and the EU is about to be re-drawn, now that Article 50

Ben loves lists, so he is the really excited about this next story.

And now let's get the inside track on the changing face

The number of people opting to work on a freelance basis

is growing rapidly as part of the so-called gig economy.

One survey from the Upwork and Freelancers Union suggests just

over a third of US workers are now freelance - that's

Freelancers are also on the rise in Europe.

But according to the UK's Association of Independent

Professionals and the Self-Employed, they make up just 4%

But integrating temporary staff alongside permanent

That's where Lystable says it can help, especially when it

comes to making sure they get paid properly.

40,000 freelancers currently use the service, whose high-profile

backers include Paypal founder Peter Thiel.

Joining us now is Peter Johnston, founder of Lystable.

As Sally said, I love lists, I will put something on a to-do list, so

that I can cross it off. On a spreadsheet? No, never done the

spreadsheet thing. This is about lists and being able to manage

things. We touched in the introduction about how we work now,

a lot more flexible, a lot of us going freelance. How does your

programme help? For sure, really, it helps businesses manage freelance

staff. We help you create a list of the freelancers that you might use

around the world and be able to manage them in an efficient way.

This is not just a contact list, is it, what are the practical

applications? It definitely starts with a directory of the freelancers,

but it goes beyond that, to the workflow and assigning them tasks

wherever they are in the world, managing invoices with them. It is a

complete system, although way through to getting them paid on

time. And what started out as your idea years ago has now become a big

business, with lots of big clients, 45 staff, most here in the UK, some

in San Francisco, who started this when you were 25, you're now 28,

running a multi-million dollar company, and many watching this

might think, he is one of those young start-ups that we are told we

are all going to be working for in the future! How did it all work, it

was to do with a man called Mark Evans who you happened to meet when

you work at Google? Yeah, Mark was the first venture capitalist that I

met while at Google. I met him at King's Cross in London and explained

how painful it had been at Google, trying to manage, even knowing who

the freelancers work, that we used to. He described to me what he

called the find a market fit. He said, you have a really big problem,

which we see increasing in the UK and the US. So he met you and saw

that you had this brainwave, as it were, which could become a massive

business, and he set you on the path, is that fair to say? Yeah, I

definitely think he was an encourager of pulling me out of my

comfort zone, which was Google at the time, and encouraging me to

become an entrepreneur. I think he was definitely aware of the time --

at the time of the bigger macro trend. He definitely introduced me

to the wider world of the freelancer economy. What does this tell us, the

optimism amongst your backers tells us that perhaps this is the way the

workforce is going. How do you see it changing? We talk about the gig

economy, people being no guaranteed hours any more, how will it work the

future? We think we are moving towards a professional freelancing

economy. We are seeing a trend of freelancers opting into this

lifestyle deliberately. They want more flexibility and they want to

work for more companies, companies who have the best values and the

best culture. Sometimes they're highly skilled and they can make

more money out of going from company to company. We see a shift, a lot of

our clients today like Google or eBay, have as many freelancers as

full-time staff. And we see that trend continuing to increase. Peter,

we are out of time so we will leave it to me the. I understand your

family in Belfast are watching. They don't see much of Peter these days,

LaMarr Woodley eating and living San Francisco! I come back to see my new

nephew, when I can! Shareholders in the toubled Japanese

conglomerate Toshiba have approved a plan to split off the company's

lucrative flash memory unit. It needs the money after racking up

more than $6 billion of losses at its US nuclear division,

something that's threatened Our correspondent Rupert

Wingfield-Hayes is in Tokyo. This is a big move, isn't it?

Contact it is, it was an extraordinary shareholders meeting,

called specifically to make this decision this afternoon. It took

about three hours, it was an angry meeting, a lot of shareholders very

unhappy about the situation Toshiba is in, but in the end they had no

choice but to agree to the spin off of the flash memory division, which

will now be sold. It is thought to be worth up to 18 billion US

dollars, which is needed to pay for the massive debts which have been

run up by Toshiba in its North American nuclear division, up to $9

billion of debt. In North America division was declared bankrupt

yesterday in the United States. But this is essentially selling of the

family silver to pay the bills. They now have real choice but to do that.

Thank you very much. As you can see, James has returned, as promised,

with a story about Amazon and Facebook hitting obstacles in India?

India is a massive market, we know it has been, for a lot of these into

their companies in the US. I did not realise until reading this story

that Facebook in India, it is the second biggest market for Facebook,

India he is on the WhatsApp, it is the biggest market. But it is about

those companies moving into India and trying to get the business and

having issues because of Chinese internet firms coming in and

allowing money into Indian start-up companies, which is giving the

Chinese companies the upper hand. , of course, India is such a massive

boom area, it has been for such a long time. The US firms are

struggling to get traction there because of the amount of money

coming in from Chinese firms, giving them the upper hand. I know when the

Mark Zuckerberg went to India, it might have been last year, and he

was desperately trying to woo the masses, as it were, and he could see

the potential there. Time is up, I am sorry, but really good to see

you. Keep your comments and tweets coming in about questions for

Brexit. What does it mean for you? Answers tomorrow. Bye-bye.