:00:00. > :00:00.This is Business Live from BBC News, with Jamie Robertson
:00:07. > :00:20.The President of protocol meets the maverick billionaire businessman
:00:21. > :00:23.turned president. Can President Xi and Trump gets down to serious
:00:24. > :00:28.business, will be meeting proved too difficult?
:00:29. > :00:44.Live from London on Thursday, the 6th of April.
:00:45. > :00:50.We are going to talk you through what is at stake as the Presidents
:00:51. > :00:51.of the two biggest economies in the world meet in person for the first
:00:52. > :00:52.time. Australia's consumer watchdog sues
:00:53. > :00:55.Apple over claims it misled All of the markets down. It is all
:00:56. > :01:07.to do with the central bank. And we get the inside track
:01:08. > :01:10.from the boss of Dulux paint owner, AkzoNobel, on why he's fighting off
:01:11. > :01:17.a $23 billion hostile takeover. Tonne Buchner also tells us
:01:18. > :01:20.what the rise of populism in Europe Also in the news, Amazon's Jeff
:01:21. > :01:28.Bezos says he's selling $1 billion each year,
:01:29. > :01:31.to get into the space race. Today we're asking,
:01:32. > :01:33.for your next space holiday, which entrepreneur would you trust
:01:34. > :01:35.to get you there and back - Richard Branson, Elon
:01:36. > :01:39.Musk or Jeff Bezos? The world's two biggest economies
:01:40. > :01:55.come face to face later today, when US President Donald Trump
:01:56. > :01:58.hosts his Chinese counterpart, It will be the first time they meet
:01:59. > :02:08.in person. As well as North Korea, trade
:02:09. > :02:11.will be at the top of the agenda It's already an issue that's created
:02:12. > :02:17.tensions between the two. At just over $659 billion of goods
:02:18. > :02:23.and services in 2015, it's one of the biggest trading
:02:24. > :02:26.relationships in the world. But the big problem Donald Trump
:02:27. > :02:28.has, is that it's heavily tilted in China's favour,
:02:29. > :02:31.because the US had a trade Last week, Mr Trump tweeted that
:02:32. > :02:39.today's meeting "will be a very difficult one,
:02:40. > :02:42.in that we can no longer have Trump has been outspoken in his
:02:43. > :02:51.desire to put America first. In terms of what he might do
:02:52. > :02:53.about it, during his election campaign, Mr Trump floated the idea
:02:54. > :02:56.of a 45% tariff There have been indications China
:02:57. > :03:02.would retailate to any such move, and in January, President Xi said
:03:03. > :03:04.that waging a trade war "will only cause injury and loss to both
:03:05. > :03:09.sides." Marianne Petsinger,
:03:10. > :03:12.a geo-economics fellow in the US and the Americas Programme
:03:13. > :03:25.at Chatham House, is with me. That is a think tank based in
:03:26. > :03:30.London. Good morning. So much anticipation about this meeting
:03:31. > :03:35.between the two Presidents. How do you think this will go? I think
:03:36. > :03:40.expectations have been lowered. This will be a meeting about setting the
:03:41. > :03:51.trade for future trade discussions. I don't expect any concrete trade
:03:52. > :03:54.issues to be solved. The missile launched from North Korea
:03:55. > :03:59.overshadows events. In terms of trade, during the election campaign
:04:00. > :04:06.itself, Donald Trump saying on day one he will name China a currency
:04:07. > :04:09.manipulator, he will slap tariffs on goods coming from China into the
:04:10. > :04:16.United States. As yet we have seen nothing? That is correct. What we
:04:17. > :04:21.have seen is last week trade orders were signed looking into the trade
:04:22. > :04:24.deficit. We could say that is potentially targeted at China and
:04:25. > :04:29.the other one is focused on increasing enforcement of rules.
:04:30. > :04:36.China is seen as the culprit. In terms of the bigger promises, we
:04:37. > :04:41.haven't seen them. China has not been named a currency manipulator.
:04:42. > :04:45.In a couple of days, around April the 15th, the Treasury releases its
:04:46. > :04:48.biannual report looking into currency manipulation more broadly,
:04:49. > :04:53.so we could see some developments. Chinese investment in the United
:04:54. > :05:02.States is interesting. What do you think Trump's view will be? Do they
:05:03. > :05:14.really want the Chinese taking over their companies? Key administration
:05:15. > :05:17.positions are saying we don't want that night we want an American
:05:18. > :05:21.investor, not a Chinese one. There is a fine balance to be struck.
:05:22. > :05:27.Chinese investment could lead to the creation of jobs in America, which
:05:28. > :05:31.Trump would be in favour of. On the other hand, security issues may be
:05:32. > :05:36.dominating the agenda. Do you think overall after this meeting today and
:05:37. > :05:42.on words, that this is so critical the two leaders believe they do get
:05:43. > :05:48.on and see eye to eye on the key issues, not least North Korea? Yes,
:05:49. > :05:54.and both are under great domestic pressure to deliver. Trump still
:05:55. > :06:00.recovering from the defeat with health care reform. For Xi Jinping,
:06:01. > :06:07.he is facing the commonest meeting later this year. He has to be
:06:08. > :06:13.strong. He has to show he is able to build a strong relationship with
:06:14. > :06:17.him. Marianne, thank you. Needless to say, we will keep your cross at
:06:18. > :06:18.that meeting goes when it kicks off later today in Florida. I would
:06:19. > :06:22.imagine all eyes will be on it. Tencent becomes one of the top ten
:06:23. > :06:25.largest companies in the world, best known for its WeChat
:06:26. > :06:31.messaging service and gaming, has overtaken Wells Fargo by market
:06:32. > :06:34.size, and joined the ranks It gained 1.6 % on the news
:06:35. > :06:38.taking its value to $279 billion. The rest of the top ten is dominated
:06:39. > :06:44.by US tech firms. A Chinese court orders
:06:45. > :06:46.Samsung Electronics' mainland subsidiaries to pay almost
:06:47. > :06:48.$12 million to Huawei Technologies for infringements of smartphone
:06:49. > :06:50.patents, in the China firm's first legal victory against Samsung
:06:51. > :06:54.on intellectual property. A spokesman for Huawei said it
:06:55. > :06:56.welcomed the ruling. Samsung said it will decide
:06:57. > :06:59.on the response to the court Pepsi pulls an advert featuring
:07:00. > :07:06.Kendall Jenner, following public outcry and accusations that it
:07:07. > :07:08.trivialised recent street The advert featured the reality TV
:07:09. > :07:18.star defusing tension at a protest, by walking to the police line
:07:19. > :07:21.and handing an officer Now to Australia, where
:07:22. > :07:29.the country's consumer watchdog is suing Apple over its software
:07:30. > :07:33.which disabled iPhones and iPads that had been serviced
:07:34. > :07:36.outside Apple stores The Australian Competition
:07:37. > :07:39.and Consumer commission says the tech giant violated
:07:40. > :07:58.the country's consumer law. Very specifically, they alleged it
:07:59. > :08:01.has made false, misleading or deceptive representations about
:08:02. > :08:07.consumer rights. What does this actually mean? Lap -- Let me give
:08:08. > :08:15.you the back story. It all goes back to having one of these, a pretty
:08:16. > :08:20.ubiquitous iPhone. There will be a software update every now and again
:08:21. > :08:26.by Apple. Back in 2014, and for several months following, anyone who
:08:27. > :08:29.had an update, had it repair done to their phone previously. They may
:08:30. > :08:33.have changed the touch screen. They may have had something called error
:08:34. > :08:37.53. If they took their phone to an Apple Store in Australia, they would
:08:38. > :08:41.have been told that unless it had been serviced only by Apple, they
:08:42. > :08:48.wouldn't update and fixed the phone for free. The consumer watchdogs say
:08:49. > :08:52.that consumer rights are being breached because Apple was refusing
:08:53. > :08:57.to carry out a standard duty of care and repair to the phone, on the
:08:58. > :09:00.basis that someone else had maybe fixed a cracked screen or something
:09:01. > :09:04.like that. Thank you very much indeed.
:09:05. > :09:12.Let's look of the markets. They are looking a bit sickly. The Nikkei
:09:13. > :09:16.down 1.4. The Dow Jones down. And the Hang Seng. A lot of things to
:09:17. > :09:23.worry about. There is the meeting between Donald Trump and President
:09:24. > :09:27.Xi. That has got everybody jittery. They simply don't know what is going
:09:28. > :09:32.to come out of it. The other thing is we had the minutes from the US
:09:33. > :09:35.central bank yesterday. We will talk about that in more detail in a
:09:36. > :09:41.second. The worry there is that basically the Federal reserve is
:09:42. > :09:45.pushing more money out into the economy. More detailed in a second.
:09:46. > :09:56.Also, we have the European Central Bank head speaking, as we speak. The
:09:57. > :10:02.markets don't seem to like much of what he is saying. We will talk
:10:03. > :10:07.about that in more detail just now. Michelle Fleury is in the United
:10:08. > :10:10.States. Cautious was the mood on Wall Street ahead of the meeting
:10:11. > :10:16.between leaders of the first and second largest economies in the
:10:17. > :10:20.world. President Trump will host Xi Jinping at his retreat in Florida.
:10:21. > :10:24.US officials say the meeting is not scripted. Investors will be keeping
:10:25. > :10:28.a close eye to see what the to men have to say about North Korea and
:10:29. > :10:36.trade. Specifically how America's trade deficit with China can be
:10:37. > :10:40.reduced. Constellation brands reports fourth-quarter results. It
:10:41. > :10:45.seems we haven't lost our taste for bare -- beer. It is expected to see
:10:46. > :10:49.continued sales growth in that sector, even as its profit margins
:10:50. > :10:53.sing. And ahead of Friday's monthly jobs report, an improvement in the
:10:54. > :10:57.weekly figures of the number of Americans filing for unemployment
:10:58. > :10:59.benefits. That is Michelle looking ahead to
:11:00. > :11:04.the day on Wall Street. Joining us is James Quinn, business
:11:05. > :11:15.editor of the Telegraph Media Group. Lots of issues with central bankers.
:11:16. > :11:24.Quite a reaction to the Fed yesterday? SNP ended up off. The
:11:25. > :11:29.FTSE was off about 100 area. People were expecting a little bit more
:11:30. > :11:35.from the Fed. They talked about getting rid about 4 trillion of
:11:36. > :11:42.investment in depth. It is selling bonds again? Yes, during the
:11:43. > :11:46.financial crisis they bought bonds nobody else wanted to buy. The
:11:47. > :11:52.credit markets were frozen. Now they are going to sell it back into the
:11:53. > :11:58.markets. No timescale and no value. You had that, you had the Fed
:11:59. > :12:02.minutes, which had some red Flags that caused markets to wobble. Also
:12:03. > :12:07.Commons from Paul Ryan about how tough it has been for the Trump
:12:08. > :12:14.administration to make change. We have not had the economy boosting
:12:15. > :12:19.reform he promised? That's right. One is tax reform and two is
:12:20. > :12:23.infrastructure spending. Paul Ryan, the House speaker, said they went
:12:24. > :12:26.with health care reform first because they thought it was easier
:12:27. > :12:31.than tax reform. They didn't get health care reform. What about the
:12:32. > :12:40.European Central Bank due the markets don't seem to be terribly
:12:41. > :12:44.happy with Marco druggie. -- the word in Frankfurt seems to be he has
:12:45. > :12:47.given the same speech he has given a couple of times this year. They
:12:48. > :12:52.sickly, everything is largely fine, I am not going to change my stance.
:12:53. > :12:55.He said 80% of the sectors across the euro zone area are performing
:12:56. > :13:02.well. Some caution on the growth side. He is not saying he will do
:13:03. > :13:05.anything. We were looking for any hints as to whether he would
:13:06. > :13:09.withdraw from the quantitative easing programme. The euro has
:13:10. > :13:15.fallen quite a bit this morning. As soon as he started to speak.
:13:16. > :13:21.Isn't there a feeling around the world we are coming to the end of
:13:22. > :13:28.that loose, and the money is being withdrawn, the party is over? I
:13:29. > :13:35.think that is right. There will be some tightening. I think also when
:13:36. > :13:40.people say -- here Mario Draghi talking, Greece talks on funding
:13:41. > :13:45.tomorrow. The Italian economy, Spain, Portugal, none of them
:13:46. > :13:48.performing well. And to major elections, the French election, the
:13:49. > :13:55.German election. The German election important. Germany doing well, the
:13:56. > :13:58.rest of Europe not so good. James is coming back. I want you to tell us
:13:59. > :14:05.who you are going to go to space with. You have also sent us a lot of
:14:06. > :14:10.thoughts as well. We will read some out later. But so far, most of the
:14:11. > :14:17.money is on Elon musk. How is Mr Branson doing? He hasn't got anyone
:14:18. > :14:19.yet! Nobody is voting for him yet. If you are for Richard, get in touch
:14:20. > :14:22.quick. You're watching Business
:14:23. > :14:31.Live from BBC News. Still to come, the boss of July is
:14:32. > :14:40.tells us what he is fighting off a takeover.
:14:41. > :14:46.First, let's focus on some of the results out in the UK. The Co-op is
:14:47. > :14:48.back in the red. The Co-Op group is back in the red
:14:49. > :14:51.today after it's written off it's remaining stake in the struggling
:14:52. > :14:57.Co-op Bank. It has posted losses of ?132
:14:58. > :15:00.million. The first loss since 2013. The group had a profitable year.
:15:01. > :15:17.Theo Leggett joins us. We now know that the Co-op bank is
:15:18. > :15:21.worth precisely how much? Precisely nil. All of this goes back to 2013
:15:22. > :15:25.of course, when the Co-op bank came close to collapse, when a ?1.5
:15:26. > :15:29.billion black hole was found in its accounts. There was also mired in
:15:30. > :15:34.scandal. That was all very embarrassing for the company. After
:15:35. > :15:39.that majority stake in the bank was taken up by US investors. The Co-op
:15:40. > :15:42.group retained 20%, but it hasn't managed to get back on its feet at
:15:43. > :15:49.its value has been written down over time. A year ago that stake was
:15:50. > :15:52.worth around ?180 million, now the Co-op says it is worth effectively
:15:53. > :15:58.nothing, which means that despite the fact the Co-op group has had a
:15:59. > :16:02.pretty robust year, a rise in like-for-like sales at 2.5% in its
:16:03. > :16:07.grocery division, its funeral care business is doing reasonably well.
:16:08. > :16:12.Legal services and so on. Its overall group revenues have risen to
:16:13. > :16:15.?9.5 billion, but because of that write-off of its stake in the Co-op
:16:16. > :16:20.bank it has pulled in a loss this year. Nevertheless the group says
:16:21. > :16:26.that is OK, the recovery plan is working and the rest of the business
:16:27. > :16:34.is fundamentally sound. Can I ask you a question before you disappear?
:16:35. > :16:38.Who is your money on, Bezos, Mask or Branson? I am a great fan of Elon
:16:39. > :16:55.Musk. Anyone who can make electric cars seem sexy. The magic of Mask.
:16:56. > :17:00.-- Elon Musk. Today was going to be an important day for the lifetime
:17:01. > :17:03.ISA but it has been snubbed by banks and building societies, many argue
:17:04. > :17:13.because it way too complicated. Lots of details on the website. Analysis
:17:14. > :17:20.as well from our personal finance experts.
:17:21. > :17:27.The leader's of the world's two biggest economies are preparing
:17:28. > :17:32.Trade is set to top the agenda when America's Donald Trump
:17:33. > :17:47.Have you seen the residents in Florida, the private residence? You
:17:48. > :17:52.should see the photos of the inside. Is it more flattering to him to go
:17:53. > :18:00.there or the White House? It is the summer White House in Donald's view.
:18:01. > :18:02.The markets are flagging because of the US central bank and the Federal
:18:03. > :18:05.Reserve as we have mentioned. And now let's get the inside track
:18:06. > :18:08.on one of the world's biggest The Dutch company, AkzoNobel,
:18:09. > :18:11.is perhaps best known And it could face a shareholder
:18:12. > :18:15.revolt if it keeps avoiding That's what the boss of its American
:18:16. > :18:19.rival, PPG, told Reuters. He also claimed none of AkzoNobel's
:18:20. > :18:23.biggest shareholders In early March, PPG offered
:18:24. > :18:26.83 euros per share, valuing the Dutch maker of Dulux
:18:27. > :18:29.at more than $22 billion. Later in the month,
:18:30. > :18:32.PPG upped their offer to more than 88 euros a share -
:18:33. > :18:35.a total deal of $24 billion. But this second offer
:18:36. > :18:37.was also rebuffed. Dominic O'Connell has been speaking
:18:38. > :18:39.to AkzoNobel's Chief He began by asking why
:18:40. > :18:59.he was rejecting PPG's advances. We have occurred both proposals very
:19:00. > :19:01.carefully, we have taken the boards together, financial advisors, legal
:19:02. > :19:05.advisors, we looked at it carefully from the perspective of a wide
:19:06. > :19:09.variety of stakeholders, including shareholders, and we have seen it is
:19:10. > :19:14.a wholly unacceptable set of proposals. Some of your
:19:15. > :19:19.shareholders, Causeway capital and Elliott, are very keen to you to
:19:20. > :19:23.engage. Why would you talk to the American bidder? There are a number
:19:24. > :19:27.of people who say we understand you are not engaging, we don't see the
:19:28. > :19:31.downside of it but we respect your decision and then there are a fuel
:19:32. > :19:34.or so who have been public in saying they would like us to engage and
:19:35. > :19:37.there are people who are really looking forward to our April 19
:19:38. > :19:41.investors presentation because they want to see our plan. They have seen
:19:42. > :19:46.what we have done in the last couple of years may want to know what we
:19:47. > :19:50.plan on going forward. Are you fearful if you were to fall to a bid
:19:51. > :19:56.from an American rival like PPG that jobs would be lost in Europe as a
:19:57. > :20:02.result? There is a general opinion that the proposals essentially
:20:03. > :20:06.undervalues the company. We also look at issues such as the location
:20:07. > :20:11.of research and development, the DNA of sustainability that we have and
:20:12. > :20:15.the issues around our stakeholders that we in the Netherlands have a
:20:16. > :20:20.due to to take into consideration. We talk about the -- have a duty.
:20:21. > :20:33.The Labour Party in the Dutch elections, they proposed a foreign
:20:34. > :20:36.takeover fine. These proposals are very much the response to the
:20:37. > :20:40.changed atmosphere. There are now things happening in many countries
:20:41. > :20:44.that save this playing field is not level. We need to do something about
:20:45. > :20:49.it, we need to make sure that either there is a time being given or there
:20:50. > :20:53.are different considerations being included. The new Dutch corporate
:20:54. > :20:57.governance code has very strongly put emphasis on the long-term
:20:58. > :21:03.strategy, on culture, on creating long-term value, and certainly we as
:21:04. > :21:06.a company strongly support that. What the next government will do is
:21:07. > :21:12.not something I will speculate on today. But the underlying message is
:21:13. > :21:16.that price should not be the only consideration. It is already the
:21:17. > :21:20.case in the Netherlands that we have the fishery duty to look at
:21:21. > :21:27.stakeholders so it is clearly not only about pricing. Isn't it
:21:28. > :21:31.difficult for a company like AkzoNobel to be against this kind of
:21:32. > :21:35.deal, when you have been doing it for years, you have bought ICI and
:21:36. > :21:41.lots of companies around the world. So isn't it hypocritical? I think
:21:42. > :21:47.that is an improper word to use. We have looked very carefully at the
:21:48. > :21:51.proposals we have received. We have looked at it from a value
:21:52. > :21:54.perspective, a shareholder in Specter, a stakeholder perspective
:21:55. > :21:57.and an anti-trust proposal, and we think that these proposals are
:21:58. > :22:04.wholly inappropriate. That is why we have said clearly now to the
:22:05. > :22:06.proposals on our table. Going back to the takeover finally, perhaps,
:22:07. > :22:10.since Theresa May became leader here there has been a lot of debate about
:22:11. > :22:14.whether it is too easy for companies, foreign companies, to buy
:22:15. > :22:18.British companies, because of the way the takeover rules work because
:22:19. > :22:24.of a weaker sterling. Do you accept some of that argument? Is it too
:22:25. > :22:32.easy in Europe as a whole for foreign bidders to buy your --
:22:33. > :22:35.British companies? We see in many countries this particular psychology
:22:36. > :22:40.starting to change that people do feel a bit threatened by the
:22:41. > :22:44.globalisation. This is the driver of certain populist movements that are
:22:45. > :22:49.there, it results in certain votes that we have seen in certain
:22:50. > :22:53.countries. Therefore there is indeed that concern, and a concern that we
:22:54. > :22:56.all will have to live with. It is a very big concern in the Netherlands
:22:57. > :22:59.as well. Overall what you see is that the environment we operate in
:23:00. > :23:04.as companies has significantly changed, because the popular
:23:05. > :23:11.acceptance of what used to be normal is not there any more. You also say,
:23:12. > :23:14.it is not a level playing field. You see the Euro is weak, the pound is
:23:15. > :23:18.weak, the dollar is quite strong and therefore you get some tilting of
:23:19. > :23:22.the balance and people say that does not really create a level playing
:23:23. > :23:29.field and I have some understanding of the arguments people use. That
:23:30. > :23:32.new populist mood could be quite useful to defend yourself against a
:23:33. > :23:35.hostile bid because you can rely on the support of the people which you
:23:36. > :23:41.might not have been able to counter in the past. The mood is there, it
:23:42. > :23:44.is not created by companies. The politics of course are driven by
:23:45. > :23:48.this mood. It is a fact of life that we will have to deal with, as one of
:23:49. > :23:51.our very important stakeholders of the world.
:23:52. > :23:59.That was the CEO of AkzoNobel speaking to Dominic. As promised,
:24:00. > :24:01.James has returned. Before we talk space, let's just talk about this
:24:02. > :24:06.other story that caught our attention, it is in the Telegraph
:24:07. > :24:12.and stop your paper. Theresa may in Saudi talks for London to host
:24:13. > :24:18.world's biggest share flotation. This is a Ramco. Everyone is wooing
:24:19. > :24:24.them. Japan were going for it, everyone is keen, New York. $2
:24:25. > :24:30.trillion, whoever gets it will be, that city will have the prestige and
:24:31. > :24:33.everything that goes with it. I think it is down to New York and
:24:34. > :24:38.London now. Is that the reason she is there do you think, the real
:24:39. > :24:43.reason? I think it was one of the reasons, she was in Saudi and Jordan
:24:44. > :24:48.had three days, the only Chief Executive was the boss of the London
:24:49. > :24:52.stock exchange to have a beating with her. That has to be one of the
:24:53. > :24:58.reasons. It would be wonderful for London to get it. Let's talk space.
:24:59. > :25:03.Who would you go into space with, if you will have to choose one of the
:25:04. > :25:08.entrepreneurs? As many people have suggested, I would rather go Nasa
:25:09. > :25:12.with their track record, as opposed to someone who has only been at it.
:25:13. > :25:18.Richard Branson has been going at this since 2004, the launch date has
:25:19. > :25:22.moved on many times. I saw him in Seattle last week, and he said
:25:23. > :25:27.hoping to get away next year with himself and real paying passengers.
:25:28. > :25:33.Let's go with what the viewers think. They are with Elon Musk. And
:25:34. > :25:43.Nasa. And they like the fact that Elon Musk is working with Nasa.
:25:44. > :25:50.Nobody is going for Bezos. And no one going for Branson. Of the small
:25:51. > :25:54.poll we have conducted! Maybe you get free Amazon Prime as well! That
:25:55. > :25:58.is it from Business Live, goodbye.