25/10/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Alice Baxter and Ben Bland.

The weed killer conundrum - EU health experts are due to vote

on whether or not to extend the licence for glyphosate over

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

The industry say it's harmless and necessary

for farmers but opponents claim it's carcinogenic.

Also in the programme, China's Communist Party

unveils its new top leadership with no obvious successor among

We'll find out what it means for the economy.

Of course, we will bring you up to date with the latest from the

markets. Following a healthy run in Asia overnight, European markets

have opened. Once the leader in smartphone

technology, Blackberry left the handset game last year

to focus on software. We'll be speaking to

the Chief Executive about the move. And a handwritten note containing

Albert Einstein's formula for happiness has fetched

$1.3 million at auction. So, we want to know -

what's your secret to happiness? Apart from watching BBC Business

Life, of course! A two-year row over whether to ban

the use of a common weed killer EU health experts are due to vote

on whether to extend It's a chemical used by farmers

and gardeners across the world To give you an idea,

residue of the chemical has been And it was discovered in the urine

of three-quarters of Germans tested, The reason this is worrying

for some are the links A study in 2015 by the World Health

Organisation's Cancer Agency found that it was probably

carcinogenic to humans. Monsanto - which discovered

the chemical and owns the Roundup brand -

insists it is safe. The other issue is

what could replace it. Several farmers unions

have threatened lawsuits if the licence is not extended

because they would have With me is our Economics

Correspondent Andrew Walker. As Alice was mentioning, there is a

lot riding on this decision? Yes, glyphosate is the most widely used

pesticide and it is very important for farmers as it is currently

practised, particularly in the European Union. There have been a

number of estimates about potential economic costs if they were unable

to use it. One study suggested ?1 billion per year would be the cost

to British farmers. Other studies in France suggested even larger costs

for French vine growers and cereal farmers. So, yes, a lot at stake,

quite apart from the potential losses for the suppliers. Monsanto

is one you mentioned. But there are other businesses that use the

glyphosate in pesticides. It is also worth mentioning that the ability to

use glyphosate is one of the key selling points of certain types of

genetically modified crops, because they are resistant to glyphosate,

which means that the soil around them can be sprayed with this

pesticide, with this herbicide, and they survive intact and don't have

to deal with competition from weeds. The politics behind this are

interesting. The European Commission seems to be in favour of renewing

the license, but the European Parliament sits on the other side of

the fence? The European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution

calling for glyphosate to be phased out over five years. The European

Commission originally proposed a ten year renewal. They are now accepting

it is likely to be shorter than that. In a meeting happening today

they are looking for something between five and seven years. It is

striking, they could come in principle, go ahead and simply do

this if they wanted to. But they want to ensure that the member

states are onside, because it is so politically sensitive. We had a

petition signed by more than 1 million Europeans presented to the

EU this week calling for no extension. I was speaking to

somebody from the European Crop Protection Agency earlier who said

there is very little evidence that it is carcinogenic. That is one of

the big issues that has made this so controversial? Indeed. There are a

couple of European agencies, one looking at food and one that

chemicals, that have concluded glyphosate is probably OK. The main

report against it is from, as Alice mentioned at the beginning, from the

WHO's Cancer Research Agency, which thought it was probably carcinogenic

to humans. That is based to a large extent on evidence from animal

experiments and evidence looking at DNA damage in human cells. At the

very least, it is fair to say that the scientific community does not

regard it as established fact that it is dangerous. OK, thanks very

much. Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news. French carmaker PSA Group says it's

seen its revenue rise strongly after it added Opel-Vauxhall sales

numbers for the first time and increased deliveries

in Europe and Latin America. The maker of Peugeot and Citroen

cars saw a revenue rise of 31 percent to $17.6 billion

in the third quarter Shares of Chipotle slumped more

than 8% in late US trading after the Mexican food chain

missed earnings expectations. The company has struggled to win

back customers after at least two food safety scares

and a hacking attack. The last pack of UK-made cigarettes

has rolled off the production line The Japanese firm JTI which took

over Gallaher in 2007 announced the closure of its Ballymena

plant in 2014. More than 800 people

were employed at the factory. China has revealed its new senior

leadership committee but broke with tradition by not including

a clear successor to What does it mean for the future

of the Chinese economy? Just bring us up-to-date with what

has been happening, and what does this all mean for the economy? Five

new faces. What we now have is the upper echelons of power, the seven

person body, filled now with people who are loyal to President Xi and

what he wants to do with the economy. It continues to grow at a

rate that many in the West would envy, but the rate is slowing and

the government needs to deal with changes to big state-owned entities

that employ millions of people but are struck down by terrible

inefficiencies. Xi Jinping made it clear that he wants market reforms

to remain in place, but he wants few of them but more of them,, the

state-owned entities. We are not good to see sudden reforms that mean

big bankruptcies and more privatisation. That is not going to

happen. Asian shares outside of Japan edged

higher on Wednesday, while US Treasury yields

and the dollar got a lift following a report that Republican

senators were leaning towards John Taylor to be the next

Federal Reserve chief. That is a name you might hear a lot

more than the future. But, Tokyo's Nikkei share average

dropped for the first time in 17 days in choppy trade on Wednesday -

it looks like there's been some investor profit taking

following the recent record run of consecutive daily

gains helped this week by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's

coalition winning Sunday's election. Meanwhile, here in Europe,

stocks have opened Wednesday. Fairly mixed, but it is only really

the London FTSE 100 that is slightly down.

And Samira Hussain has the details about what's ahead

Earnings continue on Wednesday with Coca-Cola reporting

Now, while it is best known for soft drinks it seems bottled iced coffee

Its rival, PepsiCo, reported a drop in soda sales in North America.

That could be an indication that Coke have gained some market share

Now, the world's biggest playmaker saw an increase in total

That was really led by more single-aisle 737 jets.

But fewer higher valued widebody deliveries.

Finally Visa, the world's largest payments processor

Now, with consumer spending rising, people were using the payment

That means this past quarter will likely have been a good

Richard Dunbar is Investment Director at Aberdeen

Good to see you, nice to have you on the programme. Some healthy earnings

reports from the US, helping to push the Wall Street stocks to a new

record high? Indeed, probably a good job. We are seeing reasonably good

results from the likes of Caterpillar, GM, it is a reasonable

result. Next, the generally good results from banks in the US. Tell

us what is happening with UK earnings? More mixed. There has been

a well-publicised drop in the pound and the pressure that puts on the

consumer. We have the likes of Whitbread yesterday, companies

finding it more difficult to make progress in the UK and more broadly

in Europe. Things are a little bit more difficult and that is what we

are seeing in the results coming through. I mentioned earlier that

finally that slight dip we have seen in Tokyo, after the huge consecutive

run of daily gains? Week now have a strong government, a weaker yen,

positive for exporters. Now the focus is back on what Prime Minister

Abe is going to do. The tax policy, interest policy and trying to

restore or improve some of the governance around the Japanese

corporate sector. We are going to focus on that. That is why the

market has weakened back to real life, if you like. That is where the

real challenge lies, the big structural reforms that seem to be

quite slow to actually come into practice? Cutting interest rates,

reducing tax is quite straightforward. The whole

restructuring, the changing governance, the change in the wake

Japanese companies do business, it is a very positive change. What we

have seen so far has been taken very well by markets. It is much more

difficult than the first two that he helpfully fired. We're going to talk

about the Albert Einstein note that fetched more than $1 million at

auction about happiness. Have a think about what your secret to

happiness is. I have been told the secret to happiness is champagne,

champagne and more champagne. That is one of the market guests. That is

Ron Jeremy, good to know that you are watching even when you are not

doing the markets. Still to come, Blackberry's comeback

- but without the iconic handset. We'll be speaking to

the Chief Executive about how the company's doing now it's left

the hardware market. You're with Business

Live from BBC News. Lloyds Banking Group profits soared

9% to ?2 billion in it's An upbeat trading update

from the bank called Theo Leggett has been

going through the numbers. It does generally seem to be good

news. What's interesting is the reaction from shareholders. As you

can see, the Lloyds share price did dip 1.5% on opening. This is largely

because the results are slightly lower than expectations. That is

because expectations were so high. Lloyds had a very good first half of

the year. The last quarter has also been very good. Figures massaged

edit by the fact that we have a big allocation for payment protection

insurance. Even so, if you look at the figures over the past nine

months, pre-tax profit of ?4.5 billion, up 38% on last year. It is

generating profits. The government has sold the final tranche of

shares. Things are looking up for this bank, I think. What is behind

the profit growth? If you listen to the chief Executive, simply that

they have a prudent approach to investing. That the UK economy has

remained largely resilient. Also worth noting that these results

don't contain any new provisions for PPI, payment protection insurance

compensation. In July, ?700 million was put aside for compensation, but

this time there is nothing put aside, even though it is still

getting a lot of applications. Getting out of the way is a

significant moment for the bank, as well as the fact that earlier this

year the government back are out. It is putting crisis in previous good

-- bad management behind it. Lovely stuff, thank you. Plenty of

stories updated throughout the day on the website. On there at the

moment, the fashion retailer jigsaw, talking about their marketing

campaign, with the chief executive saying it is not political, just

about basic humanity and values for us, saying we are a brand that

relies on a multitude of diversity, fabric from Italy, people from

Germany, people from Japan. We are showing that very few of us are 100%

British. More details of that on our website.

Our top story, the weed killer conundrum.

EU health experts will vote on whether or not to extend

Industry says it's harmless and necessary, but opponents claim

Now, let's talk about something a little bit different, shall we?

A full QWERTY keyboard, Blackberry Messenger and access

At the start of the decade, the Blackberry smartphone was as

But following the rise of both Apple and other Android-based rivals

the company's share price has since plummeted over 80%.

Last year, Blackberry took the landmark

decision to stop manufacturing the handsets which the company

Instead, the business is now focusing on online services

such as cyber-security and driverless car technology.

. Welcome. Good to see you. John, when he took over at Blackberry,

charged with turning the company around, what did you pinpoint as the

main problems that led to its demise from the dominant position it once

held? Well, we obviously were losing money and market share. You pointed

out a little bit earlier that we have some strong rivals that came

kind of out of nowhere, so with that, we were missing the then

trend. That was the issue we had to face. As I was saying earlier, you

took the decision about a year ago now to stop producing the formerly

ubiquitous Blackberry handset. Do you look back now at the decision

with regret, do you think it was the right thing to do? Well, first of

all, we didn't really leave the bones behind. We licensed to others

to build all these iconic things you mentioned. It is regret for only

that we used to do everything, from putting it together, but now we have

other people doing it. We licensed it and we manage the brand. I think

the good days of the phone could yet come back but Blackberry will get a

royalty payment however broadly they sell the phone. So your focus is now

very much on software and interestingly moving into the

driverless car technology said. It strikes me that almost every day

another company says they are going into driverless car technology. I

enter such a competitive field rather than focus on what you are

known for, cyber security, and just do that thing really well without

getting distracted? Wonderful questions. First of all, a car also

needs cyber security. Especially an autonomous driven car. It is very

packable. -- it is very easy to hack. So we are applying that

technology to cars. Secondly, we happen to own a company which is the

largest car software company, delivering 60 million cars software.

When I came into the company, I looked at all the assets, what do

you do well? So I said I will look at what we do well rather than what

you don't do well and cars happen to be one of the areas where we were

dominant. Although we embed software and sell through others, providing

it to the car manufacturer, you will see us getting a bigger and bigger

footprint. But are we right in thinking that you are perhaps not as

bullish as others in the market in thinking it may be longer than we

think before we see the driverless cars on our roads in a mainstream

way? Yes, I think there are a lot of problems to be solved and most of

them are not technological. Some of them are cost structure but a lot of

them are at Government level. We need to define how safe car must be

before it is allowed on the road. There are a lot of different things.

You can have a car driving along by itself as well as cars being driven

by people like us. Mistakes be made. A decision needs to be taken in a

split-second, so I think the public policy, the whole insurance market,

who is liable, everything has got to change, so it is not as simple as me

giving you a car. I could build you a car by 2021. I'd like to get back

to your question earlier. I think the car market is heat so huge that

it requires many players. So it is far from exaggerated.

John, just very quickly, do you think Blackberry has had its glory

days because it can never reproduce the dominant it had in that sector?

It was king, wasn't it? It was, but as I say, every car has security and

we manage that every day, so I think that is a dominance. John, thank you

very much indeed. John Chen, chief executive at Blackberry.

Yes, that is very interesting. 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 businesslike pages where you can keep up-to-date with all the gay's

breaking business news. We will keep you up-to-date with insight and

analysis from people worldwide. Get involved on the BBC's web page and

on social media. First, let's read through some of

the tweets you have been sending in because of the back of one of the

paper stories we have been looking at today about Einstein having

written this note about the secret to happiness and it being sold for

$1.5 million, we asked you what your secret to happiness was. One from

Barlow, finding another of Einstein's handwritten secrets. That

would make him happy. From back then, good company, good sleep and

good wine. Derek says not caring what others think about you. Ray

says family, food and football. And Jerome says sunset over the Thames.

Remember to appreciate the little things in life. Very good points.

Richard, your million-dollar secret to happiness. A free putt on the

golf course. I think shopping for handbags and shoes and never feeling

bad about yourself. How about you? I think focus on what

you have rather than what you haven't got. It's so cheesy, isn't

it? So much nicer than my response

though. Getting back to the article, what did you make of it? I

suppose we are going to focus instead on the situation in Dubai,

we have clients in Dubai, I have friends who do business in Dubai and

I have spent there myself. It is a place we can do business but it is a

different way of doing business, a different culture and a different

way of running a country, both in Dubai and in the broader Middle

East. Because this particular article in the independent follows

the arrest and subsequent release of 27-year-old electrician Jamie Haran

who was arrested in Dubai for public indecency and then this article was

written by the former managing director of Leeds united following

his experience of working in Dubai. Yes, he was trying to transact in

the football market, trying to buy assets into Dubai and ended up in

jail rather like Jamie Haran. There are obviously different experiences

people have of doing business in Dubai and the broader Middle East

and experiences are mixed but the culture, governance, the way of

running the country's, it is all difference. I was reading the

article on my way into work this morning and it goes into a lot of

detail about the experience of trying to get help and how difficult

it was. There are sensitivities, aren't there, as people don't want

to risk offending local customs and cultures but equally with this

example of, what was his name again, the Leeds united chap who was there,

he was just there to take a case to court and it went rather sour. A

really interesting article. Well worth a read. Richard, really good

to see you. We will see you again soon.

Thank you again for all of your tweets. We have so many this

morning. We will see you again soon. But by Finau. -- goodbye for now. It

is another mild start to the day across the south-east of England but

here we have got a bit of cloud and one or two spots of rain. That

should clear away and for most of us today it should be dry with good

spells of sunshine as well.