08/12/2017 BBC Business Live

Theresa May says there will be no

hard border in Ireland. That is our

top story live from London.

This is Business Live from BBC News,

with Jamie Robertson and Ben Bland.

Live from London, that's our top

story on Friday 8th December.

A major breakthrough

in the Brexit process,

but is it too little,

too late for businesses

here in the UK?

We'll hear from the boss

of the organisation

which represents UK industry.

Also in the programme...

We're taking a break from fake news,

we'll be looking at fake goods

instead.

A Chinese firm has lost a landmark

legal case preventing it

from selling counterfeit Lego.

And finally, on the markets, the

stats looking fairly strong and we

have had a good performance on the

Asian markets as well. We will bring

you more on that.

And the US government has avoided

a cliff-edge of its own.

Republicans and Democrats have come

to a temporary agreement

which prevents the shutdown

of federal agencies -

we'll have more on that

later in the show.

Following that story

about copyright in China,

today we want to know whether you've

had to deal with fake goods.

Maybe you've bought

some inadvertently?

Can you even spot the difference?

Let us know, using the

hashtag #BBCBizLive.

Hello and welcome to Business Live.

We start in Brussels,

where it looks like, for now,

the deadlock over Brexit

has been broken.

After talks with UK Prime Minister

Theresa May early this morning,

the European Commission has

announced that "enough progress" has

been made on the terms

of divorce to begin the second

phase of negotiations.

This now opens the door for talks

on the future trading relationship

between the UK and the EU after it

leaves in 2019.

The agreement comes

after the Prime Minister

committed to no hard border

between Northern Ireland

and the Republic.

The business community has

welcomed the decision.

Earlier, we spoke to the head

of the organisation which represents

industry here in the UK.

Now, of course, the hard work

starts, that is developing agreement

for the long term relationship

between the EU and the UK. And in

the meantime, bringing great clarity

to transition, so that businesses

can suspend any contingency

planning. And secondly, making sure

that the EU citizens go home this

Christmas confident that they're

welcome in the UK and they can stay

with the full support of the UK

going forward. So, and unconditional

assurance to EU citizens I think

will make a big Franz Liszt

Christmas.

-- will make a big

difference this Christmas.

Our economics editor

Kamal Ahmed joins us now.

A bit of divers and should -- a bit

of a divers and check -- a bit of a

divergences between what Theresa May

and what Donald Tusk were saying in

terms of the future trading

relationship?

Is I think many

businesses would argue that they are

much more in the Donald Tusk

position than they are in the

Theresa May position. The key thing

for businesses and indeed for the

economics of this deal is the

transition and final end stage of

the relationship between the UK and

the European Union. Now, on that

matter, there's not a lot of

substance in the agreement we've had

today. So, the agreement on citizens

rights, the agreement on the open

border and the agreement on the

divorce bill, I think politically

are good news for the UK Government

and for the European Commission and

for the European Union 27. But what

of course we don't have is how any

of those things are going to work.

How are we going to maintain an open

border between the Republic of

Ireland and Northern Ireland, if we

have different customs arrangements

between the UK and the rest of the

EU? So, I think it's not the time

that businesses will think, right,

that's the deal done, we can get on

with it. The big issue now is the

transition period, and what will the

end state look like? Businesses plan

long-term and that is what they will

be looking for.

Have we passed any

particular milestones, are there

things in this statement where we

can say, that's done?

I think on the

divorce deal, the money, that seems

to be clear. Britain will be paying

money over a long period of time for

the commitment is...

Do we know how

much?

We will never know, we will

not know how much until we have paid

that last amount. It could be years,

it could be decades. The UK will pay

an amount every year, dependent on

when the liabilities become due,

like pension payments, for example,

for European Union officials. On

citizens rights, much more clarity

on that. That is citizens rights for

EU people living in the UK and for

British people living in the

European Union. Those will be

guaranteed. The UK has pledged to

write that into UK law and to take

due regard of the European Court of

Justice judgments on that. I would

say that is a dotted line authority.

The judges are well used to this

idea of due regard. Action can be

taken against you if you have been

proved not to have taken due regard.

I think the big issue is this open

border issue, which is the real

business of economics. The document

today says that the border will

remain open, and that Britain will

commit to having no customs border

between the Republic of Ireland and

Northern Ireland. How that works is

difficult to see, as I say, if we

have a situation after 2019, when

Britain and the rest of the European

Union have different customs rules

and are not in a single market.

That's the big thing that businesses

now want to. And they will want the

detail.

Thank you very much. You can

check out the effect this is having

on business and the economy by

looking at the BBC business live

page.

For that, just go to the BBC

website, follow the links to the

business page and click on business

live. Updates throughout the day on

this breaking and developing story.

Lego has won a landmark case

in China against two companies that

made and sold toys almost identical

to its Lego Friends range.

This is the first time Lego has won

a copyright case in China.

Leisha Santorelli is in our

Asia Business hub with more.

Leisha, counterfeiting is a big

problem in China isn't it?

Absolutely. International brands

have complained about the problem

for years, but the good news is that

it looks like the authorities are

now taking steps to protect overseas

intellectual property. In the case

of Lego, these two Chinese companies

had 30 much copied the Lego Friends

range of toys, and they had even

copied the packaging and the logo,

which you can see for yourself if

you do a search online. This is a

big win for Lego in China. Earlier

this year a court had ruled that it

was a well-known trademark in China.

But China is a particularly

important market for the company,

because it has actually been

struggling. It posted its most

disappointing sales numbers out of

the US and Europe recently. In fact,

the worst performance in over a

decade, and so it is cutting more

than 1000 jobs. So, China is

particularly important to its future

fortunes. And so this ruling will

make sure that its toys are sold

through the proper, so is and not

the counterfeit ones.

Thank you very

much for that. Now, the markets

here... The growth forecast for

Japan was very good. We also had

some very good figures on economic

growth coming out of China as well,

so the Hang Seng was up well over

1%. And the European markets... The

FTSE started up but only by a small

amount. The Dax was up by three

quarters of 1%. Some details now...

And Samira Hussain has

the details about what's ahead

on Wall Street Today.

This Friday is all about the jobs

report to be released by the US

Labor Department. Economists are

expecting the economy to have added

about 200,000 jobs, after surging

with 206 to 1000 jobs in the month

of October. The unemployment rate is

expected to remain the same, at

4.1%. This is the final jobs report

before the US Federal reserve, the

central bank of America, meets next

week. The Fed will be watching this

jobs report closely and they are

expected to raise rates at this

meeting. The latest consumer

sentiment index by the university of

Michigan will be released and it is

expected to show a preliminary

reading of 99 points over the month

of December. That is up from

previous month. This is a measure of

how confident Americans are feeling

about finance and the business

climate and their finances.

Samira

Hussain there in New York.

Joining us is Jeremy Stretch,

head of currency strategy

at CIBC World Markets.

And currency is where we seem to be

seeing a lot of the reaction to the

politics going on in Brussels and

this breakthrough?

Absolutely. This

week we have seen extreme levels of

volatility, we've seen the market

react team to Twitter rumours all

week as we've seen this debate about

whether there was going to be an

agreement or not. Now that we've

seen this move towards the next

phase, we have seen sterling

benefiting, which has taken us back

to the kind of levels we were

trading at at the beginning of the

week, when we thought there would be

an agreement. And notably, as the

parity rallies, that's why the

FTSE-100 is less robust than its

counterparts in Europe, because as

sterling goes up, that impacts the

foreign earnings.

What about the US,

what should we be looking for in the

jobs report which Samira Hussain was

talking about, from a currency and

markets point of view?

Absolutely. I

think it is all about the wage

numbers. I think that's the real

issue, not just for the US but in

terms of global central backs in

general. Of course, we've seen

remarkable falls in unemployment

levels, not just in the US but in

most Western economies and yet we

have not seen that reflect it in

higher wages yet. If there is a sign

that because of the labour market

and because of the lower

unemployment, that it is starting to

come through, if that is the case

then I think it has indications for

the Federal Reserve in terms of

their interest rate policy for 2018.

And I think it has applications for

other countries as well.

We're going

to talk about newspapers later in

the programme! And you will be

there, worldview?!

Indeed I will!

Still to come...

Republicans and Democrats have come

to a temporary agreement

which prevents the shutdown

of federal agencies.

It'll see operations continue

for another fortnight,

but is the next funding crisis just

around the corner?

You're with Business

Live from BBC News.

How easy is it for you to get

to work by public transport alone

from where you live?

According to new research

by Direct Line Car Insurance -

a fifth of us are unable to get

to work using public

transport alone.

Stephen Joseph,

is the Chief Executive Officer,

of the Campaign for Better Transport

and he joins us from the newsroom.

Is this the government's problem, or

the free market? Because generally

it has been the free market for the

last 20 years.

Ultimately the

government. Government controls a

lot of what goes on in transport. To

do with the railways under of

funding. We have seen bus fares

going up by something like twice the

rate of inflation over the last 20

years. We have seen the

disappearance of whole bus networks

and therefore transport deserts

appearing. And we've seen rail fares

go up significantly, as well, above.

With another rise due of the

inflation level in the New Year. We

are trying to get people away from

core independence. Giving them real

choice in how to get around, and

particularly funding public

transport better in the way other

European countries do.

Is this a

productivity issue? We've heard a

lot about that over the last few

weeks with the Budget, and so on.

It

is. One of the things we have seen,

we are getting heart rendering

stories from people who find

themselves locked out of labour

markets because basically cannot get

to or from work. In some places this

affects whole communities. Some of

the old coal communities in the

Midlands and North of England have

lost a lot of public transport. It

makes it difficult for people there

to actually get into the labour

markets. We've always said transport

is an underrated part of the market.

It doesn't fall into the transport

frameworks, but it is very

important.

Thank you very much.

What have you found out?

Plenty of updates. The story

dominating his Brexit. Now for the

hard work, the words from the CBI.

History shows that trade

negotiations are the toughest thing

you can engage in. That is where the

talks move next week to begin

discussing the future trade

relationship. More details on the

website.

The talks on Brexit have reached

something of a milestone. And it

looks like they are progressing to

the talks on trade in the coming

months. Talks about talks beginning

on Monday, according to Donald Tusk

. Let's turn our attention to the

other side a -- the other side of

the Atlantic.

The US Congress has passed

a last-minute bill to stop

the government running out of money

- but only for two weeks.

Now President Trump and the House

have until December 22nd to thrash

out long term deal on spending.

It's all about what's known

as the 'debt ceiling' -the country's

borrowing limit set by Congress.

Mike Jacob and joined us. We seem to

reach this point any soap -- every

so often, is it different this time?

It was only three months ago we last

talked about this when Trump struck

a deal with Democrat leadership

rather than republicans and upset

his party significantly.

I'm really sorry to interrupt... We

need to cross live to Michel Barnier

who is speaking. Let's listen to him

now.

...

And also the tax payers. We need

to be accountable at every stage of

the negotiations. Now if the

European Council agrees, and

following the European Parliament's

resolution next week, the document

could be the basis for the

withdrawal agreement. Let me be

clear. There will still work to be

done. There are a range of issues,

such as the governance of our

agreement, or, for instant... There

are more others to take. We will

need to have the final version of

the withdrawal agreement ready by

October 2018. Less than one year.

But at this turning point I want to

pay tribute to the dedication of all

members of both our teams, our

coordinators, Europeans, and on my

side, all of the members of my task

force team. And also on our side, I

want to personally thank President

Jean-Claude Juncker and his Cabinet,

the secretary-general, the legal

service Commissioners, and their

Cabinet. We have all worked very

hard over the last few weeks, days,

and nights, to achieve this. This

first result was also made possible

by our very close work with the

council team. With the 27 member

states. On the EU side we have all

worked together every single week

since negotiations started. On

Wednesday the president and I

updated the College of

Commissioners. Jean-Claude Juncker

told you this morning, based on our

agreement, his recommendation, my

recommendation, and the

recommendation of the College of

Commissioners, that the progress

achieved today is sufficient to move

to the next phase. It is now up to

the European Council to decide

whether this constitutes sufficient

progress, and to move talks to the

next stage. We will then have

completed the first chapter of this

extraordinary negotiation. My

assessment of this first result,

ladies and gentlemen, is based on

the real progress on each of our

three main issues. SPEAKS FRENCH.

STUDIO: Michel Barnier, the lead

negotiator for the European Union in

the Brexit talks just giving hers

comments. Earlier we heard from

Jean-Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk,

and Theresa May. Underlining there,

Michel Barnier, the fact there is an

expectation that the withdrawal, the

full withdrawal agreement, must be

ready by October next year. The

reason for that, they want to give

plenty of time for the European

Parliament to discuss it, debate it,

and ratify what at the negotiating

teams come up with. That, as he

pointed out, gives them less than a

year. It echoes the earlier

sentiment of Donald Tusk who said

breaking up is hard, but breaking up

and crafting a new future

relationship is even harder. And all

of them alluding to the fact there

are more hurdles to overcome as the

Brexit talks move into the next

stage.

The other thing we must remember,

this all still has to be approved by

the European Council, even though a

deal has been done. They have final

say on this. They are saying an

agreement has been done, the

agreement isn't in place until that

meeting of the 27 members next week.

Mike is still with us from the

Economist Intelligence Unit.

Listening to Michel Barnier, it was

quite an interesting point he made

about the hurdles that lie ahead.

And I suppose that is what a lot of

businesses will be waiting to see.

Just how quickly, how much more

smoothly to the next -- to the next

phase of talks go.

You start from

different positions. They harden

themselves into those positions. In

the UK realises a compromise needs

to be struck and they start to make

concessions. The pattern will

continue throughout the entire

negotiating process, I think.

Where

are the big slip ups going to be, or

the obstacles in the trade

discussions, do you think?

A couple

of sets of the UK economy will want

something specific. Particularly

agriculture. Getting the opt outs

will be difficult, I think.

Thank

you for your thoughts. Mike Kennedy

talk about the US debt ceiling, and

we've bounced you into talking about

Brexit, thanks very much. -- Mike

came in to talk about. More

throughout the day here on BBC World

News, and the BBC News Channel.

And you can get everything we have

been talking about all the BBC

website.