08/01/2018 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News,

with Ben Thompson and Sally Bundock.

France's Emmanuel Macron arrives

in China, but can he forge stronger

ties between the EU and the world's

second biggest economy?

Live from London, that's our top

story on Monday the 8th of January.

The trade relationship

between France and China

currently favours China -

so the French are hoping to close

the gap with exports

of beef, wine and cheese.

Also in the programme...

Will Tesla take the back seat

in the electric car market?

We get an exclusive look

at a new design by former

BMW and Apple staff.

A new week for the markets -

and after last week's highs,

all eyes on whether the rise can

continue.

And if you've had enough

of your spouse after the holiday

period, you're not alone!

Today has been dubbed 'Divorce Day'

because of the number of couples

looking to end their marriages.

One app is helping them do it

in the most amicable way possible.

We will speak to one of its

founders.

A new report says we're

still spending on booze,

cars and stuff for our houses

as we rein in shopping

on other items.

So, today we want to know -

what are you still spending on?

Are you cutting back this year?

Just use the hashtag #BBCBizLive.

Hello, and welcome to Business Live.

So much for dry January... We are

still spending on booze. Let us know

what you are still spending on too.

Use the hashtag BBC Bisla life. --

biz live.

The French President,

Emmanuel Macron, has arrived

on a state visit to China focusing

on improving economic ties.

The two countries are important

partners for each other.

In 2016, trade between the two

was worth more than $68 billion,

and it's growing all the time.

But it's massively skewed

in China's favour.

They have a $33 billion

surplus with France.

So President Macron is likely

to seek better access for exports

for exports of beef and wine,

as well as access to

financial markets.

For China, better ties with France

offer more opportunities to export

goods to the entire European Union.

In 2016, those exports were worth

nearly $416 billion.

And, as both sides build on that

trade, they're expected to announce

a Franco-Chinese investment fund

worth around $1.2 billion.

Professor Steve Tsang, Director

of SOAS China Institute, is with me.

You were listening to what Ben had

to say. What are your expectations

for this visit?

Neither government

can afford it to be otherwise. The

Chinese see France more as a

diplomatic partner than as a

business partner. The most important

business partner for China in the EU

is Germany, and that's not going to

change. Some of the big business

deals will materialise. And it is

happening at a time when the UK is

becoming less important, and the

Chinese are concerned about

potential change in relationships

with the US administration.

You

mention the fact that Germany is the

most important trading partner for

China, but at the moment they are

involved in their own domestic

political affairs and not having a

government in place is pretty

critical. I would imagine Emmanuel

Macron is going to China with the

message, I'm the person to talk to

about Europe. With the UK leaving

and Germany not able to discuss

issues right now in terms of trade.

I think you're absolutely right.

That is the message President and

will be projecting in China. And it

has a certain currency in China, but

I think the Chinese will be looking

at the longer term relationship and

potentially that Germany will

return.

You mentioned that business

deals are likely to be announced.

Airbus is likely to be a winner, for

example, one company that could do

well here. What about the issue of

market access, which France really

wants to try and grapple with? Will

they see any progress in that area,

for example?

That is going to be a

difficult issue for the Chinese.

What you are really saying is that

President will ask for reciprocity

in terms of marks of access. --

market access. The Chinese has not

granted reciprocity to its

international partners in general

terms. So making that as a special

concession to France is problematic

because if France gets it, the Trump

administration will insist on it,

and I don't think Xi Jinping is

prepared for that yet.

Thank you so

much for your time. Interesting

conversation. We will keep on how

Emmanuel Macron gets on in China.

Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news...

The Japanese firm Takata has had

to recall a further 3.3 million cars

over faulty airbags.

The company was forced to file

for bankruptcy back in June.

The scandal is already the biggest

recall in automotive history.

A senior BBC journalist has stepped

down from her role accusing

the broadcaster of having

a "secretive and

illegal" pay culture.

Carrie Gracie is leaving her job

as China Editor, citing

what she called an "indefensible"

pay gap with male colleagues.

She made the announcement in an open

letter, in which she said

that the BBC was breaking British

equality law.

The accountancy firm KPMG has

quit its advisor role

on the Grenfell inquiry.

Campaigners had called

its appointment to be reversed,

saying the firm had failed

to disclose a conflict of interest.

KPMG is the auditor of three

firms under scrutiny

by the inquiry into the blaze

which killed 71 people last year.

Last week, the Chinese government

announced that it's introducing

a ten-year visa scheme to attract

highly-skilled talent

from across the globe.

China has now named

the first high-end executive

to receive the Certificate

for Foreign High-End Talent

as Microsoft executive Saju George.

Leisha Santorelli is following

the story from our Asia Business

hub in Singapore.

Usually it is difficult to get a

visa for China, but this is a

10-year multiple entries up till it

is notoriously difficult to get TVs

for China and currently

foreigners

have renewed their visa what ever --

every one or two years. If you are a

top athlete or a Nobel Prize winner,

you are in luck, you can get a

special visa for high-end

foreigners. The Chinese government

is looking to attract top tier

talent in the area of science and

technology and sport, but they are

also earning six times China's

annual wage, which in Beijing was

around 14,000 US dollars per year.

The winner of the lucky golden

ticket of the first 10-year multiple

entry visa is Microsoft's human

resources director, but I think they

will see quite a few more coming

after him as well.

Thank you. Sadly

I don't think we qualify as highly

skilled by that definition!

Nonetheless, thank you.

Is this the week when some reality

finally sets into the markets?

There's quite a lot for them to

digester, it's been quiet over the

holiday period. We have the highs

last week boosted by the strong jobs

data in the US. Markets still riding

on the tax cut in the US. We will

get earnings and inflation data

released in the US next week, and an

indication about what the retailers

and how they fared over the

Christmas period. In durable, the

FTSE 100 having a record-breaking

first week of trading for 2018 -- in

Europe. What we are seeing an

markets is the strength in Asia when

markets were not overly worried by

reports of a potential rise in

interest rates in China. We will

also get an update on German factory

orders, Eurozone business and

consumer confidence later as well as

retail sales figures after the

crucial Christmas period. We will

talk about those in a moment.

And Yogita Limaye has

the details about what's ahead

on Wall Street today.

This week, investors will get

a lot of consumer-related

data here in the US.

Today, the Federal Reserve

will release numbers for how much

outstanding credit has been extended

to American people.

It's expected to have increased

to nearly £21 billion in the month

of November, which suggests that

either people have taken more debt

on or they're repaying it slower.

Now, debt is a double-edged sword

for the American economy.

While it means people are spending,

which is good, too much of it

presents a risk of bad loans.

And later in the week we will find

out whether or not people are buying

more, when the retail sales

numbers are released.

We will also have the Consumer Price

Index, a key measure of inflation

watched by the Federal Reserve.

In corporate news, big banks like JP

Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo will be

releasing earnings on Friday.

It is quite busy in terms of

earnings, in Asia they are gearing

up for a lot of earnings coming out

this week.

Joining us is Jeremy

Cook from World First.

A new trading week is starting

robustly.

Everything is kicking on,

we have started 2018, the start of a

new narrative, maybe, but a lot of

the narrative has carried on from

2017, the second half of 2017, which

was a Federal Reserve still looking

to raise interest rates a couple or

three or maybe four times this year.

The growth is starting to lift

around the world. Moderate prices

running high. So nothing's really

set to knock that. -- commodity

prices. There is a lot of political

news coming up over the course of

the next couple of weeks, you know,

the leadership in Germany getting

together and hopefully will get a

government after the reshuffle in

Downing Street in the next 24 hours.

That could change things but at the

moment everything looks robust.

We

are going to get some results right

around the world, but particularly

in Europe and the UK we will get a

lot of updates on how they fare. It

is familiar terms of winners and

losers.

Yes, did Christmas come.

People on the High Street? Certainly

in the developed world, retail

consumption drives GDP, not

manufacturing or tourism all raw

materials, it is what we go out and

spend money on. Whether it is in the

supermarkets in the UK or the

department stores in the US, we will

find out.

What do you still spend

your money on?

A wedding, at the

moment!

This is it! The week before

Harry and Meghan, Jeremy will be

going down the aisle in London!

That's where all the money is going!

That's where all of the money is

going, I'm spending my money on

photographers and flowers and

things.

Is it you spending it or

what your future wife?

They have a

corporate budget, of course!

It's

divorce day-to-day as well!

There's

no link to this at all!

He's not

even married yet!

Still to come...

January 8th is being called

'Divorce Day' by lawyers,

because of the surge

of requests from couples

considering ending their marriages

after the holidays -

but technology is helping

to reduce the discord.

We'll find out how.

You're with Business

Live from BBC News.

Before we grapple with that rather

difficult issue, let's talk about

British manufacturers.

Britain's manufacturers

are optimistic about the year ahead,

and say a growing global economy

will boost orders and growth.

That's

according to a survey published

today by the manufacturing

manufacturing group the EEF.

It's Chief Economist

is Lee Hopley, she joins us now.

It is rare we can talk about such

optimism at the start of the New

Year. Many people use the famous

phrase, cautious, or nervous. But

manufacturers are optimistic?

That's

right, that's a different story to

the one we were looking at going

into 2017. But actually growth,

particularly in the second half of

last year, was pretty good. It feels

like there is enough momentum to

carry the sector through this year.

I think a lot of the positive

sentiment has been driven by what's

happening in the rest of the world.

Companies in Berdych reporting much

more confidence about the global

outlook than they were 12 months

ago. A bit less so about their

expectations for the UK economy, not

surprisingly.

I wanted to ask about

that. I don't want to be pessimistic

or anything, but there are a lot of

things that could change, good and

bad depending on which side of the

fence you sit on, but it is

uncertainty, as we have always

discussed, that causes nervousness

for business.

That's absolutely

right, and you are right to point to

some of the caution out there.

Indeed, our survey shows that more

companies the risks ahead rather

than opportunities for their

business this year. And inevitably

some of those are related to what's

happening on the political agenda.

Brexit related risks are right up

there. Particularly in relation to

some of the practical impacts from

Brexit. Exchange rate for the

Tylicki, risks for major customers

relocating and clearly loss of

skills EU workers featured quite

strongly.

Thanks for explaining

that. If you are planning to travel

by train or maybe you are trying

right now and you have got stuck,

but as having a very tough time.

Five train companies on strike

today, Wednesday and Friday. They

are more than most rail,

south-western, Greater Anglia and

southern today as well. We have got

details on the BBC live page. Real

union boss might cash saying

strikers at five train companies are

solidly supporting the action, big

lines were mounted this morning. And

the members have walked out on those

various rail services that I've

already mentioned. Details on our

website.

You're watching Business Live.

Our top story - France's Emmanuel

Macron arrives in China hoping

to forge stronger ties with

the world's second biggest economy.

Parting is such sweet sorrow,

at least if Shakespeare

is to be believed.

But don't take his word for it.

Yes, there were almost

107,000 divorces in England

and Wales in 2016.

And according to the Office

for National Statistics,

this accounts for 43%

of all marriages.

The separation process can be pretty

unpleasant emotionally,

but also economically.

So Amicable was created

following the founder's

own traumatic and expensive divorce

to help others avoid

the pitfalls of ending

a marriage without a lawyer.

We're joined by Kate Daly,

the co-founder of Amicable.

Welcome, Kate to the programme.

Thank you for coming on. So you

started this company with one other

and your area of expertise is

psychology.

That's right.

The other

founder is technical. So, neither of

you are lawyers?

No, we're not. I've

worked in the legal field for quite

a while as a family consultant. I

work with some of the country's

leading labtive lawyers and as a

consequence of my own really

traumatic and awful divorce and the

experience of working with them and

seeing how it could be done, really

very well, we set-up up Amicable,

but the trouble with the

collaborative process was it was

just too expensive for very many

people. So, one of the founding

principles of Amicable is

affordability and access to justice

because since the regulation, since

Legal Aid was abolished for family

cases, for divorcing unless there is

a domestic violence issue. So since

that has happened it has been very

difficult for people to get good

advice in an affordable manner so

that's, you know, what Amicable set

out to do.

You talked about your own

experience. I want z won't ask you

to relive too much of it, but what

are the things that really stood out

for you as being real sticking

points or difficulties in that

process?

The biggest difficulty is

that the system dictates that if you

use a lawyer each person has to have

their own lawyer and a lawyer did

duty-bound to put your interests

first. It sets up a win listen lose

situation. If your lawyer does well

for you, it means your partner has

got less somehow or is doing less

well and at Amicable we take a

fundamentally different approach

because we're not set up as a law

firm. We're set up as a legal

services firm and that allows us to

work with both partners together to

help them come toen a agreement in

an amicable way and if they have got

children to prioritise their

children and put the needs of the

family and the children first. We do

that by helping them set goals about

what the future may look like and

saying if you have got these goals

and these resource, how can we split

the resource it achieve these goals

and that's fundamentally different

to the traditional way of doing it

which is well, you're entitled to

this and you're entight told that.

You are look to go reduce your fees

even more to make yourself more

accessible to those who can't afford

good advice as you've already

mentioned, but how will you be able

to do that and sort of stay

profitable as a company?

So that's

where the technology comes in. So my

co-founder Pip Wilson is technology

entrepreneur and it's looking at how

technology can take the strain and

can take away some of the

administrative burden that

traditionally lawyers or other

people have done so we're not

looking to polarize the debate. We

are not looking to say that

technology is a panacea that's going

to solve all of these problems, it

really is the combination of people

and technology working together

that's going to make the difference

and make this scaleable and

profitable and reduce the cost.

What's the response been from

traditional lawyers? Because you're

a disrupter, you're coming in their

industry and shaking up how they do

it. It strikes me like estate agents

and conveysancing, the system is set

up to favour lawyers?

I think we've

had a mixed response. There are some

very enlightened lawyers, we've had

talks with the Law Society and the

solicitors regulator authority and

they have been warm and receptive

because everybody recognises that

the current system is pretty broken.

It costs this country £48 billion a

year in divorce bills. And that's

the combined cost of the mental

illness and things that happen after

a traumatic experience. It is the

additional benefits, it is the cost

to the Prison Service and the

additional cost to schools so there

is a gam it of costs and I think

everybody recognises that we need to

do more to help people do this in a

more kind and humane way and that's

really what we're talking about

here.

OK, Kate, thank you very much.

Really interesting. Best of luck

with it.

Thank you.

A new car designed by former BMW

and Apple employees has been

unveiled ahead of the Consumer

Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Called the Byton, it sports a huge

touch-screen dashboard,

as Dave Lee reports.

What we want to do is

try to merge your life

outside the car with your experience

in the car.

Everything will be controlled

via touch and then certain aspects

will be controlled via voice

and also very novel to us

is gesture control.

Some of the most exciting features

of the Byton car are going to be

disabled until we live in a world

of fully autonomous driving.

So perhaps think of this

vehicle as bridging the gap

between our dumb driving past

and our smart driving future.

We have to come together

and share this infrastructure

across the companies because this

is not a differentiating factor,

this is something which makes

the whole industry successful.

I like the music on that.

Jeremy Cook is back.

A tweet from Elon Musk says, "Gunner

put on an old school driving and

roller skates and rock restaurant at

one of the new super charger

location in LA."

Only one. Why can't

they been everywhere.

Have you been

to a drive-in?

No.

I've been to one

in South Africa. They do them in

South Africa which is where he's

from. Let's say with our

marriage-divorce theme. There is a

really interesting yarn in the

Business Insider about Harry and

Meghan's wedding. One of the issue

of weddings is the list as you know,

who do you not invite?

The headline

is that Trump may deny the UK a

Brexit deal if he is snubbed from

Prince Harry's wedding, the nuptials

on 19th May. Prince Harry is more

close with the Obamas given the...

Their support for the Invictus

Games.

But Donald Trump has always

looked at a state visit to the UK as

something which he really, really

wants and whether that coincides

with Meghan and Harry's nuptials.

He's not coming to ours because

we're not having kids! He may still

be turning up at Windsor Castle.

The

Obamas could be there and Trump

perhaps not there, but because the

Obamas have the connection with the

Games and everything which is a

legit reason for inviting them.

This

is not, the thing about the royal

wedding, it is not a full state

occasion. You know, Prince Harry is

only fifth or sixth in line, he is

closer line, this is not in

Westminster Abbey, he is going to

get a state visit himself.

We asked

you what you're spending your money

on. This is in the Washington Post,

liquor, home, hobbies and cars. So,

we are still spending, it seems.

Yes.

But a lot of things falling by

the way side?

A lot of squeeze on

incomes. Inflation here in the UK,

about 3%, real wages, still

negative, the post Brexit kind of

chronic crawl that we are seeing and

it is interesting to see how we are

now, not also what we are spending

our money, but how we are spending,

whether we are did it on the high

street, Amazon and that kind of

thing. A lot of people are getting

more experienced buying.

A lot of

tweets still spending on holidays,

but cutting back on clothing and

fashion items is one point.

Languages and culture, holidays in

the in sun.

One says, "No money to

spend at all." That's Darling.

People will be more willing to save

and go for quality than go for the

disposable fashions which is going

to stack them high and sell them

cheap and throw them away when they

fall apart.

We will see how the

retailers fair. Thanks Jeremy for

coming in. Nice to see you.

Having

discussed Jeremy not so much wedding

and possible divorce!

Ben, we didn't

say that.

We just said a divorce.

The pessimist to the optimist.

We

will see you tomorrow. Are you here

tomorrow?

I am.

So am I. We'll see

you tomorrow. Take care. Bye-bye.