25/01/2018 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News,

I'm Susannah Streeter in London.

And I'm Sally Bundock in Davos

at the World Economic Forum.

Our economy is booming ,

that's the upbeat message that US

President Donald Trump is bringing

here as he talks tough on trade.

Live from London and Davos,

that's our top story

on Thursday 25th January.

The president's team have been

warning that the world's biggest

economy is ready to impose

more import tariffs,

but will it lead to

a full scale trade war?

Also in the programme -

The boss of leading US bank JP

Morgan renews his warning that

Brexit could mean job cuys

in the City of London.

Morgan renews his warning that

--Brexit could mean job cuts

And I'll be getting

the inside track on

Philanthropy for women by

Philanthropy for women by women. HRH

Crown Princess of Norway is here.

Female empowerment is a big theme

here this year, and you can join in

the debate. As the allegations have

surfaced about the hostesses who

were harassed at a men only dinner

in London, 50,000 people have signed

a petition saying more needs to be

done to protect women. Tell us what

you think should be done.

There are 3,000 of the world's top

business and political leaders at

the World Economic Forum in Davos.

But none of them will get us much

attention as the man

arriving in a few hours ,

US President Donald Trump.

Tensions have already been stoked

with the US delegation talking

of a trade war and more

tariffs on imports.

This week the President signed

new protectionist measures

against foreign goods -

slapping tariffs of up to 30%

on Chinese solar panels and up

to 50% on South Korean washing

machines.

Mr Trump has alsoe threatened

to pull out of the North American

Free Trade Agreement with neighbours

Canada and Mexico -

it's worth $1.2 trillion.

Talks to try and save it are under

way this week in Montreal.

The stakes are high.

China, Mexico and Canada

are the USA's top three

trading partners -

accounting for over 45%

of its foreign trade.

The dollar has been falling

but Mr Trump's huge tax cuts have

propelled US stock markets

to record highs.

So while some of the Davos delegates

may disagree with him -

many have found themselves a lot

richer since he took office

Sally is in Davos.

Tell me more about Mr Trump's visit.

Yes, I have to say here, there are

3000 delegates here. There are more

heads of state here than in many

years, and of course, lots of

company chief executives. It is a

bit like business news on speed. I

have been talking to so many company

bosses to get their sense of this

year's Davos, which is completely

dominated by the arrival of a

sitting US president, the first time

since 2000. But this is a very

different US president. Let's talk

in more detail with Philip Jennings,

from the unique global union, an

organisation representing 20 million

members, 900 unions. Welcome to

Business Live. President Trump

tweeted before he left Washington,

we will soon be heading to Davos to

tell the world how great America is

and is doing. Our economy is

booming, and with all I am doing, it

will only get better. What do you

make of his message?

It is a fantasy

tweet. This is the Obama recovery in

continuation. He is looking at the

reality of the American labour

market through one eye. If we look

at the promises he made to the

American people and to the American

working men and women, he has not

fulfilled any of them to the extent

that he promised. We have a

situation where the tax reforms he

has introduced, 83% of the benefits

will float to the 1%. Underneath the

radar, which doesn't capture the

attention of business news around

the world is all the other things he

is doing with respect to cutting

overtime, ending fair pay

legislation, the attack on the

immigrant workers, which we are

seeing, making it more difficult to

negotiate, to organise. The trade

union Centre have done an opinion

poll of their membership and said,

are you happy or unhappy with this

guy? 70% of the people say that they

don't like what they see. There was

an economic boom, and this theory of

trickle down will fail again. The

American worker may have a job, but

it won't pay its way.

Quite a few

company bosses either spoken to here

are talking about the fact that tax

cuts mean for them that they are

paying a lot less tax than they have

more money to spend. Quite a few are

saying that they will invest and

they will be hiring more people.

The

point about the tax cut is, it is

significant and deep. It is a Davos

gift for a CEO. His bottom line will

work because his tax obligations

will be less. Will the money really

go into investment? If you look at

the levels of investment in America

and the OECD as a whole, it is 50%

down on precrisis numbers.

Investment is not happening. Where

is the money going? It is being

recirculated, $4 trillion' worth has

been redistributed to shareholders.

They are surviving on pay cheque to

pay cheque, the ordinary man and

woman. The other night the ordinary

man and woman in America voted in

this president.

On the basis of

promises that have been unfulfilled.

He said he would train this one, and

he has raked the system against the

ordinary man and woman. You need to

be able to organise collectively

bargain, and he has done nothing to

lift the possibility of American men

and women to negotiate a better wage

deal on better terms and conditions

of employment. It is the contrary.

We will have to stop your there. You

have very strong opinions. Just say,

of course, we have talked to many

people here, among them the chief

executive of JP Morgan Chase, and he

was talking to my colleague Simon

Jack. Simon first of all started to

talk to him about his plans for

London in the light of Brexit, with

regard to how many jobs may go at JP

Morgan Chase in London.

We love London,

we love working there.

We've got, as you point out,

a lot of people there.

There is huge efficiencies

for us, it's huge

efficiencies for the Eurozone too.

But if they determine

that you can't have

reciprocal trade practices

and

reciprocal regulations it

will be bad in those jobs.

How many?

I don't know - it would be a lot.

Thousands?

Yeah.

4000?

It would be more than 4000.

So, this feels more like a bite than

a bark. Real tariffs on things like

solar panels and washing machines.

As Donald Trump started a trade

workers might

I totally agree. He

has raised a lot of issues about

trade. I am pro-trade. Some stuff

about China is - intellectual

property and lack of reciprocity.

Those of a legitimate issues. If

they are, they should be fixed.

That

is the boss of JP Morgan speaking to

Simon Jack there.

Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news.

Here in the UK more than 50,000

people have signed a petition

calling for more protection

from sexual harassment

in the workplace.

It follows allegations of widespread

harrassment at a men-only

fundraising charity dinner

that was uncovrered

by the Financial Times and attended

by many leading businessmen.

The European satellite TV provider

Sky says operating profits were up

24% in the second half of last year

after it attracted

365,000 new customers.

The company says it shows

that its strategy of investing

heavily in sports and entertainment

is paying off.

Total sales rose to £6.7 billion

which is just over $9.5bn.

Sky also said it plans to spend more

money on original programming, an

area where it's

competing with Netflix.

Qualcomm has reached an agreement

with a number of Chinese

smartphone manufacturers

to launch its super-speed 5G devices

in the country next year.

The consortium includes Xiaomi,

Oppo, and Vivo, who have agreed

to purchase $2bn of Qualcomm

components over a three year period.

That there has been another

development on the tariffs imposed

by the United States. LG Electronics

is saying it will have to increase

the price of its goods, things like

washing machines, as a consequence

of the US tariffs. Let's go to Sarah

Toms in our Asia business hub for

more details. What did LG

Electronics have to say?

As you

said, they are raising prices. This

hasn't come as a surprise. The South

Korean company did not say by how

much, but experts think some models

could go up by roughly around $50.

The hike, as you said, is thanks to

President Trump's tariffs. That will

apply to large residential washing

machines. LG and the South Korean

Ministry said it was disappointed

with the policy, but LG Electronics

has said it is not expected to have

great impact to total home appliance

business revenue. And anyway, it

could find a way to sidestep these

tariffs. It expects its factory in

Tennessee to begin operations later

this year, and the operations made

there would be subject to the tax.

LG Electronics has released its

results for the last quarter. The

numbers were helped by strong sales

in TVs and appliances and including

those washing machines.

The weaker

dollar is the big story on the

financial markets. Two of Donald

Trump's Cabinet members talked down

the tariffs. The Dow Jones closed up

very slightly, as you can see, after

a day of quite choppy trading.

Australia's index is up. The Hang

Seng in Hong Kong, stocks have

fallen back a little, lots of

profit-taking going on in line with

a sell-off in most Asian markets as

investors took profits. That was

after a week-long rally. The FTSE is

down slightly. The Geo is down by 1%

after a 6% rise in half-year

profits. Let's look at what is

happening on Wall Street with the

Mir Hussein.

Chip-maker Intel will be reporting

earnings on Thursday.

Now, while investors

will be interested in

hearing how the company has

performed financially in the last

three months, there will be a lot

of questions about the financial

impact of the Spectre and Meltdown

flaws

that affected its chips, potentially

letting hackers steal information

believed to be very secure.

Also reporting,

Starbucks, the world's

biggest coffee chain.

The US tax cuts should

help profits but the

company is grappling

with a bunch of issues,

including cooling sales,

rising labour costs and increased

competition from both high

end and low-end rivals.

And finally, we will hear

from several US air carriers,

including American Airlines,

Southwest Airlines and JetBlue.

Sally will be joining us

in a moment, but first

here's Sue Noffke, UK

Equities Fund Manager, Schroders.

Thank you for coming in. Let's talk

about the dollar. We have seen

weakness for a while, but overnight,

it certainly took a bit of a tumble.

To what extent is this due to the

rise of sterling? It is doing pretty

well.

Sterling is the strongest G

ten currency in the last six months,

so the story is partly a

strengthening of sterling. I would

say the detriment is the weakness of

the US dollar. The reasons are at

the moment is the America first

policy that the Trump administration

is pursuing, and a weaker dollar

really helps motor their economy. It

makes them more competitive

overseas, and that is part and

parcel of what the objective is.

Sally, have you been following

America first?

Absolutely. It is all

the conversation here today. Sue, I

wanted to get your perspective on

the noise coming out of Davos this

year will stop what are people

saying in London, your clients,

colleagues, about this debate about

protectionism? It would seem it is

hijacking this forum this year.

I

think that's another strand to the

dollar weakness, the fear of

protectionism. Does it widen out? Is

it just one or two items? Is it a

tit-for-tat that excavates around

the globe? And so, that is also

weighing on the dollar at the

moment.

Sue Noffke, thank you, we will come

back later to talk through some of

the stories in the papers, thank you

for now, but still to come. We will

have more from the World Economic

Forum in Davos. We are going to talk

about philanthropy, a disrupting

investment fund created by women for

women.

Your with Business Live on BBC News.

Let's get more on Sky now -

it reported a 5% rise in first half

year profit this morning.

The results come two days

after Britain's competition

regulator provisionally ruled

that the £11 billion

takeover by Murdoch's 21st

Century Fox was 'not

in the public interest'.

Joining us now is Julian Aquilina,

a research analyst

at Enders Analysis.

Some positive news for Sky in terms

of these results, it seems is the

focus on entertainment as Don McGahn

sports that has reaped rewards.

Yes,

Sky has a good set of operating

results but as you say sport is

still at the heart of the Sky

business model across Europe, and

Premier League auction due in the

next few weeks, is the main topic of

interest in our mind.

OK, and what

impact do you think there will be

from this decision by the regulator

to block the deal of Rupert Murdoch

taking over the rest of the

broadcaster, because there are

implications for the news division,

aren't there? And in the light of

these results does its future look

more uncertain?

No, not at all, in

fact the decision that the CMA came

to was completely expected and they

have actually made a number of

suggestions as to how they can work

out a deal to bypass those concerns.

What they did announce on Tuesday,

which investors were very pleased

about sending Sky shares up 3% that

day was the fact that the deal would

not be against the public interest

in terms of broadcasting standards,

which is a huge win for Fox.

Julian

Aquilina, thank you for talking to

us, from Enders Analysis. Here are

some other news stories we're

covering at the BBC. Canada's

cannabis cultivators are in a

marijuana megamerger, two growers

have agreed to merge and create a $6

billion company. Aurora cannabis,

after a far from mellow takeover

battle between the firms, Canada

plans to legalise recreational

marijuana before July. There is also

the story, a huge rise in sales from

the online fashion retailer Asos,

doing well, even though retailers of

bricks and mortar stores are

struggling at the moment. You're

watching Business Live.

You're watching Business Live, our

top story. US President Donald Trump

says the American economy is booming

as he heads to Davos and suspected

to talk tough on trade as his team

talks of more import tariffs to

come. More on that in a moment.

Yes, here in Davos that seems to be

dominating the discussions right

now. But something that people

always say about this World Economic

Forum in Switzerland is, what

difference does it really make? What

changes in the world as a

consequence of this powwow between

multi billionaires, company bosses,

and heads of state? Well, our next

guest will tell you because these

two ladies met at the World Economic

Forum quite a few years ago. They

connected for the first time. They

talked about their vision to try and

help women who were in difficult

positions around the world, and how

they could bring in the finance to

make that happen. Consequently, they

have now managed to fund some really

exciting projects around the world

to empower women, to protect women,

to enable women, and it really has

had quite an impact on women in some

developing countries. I joined both

of these ladies, quite unusual

actually, because one of them is

Kate Roberts, the co-founder of what

is called Maverick Collective but

the other one is royalty, HRIS Crown

Princess of Norway. This is what

they had to tell me in Davos.

Kate and I met and we both

have a background in global health,

and we saw when women and children

are not

focused on in the health scene,

communities really fall back.

I think both of us had that

experience and that's why we wanted

to start a programme that

specifically targeted young women

and girls.

Please explain how this organisation

differs to others, ie,

it is set up by women for women.

Well, it's very strategic,

so we are not investing

in everything, we are very focused

on these big bets, so,

you know, the whole world needs

better sanitation so we are building

toilets around the world,

taking a private-sector approach,

and as the Crown Princess Mary

saying we work

with our members around their time,

talent and treasure and their

brainpower is just as important

as their financial resources.

That's been missing,

I think, in the women

philanthropy space where we are just

not searching for money.

We really want to innovate

with your entire network.

I think one of the first

conversations we had with one of our

funders, she said, oh no,

I asked to give money

to all these projects

but

they never want anything

but my cheque-book.

She really wanted to get involved.

Now, her project in India

on cervical cancer is one of

the most innovative projects we have

seen for a long time in this space.

It's now serving 24 million women

in Uttar Pradesh in India

and has now been adopted

by the Indian government.

So, it's incredible to see

what these projects can

develop into if you just have this

incredible women that

are willing to make an effort.

How does your role,

as a Crown Princess affect

this organisation?

Does it help or does it hinder?

Well, I think as with all things

in life it's both a help

and a hindrance with the things

we can get involved in.

but I think I've been

incredibly lucky to be so much

a part of this project.

Kate and I founded it together.

I get inspired every day

by the stories of these women around

the world trying to make better

communities and trying to really

innovate the way we do both

philanthropy but also the way

the health community works.

I think to take that private sector

approach to many of these

issues is incredibly,

it's just very inspiring.

In terms of other people involved,

you've got Melinda Gates on board,

she's very well-known with her

husband as being involved in

philanthropy.

In what way does she help?

She actually gave us the seed

capital to start Maverick

Collective and joined

as our co-chair.

She was our inspiration really

on setting this up because

she puts her whole self

into her philanthropy.

She doesn't just give

money, she advocates.

She was part of the Family Planning

2020 to reach the goals.

She has leveraged herself

billions of dollars.

So she was our archetype.

Of course, not everyone

can be Melinda Gates.

But we want people

to follow her example.

Crown Princess of Norway and Kate

Roberts in that report. Sue is back

to talk about some of the stories

the media has been interested in. It

has been the Presidents Club scandal

that made all of the papers, covered

on the BBC as well, the club is to

close following these allegations of

harassment at a top London hotel,

and there are now calls for extra

protection for women in the

workplace. What do you make of that?

I think it's interesting because

there is legislation in place but

the calls are to give it more teeth.

The issues are that it has taken

through employment tribunals, which

are quite costly for the individuals

to bring a case and that might be

prohibitive and hindering people

from progressing their harassment,

or sexual misconduct claims through

there.

We have had a number of

tweets on this, we asked for

people's views. Andy North says

employers should have a response

ability to protect their employees

from harassment, this case they

created their harassment, he claims.

Other people have different views,

they say it is no different to help

women would react if it were the

other way around, perhaps. Vic says

that report has stopped all the

other women who were happy to work

earning their money, but they are

grateful to her. It has provoked

lots of different views, hasn't it?

Borough calls for these

nondisclosure arrangements put in

contracts -- now there are calls.

For them to be lifted.

What happened

here is there was a third party that

implied the hostesses to work, and

the individuals were required to

sign a confidentiality nondisclosure

agreement. The question is, are

those legally binding when what's

been going on is in fact illegal?

Big question. OK. Let's go back to

Sally in Davos to find out what else

is happening. We have had an update

from the US delegation, haven't we?

Yes, we have lots of comments coming

from Steven Mnuchin, the new US

Treasury Secretary who was grilled

about the UK in particular and he

said he wants to see a successful

transition on Brexit that is good

for the UK and good for the markets.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May will

be having bilateral talks with

Donald Trump today