21/10/2016

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:00:00. > :00:07.being born with the neurological disorder microcephaly. Time now for

:00:08. > :00:22.the latest business news with Victoria and World Business Report.

:00:23. > :00:34.Rough trade. Europe's megadeal with Canada runs into trouble, casting

:00:35. > :00:38.doubt on bigger talks with the US and post Brexit Britain. And the

:00:39. > :00:40.toughest job in business. We met the man trying to salvage Brazil's state

:00:41. > :00:42.oil giant, Petrobras. European leaders are battling

:00:43. > :00:46.to save the trade agreement with Ceta, the comprehensive economic

:00:47. > :00:51.and trade agreement, has caused a backlash,

:00:52. > :00:54.a public backlash, and has now been blocked by a Belgian

:00:55. > :01:02.regional parliament. This row has really called

:01:03. > :01:04.into question the entire credibility of the EU, when it comes

:01:05. > :01:09.to agreeing major trade deals. The far bigger deal, of course,

:01:10. > :01:12.is the transatlantic trade and investment partnership,

:01:13. > :01:14.with the United States, And of course there is the issue

:01:15. > :01:32.about any future with the UK, On Thursday the European Council

:01:33. > :01:37.president, Donald Tusk, warned about these deals. The problem goes beyond

:01:38. > :01:42.Ceta. If you are not able to convince people that trade

:01:43. > :01:51.agreements are in their interests, if you are not able to convince them

:01:52. > :01:56.that our representatives negotiate the free-trade agreements to protect

:01:57. > :02:02.people's interest, we will have no chance to build public support for

:02:03. > :02:06.free trade. And I am afraid that means that Ceta could be our last

:02:07. > :02:19.free-trade agreement. The head of Europe and trade policy

:02:20. > :02:25.in the UK is with me. Thank you for coming in. The EU has spent years

:02:26. > :02:29.negotiating this trade deal. But the tide of popular opinion is going

:02:30. > :02:33.against trade deals, so is the real danger here that precedent that this

:02:34. > :02:39.set is? It is interesting, from Trump, to TTIP, it seems global free

:02:40. > :02:44.trade is under threat like never before. It is really important to

:02:45. > :02:48.stress that whether it is TTIP or Ceta we are in uncharted waters. We

:02:49. > :02:51.have an unprecedented situation where a small regional parliament is

:02:52. > :02:56.not only threatening to block the Canada EU trade deal, it is now

:02:57. > :02:59.actually directly negotiating today, Friday, with the Canadian government

:03:00. > :03:04.directly. So it really sets in jeopardy what is the actual EU's

:03:05. > :03:09.competence in trade policy going forward. In this particular area,

:03:10. > :03:15.Wallonia, most people will not have heard of it before, cows apparently

:03:16. > :03:18.outnumber people three to one. This is a situation where a regional

:03:19. > :03:24.court could be deciding EU policy. Do you think it is economic suicide?

:03:25. > :03:27.I think the EU hasn't helped itself by setting a slightly artificial

:03:28. > :03:32.deadline. This could be solved if there was a bit more time going

:03:33. > :03:35.forward. Having said that, the EU is putting its entire credibility on

:03:36. > :03:38.the line at this moment. We also have a situation where there was a

:03:39. > :03:41.referendum in the Netherlands about rejecting a trade deal in the

:03:42. > :03:45.Ukraine and so even if it were signed at the moment that is only a

:03:46. > :03:48.provisional application to go forward with the trade deal next

:03:49. > :03:51.year. Bolivar 28 countries and their sub federal regions decide they

:03:52. > :03:56.don't want to ratify it, where does EU trade policy go from here? As a

:03:57. > :04:00.very big lobby group in the UK, the Institute of Directors, are you

:04:01. > :04:05.concerned about where this leaves Britain in a post Brexit world when

:04:06. > :04:08.it comes to trade? I think it shows the difficulty of getting a

:04:09. > :04:12.multiplicity of players at the Federal and sub federal level, there

:04:13. > :04:19.are so many players who will have an interesting view about TTIP. But it

:04:20. > :04:22.is too early to say that will have a problem for TTIP. These tend to be

:04:23. > :04:25.trade liberalisation agreements which always have a bit of

:04:26. > :04:29.opposition. Some countries will be quite happy to see the UK go and

:04:30. > :04:30.won't necessarily block it on those grounds.

:04:31. > :04:33.In Brazil, for two years the state oil giant,

:04:34. > :04:35.Petrobras, has been at the centre of a scandal.

:04:36. > :04:38.The effect brought down the President, and left the company

:04:39. > :04:44.The new boss, Pedro Parente, is the man in charge now,

:04:45. > :04:48.and he is tasked with salvaging the company.

:04:49. > :04:57.He is trying to sell off assets and bring in vital investment, as Brazil

:04:58. > :05:01.has some of the world's largest offshore oil reserves. He told the

:05:02. > :05:06.BBC's business correspondent that in five years' time his company could

:05:07. > :05:11.be back to its former glory. We have just announced a new strategic plan.

:05:12. > :05:17.This is a plan for 2017 up until 2021. However, it was the easiest

:05:18. > :05:23.part, because the most important one is to deliver the plan. I think

:05:24. > :05:30.that, after this period, we will see the company back to its best days.

:05:31. > :05:34.Do you think foreign companies are willing to partner up with

:05:35. > :05:37.Petrobras? The company still has that image of corruption it is

:05:38. > :05:42.trying to shake off. There is also the question of very high levels of

:05:43. > :05:45.debt, and also there is nothing to guarantee that you will be here

:05:46. > :05:50.after two years, because a new president will be elected in 2018. I

:05:51. > :05:54.don't think it is a good idea to be depending on one person although I

:05:55. > :05:58.don't think it is work done by just one person. It is work done by a

:05:59. > :06:05.team, a team that is working very hard in order to place the company

:06:06. > :06:09.at the levels I mentioned before. So what we are working to do is to

:06:10. > :06:13.improve the institutional organisation of the company. Can you

:06:14. > :06:18.give us a bit of an example? Two years from now, if a new political

:06:19. > :06:22.group comes into power in Petrobras in the company still runs with a

:06:23. > :06:28.state mindset that appoints political people to bury the

:06:29. > :06:32.positions, wouldn't that happen again in 2018? What is important to

:06:33. > :06:36.know is that we have changed a lot of internal rules related to the

:06:37. > :06:42.decision-making process. For instance, in the past, during the

:06:43. > :06:47.days in which the problems happened, you could take a very important

:06:48. > :06:52.decision to buy or to hire you sign a contract by just one person. It is

:06:53. > :06:57.not possible any more. You need at least two executive directors

:06:58. > :07:02.signing this contract, you need at least five different committees

:07:03. > :07:07.assessing this operation. We do believe that these scenarios will

:07:08. > :07:12.make it very, very difficult for anyone that would come in the future

:07:13. > :07:19.to try to break up and do whatever they want, as it was in the past.

:07:20. > :07:27.What a job. Moving on, the Filipino President, Duterte, is in Beijing

:07:28. > :07:32.for talks with China. Yesterday he announced the separation from the

:07:33. > :07:36.United States. It is a huge concern in Washington and in the last few

:07:37. > :07:39.hours the Philippine Trade Minister has been trying to minimise the

:07:40. > :07:43.damage, saying the country will maintain its trade and economic ties

:07:44. > :07:48.with the US. Our correspondent has been talking to him. What has he

:07:49. > :07:53.been saying to you? That's right, as you said, the Philippine trade

:07:54. > :07:58.Secretary is trying to minimise the damage, despite what President

:07:59. > :08:02.Rodrigo Duterte said. He seemed to have made his feelings pretty clear

:08:03. > :08:09.about separating from the US, but I was speaking to the trade Secretary,

:08:10. > :08:12.Ramon Lopez, it sounded like his president actually didn't say it. He

:08:13. > :08:15.said they would not be stopping investments with the US, that they

:08:16. > :08:20.are maintaining the relationship with the West but they are trying to

:08:21. > :08:25.reduce or do away with too much dependence. He maintained that there

:08:26. > :08:28.was no economic separation and that the Philippines will continue to

:08:29. > :08:34.accept investments in exports from the US as well as import to there as

:08:35. > :08:38.well. He said his president was keen to renew the relationship, as well

:08:39. > :08:43.as what he called the historical friendship with China, despite the

:08:44. > :08:48.ongoing territorial tensions at the two have endured. And in fact the

:08:49. > :08:54.two sides have very much decided to focus on closer economic ties during

:08:55. > :09:01.Rodrigo Duterte's visit to China. They have signed deals worth $13.5

:09:02. > :09:05.billion. Some very mixed messaging coming out of the Philippines. Let's

:09:06. > :09:10.have a quick look at some other news for you, and the US

:09:11. > :09:14.telecommunications giant ATT and Time Warner have announced a

:09:15. > :09:18.possible merger. They have been buying up media businesses to get a

:09:19. > :09:25.hold of possible content. They bought Direct TV last year for $48.5

:09:26. > :09:31.billion. Time Warner rejected a takeover offer from 20th Century Fox

:09:32. > :09:35.in 2014 and it has a market value of $65 billion. Microsoft shares have

:09:36. > :09:41.surged more than 6% to an all-time high after it reported much better

:09:42. > :09:44.than earnings. It has boosted its soaring sales from cloud competing

:09:45. > :09:48.as well as more companies shifting away from their own hardware to

:09:49. > :09:50.storing data in the cloud. It has been an industry heavily dominated

:09:51. > :09:56.by Microsoft by Microsoft in the Amazon story as

:09:57. > :10:00.well. Looking at the markets, Asian stocks mainly lower today. The

:10:01. > :10:04.dollar climbed against a basket of currencies to a seven-month high.

:10:05. > :10:09.The dollar boosted by a fall in the euro because the ECB shot down some

:10:10. > :10:14.talk about contemplating tapering its monetary policy, using position.

:10:15. > :10:26.Get me on Twitter, I will speak to you very soon.

:10:27. > :10:32.Now, universities and student unions should work together to tackle

:10:33. > :10:33.violence against women, harassment and hate crime