08/03/2017 World Business Report


08/03/2017

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It's budget day in the UK, with the Chancellor poised

:00:00.:00:22.

But how much money has he got to hand out and who will get it?

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And what does the boss of Renault-Nissan think

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He gets a grilling from Simon Jack at the Geneva Motor Show.

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Also in the programme, a Chinese telecoms company gets

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slammed with the biggest fine ever by the US

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for braking sanctions against Iran and North Korea.

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The Chancellor of the Exchequer, or UK Finance Minister,

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will deliver the country's final budget before the government

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triggers Article 50 and Britain begins its negotiations to leave

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Despite the ongoing uncertainty over Brexit,

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Philip Hammond received an eve-of-Budget boost

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from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation

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It now expects growth in the UK of 1.6% this year,

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up from its previous estimate of 1.2%.

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In theory this means more tax revenue for the Treasury and more

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money flowing in to the government's coffers.

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Despite this, economists are not expecting a spending spree from Mr

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Instead, he's expected to put the additional funds to one side

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in a Brexit war chest as Britain prepares for its divorce settlement

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Nevertheless, one area which may receive some immediate attention

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are the so-called "business rates" paid on commercial property.

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Despite the government's reassurances that Britain remains

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open for business, some companies will see more than a 40% rise

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To help cushion the blow, the Treasury has already announced

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that corporation tax will fall to 17% by the end of the decade.

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With me is Victoria Waldersee, commissioning editor for Economy.

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What are you expecting from the budget? I think from everything we

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think so far we are seeing two main messages. One is to be this idea

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that this is a time for so-called fiscal discipline and that we are

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entering an era of what Philip Hammond calls economic turbulence.

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The main reason for that he says his Brexit. The other hand we have this

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from the OECD and Philip Hammond to say growth is higher and things are

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better than we thought they were. They think it is recognising that

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these figures of growth predictions, the last ones we had were that

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things weren't going well. -- worth recognising. Before that they said

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things were going to be great. They have all been calculated with models

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that I'm very good at picking unexpected events. It is fair to say

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that it is hard to know how it will go over the next two years. We don't

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know how we will fare as a consequence of the Brexit

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negotiations. In the meantime, presumably he has to hedge his bets

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and be quite careful about spending? Absolutely. It makes sense and I

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think it will give people a sense of security to know that the government

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will set money aside for these negotiations. At the same time I

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think people can expect more clarity. He has been talking about

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gas in the tank, the economy is however more copper Katy just an

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engine fuelled by money. Also it is an economy that has been grappling

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with austerity for some years and many departments have been happy to

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digestive enormous cuts. Welfare state, policing, defence, the list

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is long. Will we expect any handouts to help with those areas? What we've

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seen so far in terms of specific policies that it looks like he's

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likely to rollout is national insurance for the self-employed and

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classic taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. What we've been hearing

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about is social care as well and of course the big issue is business

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rates. It may be a contribution to some, taking funds away from these

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businesses but then setting up a fund to then give that money back in

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the transition area says. There definitely seems to be a sense of

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where is all of this money going? That's why we need more clarity on

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what the ?60 billion is for and how it will give people the security

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they need during the Brexit negotiations. Not long to wait until

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we find out what's in that speech. Thank you for coming in and for your

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analysis. Just to say of course we will be right across that budget

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announcement on the BBC, with all of our experts and resources on

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television, radio and online. So you can keep right across it as it

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happens. Moving on now. The US Justice Department has

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levied its largest ever criminal fine in an export control

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and sanctions case against The company has pleaded guilty

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to violating the trade embargos Rico Hizon has been following

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the story from our Singapore bureau. What's been going on? And

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interesting investigation. Now just as Will indeed be served. The

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Chinese telecommunications giant which will pay a hefty fine of more

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than $1 billion US is accused of buying US components, putting them

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into ZTE equipments and then illegally shipping them to those two

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countries, North Korea and Iran. The equipment included Routers, micro-

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services and controllers, put on the encryption or antiterrorism reasons.

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They also made 283 shipments of mobile phones to North Korea,

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despite knowing this contravened rules around exports to the country.

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According to sources, ZTE bought around one third of its components

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from US businesses like Microsoft and Intel and also sold phone sets

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the major carriers like AT At it seems like ZTE is apologetic and

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knows it has made mistakes and is working towards improving its

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procedures. OK, thanks a lot and good to see you.

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As we reported yesterday the Geneva Motor show is just taking

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One of the most influential leaders in the global

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He asked him what he saw as the biggest challenges facing

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The main challenge is what happening at the level of the product. On top

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of this, there may be incentives for countries to maybe go from a free

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trade to add the dimension of what they consider as being fair trade.

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But most of the trade agreements are very old and the reality today is

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very different from what it was. So I'm not so worried about it. This is

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not what keeps me awake at night. I am much more focused and attentive

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to what is taking place at the level of the products. You spoke about

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some of the disruptive changes. One of those potentially is the UK

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leaving the EU, which it will. Back in October you said you would

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increase investment in Sunderland. What in January you said you would

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review the deal before then. We just want to understand where you stand.

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How solid is that guarantee that you will increase investment in

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Sunderland? You don't know, I don't know, you don't know what the Brexit

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rules are because they haven't been negotiated in Britain when it will

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happen. In the meantime, our best policy is to believe the commitment

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made by the UK government to say, I'm going to preserve the

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competitiveness of my industry through Brexit. There is no reason

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to doubt that. We've been in the UK for so many years, we have a

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tradition to honour the commitment. So we believe it and we feel good

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about it. A final question. You are in a joint-venture with... With

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General Motors, in Luton. Now that it has been taken over what's the

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future of the joint-venture? There are contracts, we will honour the

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contracts. So you will go to the contracts, everything in the

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contracts will be honoured. There you go! I'm assuming that

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Simon is hotfooting it from Geneva to be here budget day. He is key to

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our output today, as is our economics editor Kemal. All

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available on our website as budget day unfolds. This is currently the

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scene in Asia. A mixed picture. The same issues on the minds of

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investors. Really unsure about geopolitics at the moment. This is

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how things ended on Wall Street the night before and a bit of

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nervousness about whether this global rally, seen in the US, has

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actually run out of steam and of course next week most believe the US

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Federal Reserve will increase interest rates in the world's

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biggest economies. That's what happening with markets. See you

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soon. How do you encourage more people to

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catch public transport? A Singaporean bus operator believes it

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has the answer, smelly

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