04/09/2017 World Business Report

A flight to safety - Donald Trump warns he could sever

ties with North Korea's trading partners in response

Counting the cost of Hurricane Harvey.

The deadly storm has knocked a quarter of the US's oil

We'll ask an expert what this could mean

In a minute we'll take a hands-on look at the latest gadgets to be

unveiled at Europe's biggest technology fair.

Just hours after Pyongyang said it tested a hydrogen bomb,

President Trump tweeted the US is considering slapping trade

embargos on all countries that do business with North Korea.

This includes India, Russia, Pakistan and perhaps most notably,

The latest figures show trade between the US and China is worth

this makes China the United States' biggest trading partner.

Many experts believe that Washington is leaning on Beijing to isolate

Trade with China is crucial to the fortunes of Pyongyang,

with over 80% of all North Korean exports being purchased

by their neighbours across the border.

Nice to see you. A bit more about this new threat of wider sanctions.

Well, there is still no clarity on what this could be. This was from a

tweet from Donald Trump bite, Sally, and Bago from the United States

almost will surely result in friction with Beijing and Moscow.

But it could be the price for denying Kim Jong-un the resources

for his weapons programme. There are many ways and Bardot can be put in

place. The Trump administration could simply declare one and then go

about enforcing it on its own. Alternatively the White House with

Chinese and Russians leaders submits an embargo resolution to the UN

Security Council and demand they accept it without delay. Chinese

banks are vulnerable to US criminal prosecution and, more importantly

sanctions. The bank of China is especially at risk and the US

Treasury could find or even designate it as a primary

money-laundering concern. Letters under the Patriot Act in the US.

This could definitely brewing trade and business between two of the

largest trading partners in the world. In the meantime, how our

financial markets faring in Asia? If we have a look at the updated

numbers over the lunchtime break, the markets have not really gone

ballistic, thank goodness. The losses are not what many had

expected on the equity markets. Some shedding just 0.7%. The Japanese

market and less than 1% down. Hong Kong, Sydney and Singapore are all

slipping less than 0.5% however Shanghai White early losses to rise

slightly in midday trade. This latest flareup sent investors

fleeing for safe assets with the yen climbing to around 110 against the

US dollar. The Swiss Franc was also higher and gold is spiking to a ten

month peak to sit above $1330 per ounce. Kopper is at at a two-year

top on strong activity. When you speak to analysts, they see the key

now is the response of the international community, given how

ineffective the UN sanctions have been at discouraging North Korea.

The United Nations Security Council will have a second meeting in a week

to discuss what to do after this latest North Korean nuclear test.

Thank you very much. Good to see you, thank you for keeping us across

the latest. Meeting after the other big event the mind of President

Trump. At least 47 people have died

since Hurricane Harvey hit Texas Some residents have been allowed

to return to their homes but flood waters are still rising

in other areas. President Trump has asked

Congress for $7.8 billion as an initial payment to help

with recovery efforts following the flooding in both

Texas and Louisiana. The White House says

about 100,000 homes, not all of which were fully insured,

had been affected by the storm and the flooding

that accompanied it. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said

the state could need as much as $180 billion from the federal

government to help it recover. The storm at its height

knocked up to 24% of US oil It's also believed the nation's

largest refinery in Port Arthur may be shut for up to two weeks -

sending petrol prices higher Joining us now is Arun Pillai Essex,

managing consultant at Verisk Thank you for being on the

programme. Can we start with the estimate of the cost? It is

difficult to say at this point how much it will cost but Federal aid

will be required and it is money that the Federal government does not

really have. You are absolutely correct. The Texas governor has

estimated the price to be 180 billion dollars which would make it

30 or $40 billion more than the largest natural disaster prior, that

is hurricane Katrina. Significantly more than Hurricane and Sandy in

2012. Already it is definitely going to be the most expensive US national

disaster in terms of its wider economic impact, third-quarter

growth was estimated around 3% and I think with Harvey is likely to be

0.5% less. It is a large knock-on impact that we see in the associated

sectors around the golf. Oil, gas and petrochemical companies. They

are the notable industries that are being impacted. Can we focus on the

energy industry there and the impact. It has improved in the last

few days. What is the latest? To 5% of the total US refining capacity

remains off-line which is quite significant. 10% of offshore

platforms remain evacuated. The major ports along the Texas coast

are unable to take in large container verses with crude oil

imports from places like Mexico so it really is remaining quiet a

difficult period. If you look at oil and gas prices and futures for

gasoline, they have surged to two year high of. So there is still a

lot of movement. Just briefly, the impact on the oil price, do you

think, if any? I think people expect petrochemicals to come back online

in the next few weeks so this long-term impact is unlikely to be

that significant. This is also a factor in the fact that onshore

shale production has been quite high whereas in previous national

disasters impacting the coast, there was a lot more speculation in the US

market so the impact on prices was certainly more significant. We saw

more volatility there. That is not to say the prices haven't gone up,

they have in many south-east and is AIDS. -- they have in many

south-eastern States. It's touted as Europe's biggest tech

show, but in the past few years, titans such as Samsung have

abandoned Berlin's IFA exhibition. Now, smaller competitors

are using the event to make a case for their innovations -

particularly their sleek This is one of the standout product

here this year. It is the new the 13 smart phone. I have gone with some

of the gimmicks from devious models, no sightscreen and now modular

design. The focus is very much on taking pictures and on shooting

video. To that end, there are in a new cameras on the back, there is a

deep and beautiful lead screen and a lovely Zoom feature which you can

pick a particular object or person in the distance and then the camera

will very, very smoothly zooming towards it. The question for this

phone, as with previous models, some of which have had cutting-edge

features that have not sold well, is or can it make inroads into crowded

and competitive smart phone market? I think LG has always been about

twists. It may not be number one in phones, it may not be the thinnest

or the cheapest or the brightest, there are many things that they are

not. But one thing we have always been used giving people an

alternative choice. There are two ways you can compete with Samsung

and apple. One is with cutting-edge features and the other, such as with

his $400 motor works for, is to compete aggressively on price. We

priced at world to target discriminating consumers. Someone

who wants a high-quality smart phone experience but maybe is not looking

for the flagship prices. We designed a phone to provide all those

benefits the price did very well. In just a couple of weeks a new iPhone

is likely to dominate the headlines. But manufacturers like those here

will be hoping that is a too will still be able to make a