WEBVTT - China Will Eventually Give In, Levy Says

0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.800
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keane. Daily

0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.960
<v Speaker 1>we bring you insight from the best in economics, finance,

0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:23.480
<v Speaker 1>investment and international relations. Find Bloomberg Surveillance on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud,

0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:34.040
<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg dot Com and of course on the Bloomberg. We

0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:36.159
<v Speaker 1>are approached to have with us this morning someone with

0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:41.279
<v Speaker 1>a substantial understanding and reading on our international economics and

0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.920
<v Speaker 1>politics with City Group, their chief global political analyst, Tina

0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:51.320
<v Speaker 1>Fordham in our London studios. An extraordinary day and history

0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:54.760
<v Speaker 1>being made. Your evil task is you have to sort

0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:57.320
<v Speaker 1>it out and write a memo. Get out front of

0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:01.360
<v Speaker 1>Katherine Mann and Villain Bowder. Give us a on how

0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:04.640
<v Speaker 1>you will write this up today for City Group London. Well,

0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:07.920
<v Speaker 1>it wouldn't surprise you for me to say that I'll

0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:11.520
<v Speaker 1>refer back to what I've been saying all along. Trump

0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:15.200
<v Speaker 1>wants to change the international order. And even before he

0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.800
<v Speaker 1>took office, of course, we were talking about pressures on

0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:24.080
<v Speaker 1>the postwar international system. Trump has accelerated that. Um, perhaps

0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.119
<v Speaker 1>you know the obituary for for NATO has been written

0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.200
<v Speaker 1>many times before, by the way, and NATO comes out

0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:34.000
<v Speaker 1>of this with a more robust budget. But One of

0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.319
<v Speaker 1>the most striking things about this for me is is

0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:42.480
<v Speaker 1>how much President Trump was telegraphing certain headlines back to

0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.880
<v Speaker 1>the domestic audience ahead of mid terms. And that was

0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:50.320
<v Speaker 1>I shook down everybody in that room. Everybody ended up

0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:55.440
<v Speaker 1>happy and and and the US is no longer paying

0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.400
<v Speaker 1>the freight for what we used to call um the

0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.880
<v Speaker 1>peace dividend here in Europe. Part of this is his

0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.480
<v Speaker 1>own style, and there's people that agree with his style.

0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:08.520
<v Speaker 1>He is really his ratings have been extremely good across America,

0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.400
<v Speaker 1>and part of it is his huge nostalgia for another

0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:17.040
<v Speaker 1>time and place, and yet his disdain for the sequential

0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.680
<v Speaker 1>presidents that we've had over the last number of years.

0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.760
<v Speaker 1>Is his nostalgia doable or is it just impossible to

0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.600
<v Speaker 1>go back to what he perceives as another time and place.

0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.680
<v Speaker 1>Political nostalgia is is something that's present everywhere, and of

0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.000
<v Speaker 1>course it also was manifested in the in the Brexit debate.

0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:38.600
<v Speaker 1>And and part of what I think it harkens back

0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.919
<v Speaker 1>to is actually a desire for much more simple times.

0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:45.000
<v Speaker 1>And when you heard the president's press conference today at

0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:50.200
<v Speaker 1>NATO in Brussels, he spoke in big, clear themes not

0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:54.720
<v Speaker 1>about the detail when he was asked about specifics. Um.

0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:57.680
<v Speaker 1>But he doesn't have nostalgia for the soul superpower moment,

0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.239
<v Speaker 1>that's quite clear. And he's been very consistent about saying

0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:06.000
<v Speaker 1>he thought that that that wasn't fair, wasn't fair burden sharing,

0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.680
<v Speaker 1>And a lot of Americans agree with him. The City

0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.800
<v Speaker 1>Group cares about Brexit obviously with the city and with

0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:15.840
<v Speaker 1>the financial commitment that Mr Corbatt and others have made.

0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:20.160
<v Speaker 1>Interpret for us this silly white paper that's coming out.

0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:22.720
<v Speaker 1>Will anyone read it, I guess is the first question?

0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:25.440
<v Speaker 1>But what's it mean for the city in the financial

0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:31.359
<v Speaker 1>sector in Are you a London optimist? Well, um, that's

0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:33.440
<v Speaker 1>a that's a mixed bag. I'm not sure a lot

0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:35.760
<v Speaker 1>of people will read the white paper, including members of

0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:39.240
<v Speaker 1>the cabinet. We we have, of course moving away from

0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:43.960
<v Speaker 1>expertise and fact based analysis. Um. I think we can

0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:46.760
<v Speaker 1>observe here in London though, that the so called hard

0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:50.640
<v Speaker 1>bregsit tears are really running against a brick wall in

0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.760
<v Speaker 1>terms of their optimism about realizing their vision and of

0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.560
<v Speaker 1>course hard bregsit means no access to the Custom Union

0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.360
<v Speaker 1>and everything else in terms of the City of London

0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:04.360
<v Speaker 1>and of course the companies that I talked to. I

0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.000
<v Speaker 1>spend a lot of time going and talking to CEOs

0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:11.200
<v Speaker 1>all around Europe, in particular. Um companies have been making

0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.360
<v Speaker 1>their plans for some time now. They're not going to

0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:15.480
<v Speaker 1>wait until a white paper is out, and we saw

0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:19.040
<v Speaker 1>an announcement from Arabis for example, with that end point.

0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:22.360
<v Speaker 1>Please tell us tomorrow when we interview you. You'll be

0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:26.279
<v Speaker 1>at Blenhem tonight for dinner. Absolutely, it's just a question

0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:31.200
<v Speaker 1>of which which diamonds time which. Thank you so much.

0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:33.120
<v Speaker 1>You've been a trooper today to be with us. The

0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.520
<v Speaker 1>extended comments of the President of the United States and

0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:39.400
<v Speaker 1>Brussels was Fortum is of course with City Group, their

0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:59.720
<v Speaker 1>chief global political analysts. Let's focus on what's going on

0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:03.520
<v Speaker 1>in the world economy. And what's great about is Mickey

0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:07.240
<v Speaker 1>Levy's seen every episode of Downton Nabby, so it works well.

0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:09.960
<v Speaker 1>And he's probably visited Jerome Avenue at one point. To

0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:14.000
<v Speaker 1>Mickey Levy is the chief market economist, is the chief

0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:16.840
<v Speaker 1>economist rather for the United States, America's and Asia for

0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.039
<v Speaker 1>Barrenburg Capital, and he joins us here in our eleven

0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.080
<v Speaker 1>three O studios. Mickey, thank you very much for being

0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:26.320
<v Speaker 1>with US UM. Now you know, I should just also

0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:30.640
<v Speaker 1>mention that you served as at Blenheim Capital Management, so

0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:34.360
<v Speaker 1>there's a kind of relationship there. What do you make

0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:37.360
<v Speaker 1>of what's happening in the world's economy. Do you think

0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.279
<v Speaker 1>that the United States is out of sync with what

0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:44.520
<v Speaker 1>is happening globally? Or is the United States leading? Uh

0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:51.839
<v Speaker 1>the trend in in economic performance. Last year, there was

0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:59.159
<v Speaker 1>extraordinary synchronization in global growth, particularly Europe, Japan, the US,

0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.200
<v Speaker 1>all of them were growing way faster than potential, and

0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:06.680
<v Speaker 1>emerging nations were doing well. This year, UH, Europe has

0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.080
<v Speaker 1>slowed down a bit but is still healthy on average.

0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.000
<v Speaker 1>Japan is still has slowed down but on average, and

0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:18.480
<v Speaker 1>the US has a lot of momentum okay, and emerging

0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.960
<v Speaker 1>nations are still doing well. So the global economies are

0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:26.920
<v Speaker 1>doing well. UM. But what's so extraordinary? I just watched

0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:31.320
<v Speaker 1>the President Trump at NATO and his questions and answers.

0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:38.920
<v Speaker 1>Is the dynamics going on in the world, both in economics, politics,

0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:46.160
<v Speaker 1>UM and and trade negotiations and NATO negotia. It's just extraordinary.

0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.600
<v Speaker 1>And when we when we think about what's what's going on? Yes,

0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:56.720
<v Speaker 1>the US is speaking from a position of strength um

0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:01.280
<v Speaker 1>within Europe. Despite everything okay on average, we all know

0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:06.800
<v Speaker 1>that that there are major problems in in Italy, we

0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:12.760
<v Speaker 1>know there's Brexit issues, we know Germany is very fragile politically,

0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:16.880
<v Speaker 1>UM one point I I and and and amid all this,

0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.040
<v Speaker 1>China continues to grow rapidly in China just wants to

0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:24.480
<v Speaker 1>keep everything, including all their trade and investment policies, just

0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:28.120
<v Speaker 1>the way they are and and so won't make it

0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.280
<v Speaker 1>happen that that's correct. So one of the insights I

0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:33.440
<v Speaker 1>get out of this, it confirms my view is that

0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:39.760
<v Speaker 1>President Trump is this very erratic, um and chaotic, but

0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:45.040
<v Speaker 1>very tough negotiator that likes to poke the eye of

0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:48.480
<v Speaker 1>the establishment. And you have all the NATO members just

0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:52.280
<v Speaker 1>basically saying, you know, everything's been okay, um, let's keep

0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:55.240
<v Speaker 1>things the way they are and and be nice to yea.

0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:58.920
<v Speaker 1>But Trump comes in and basically says, wait a second,

0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.000
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna ruffle every everybody's feathers. And so one insight

0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:07.960
<v Speaker 1>from this is in Trump's mind, he does he thinks

0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:14.160
<v Speaker 1>about trade negotiations in the same breadth this thinking about Russia,

0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:21.080
<v Speaker 1>the pipeline, China, UH, NATO it's all intermingled and and

0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.600
<v Speaker 1>he but wouldn't that confirm the idea that that that

0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.840
<v Speaker 1>we are in some kind of global world where things

0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:32.000
<v Speaker 1>are interconnected and that one thing does affect another thing. Oh? Absolutely.

0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:35.600
<v Speaker 1>And another thing to keep in mind is that when

0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:40.760
<v Speaker 1>you look at the world from Europe's perspective, or Japan's,

0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:45.520
<v Speaker 1>or China's perspective, or the US, every country desperately needs

0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:50.640
<v Speaker 1>each other for trading. And so Trump is pushing the envelope,

0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:57.240
<v Speaker 1>but ultimately every country will ultimately be willing to negotiate.

0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:00.560
<v Speaker 1>And and so one insight I got from today is

0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:04.720
<v Speaker 1>just you know, Trump is going to um push China,

0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.280
<v Speaker 1>and China will eventually give in on some of their

0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:11.080
<v Speaker 1>unfair trade practices. And and there were several comments today

0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:15.000
<v Speaker 1>in the in the in the press conference about UM

0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:18.679
<v Speaker 1>Russia and Putin. Well, he's headed to and and I

0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.760
<v Speaker 1>think Putin has more He wants to meet with with

0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:24.839
<v Speaker 1>Trump more than Trump wants to meet with Putin, be

0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:29.160
<v Speaker 1>as they desperately need something. You know, the natural gas

0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:33.120
<v Speaker 1>issues critically important. Thank you very much. Mickey Levy is

0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:37.160
<v Speaker 1>chief economist for Barrenburg Capital for the United States, America's

0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:54.160
<v Speaker 1>and Asia Pim, why don't you bring in Dr Paraculis

0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:59.600
<v Speaker 1>with some really interesting perspective not only on the president

0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:04.480
<v Speaker 1>and an extensive press conference, but that European response as well. Well.

0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:06.360
<v Speaker 1>I just want to bring him in as the assistant

0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:11.640
<v Speaker 1>project director for the US Project at the Chatham House. UH.

0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:16.120
<v Speaker 1>Previously he worked for Action on Armed Violence, and he

0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.960
<v Speaker 1>is a native of Lewiston, Maine, so he's got the

0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.000
<v Speaker 1>perspective from both sides of the pond. Jacob, thank you

0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:26.559
<v Speaker 1>very much for being with us. What did you make

0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:31.959
<v Speaker 1>of the president's news conference today? It's been a fairly

0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.640
<v Speaker 1>chaotic twenty four hours. Um. It's hard to have one

0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:40.560
<v Speaker 1>sort of singular takeaway unless you look back and remember

0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:45.400
<v Speaker 1>that actually the President has been um critical of multilateral

0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:49.480
<v Speaker 1>institutions and of NATO and of NATO allies for well,

0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.319
<v Speaker 1>going back through his campaign and even before that. He

0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:56.000
<v Speaker 1>looks at what he sees as the balance sheet, and

0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.600
<v Speaker 1>it's important to draw the distinction before what he sees

0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.280
<v Speaker 1>of the balance sheet and what other American political observers

0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:04.680
<v Speaker 1>or the rest of US might see as the balance sheet. Um,

0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.559
<v Speaker 1>and just he's debt. So he comes into the the

0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:12.320
<v Speaker 1>NATO summit and demands that Europe pay more, and then

0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:15.280
<v Speaker 1>and then demands that they your pay even more than

0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.599
<v Speaker 1>anyone has really considered in the past. The target is

0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:23.480
<v Speaker 1>two percent of annual GDP, and that's a target for UM.

0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.240
<v Speaker 1>He then makes the claim that Europe should aim for

0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:28.960
<v Speaker 1>four percent, which not even the US bends. It's an

0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:34.440
<v Speaker 1>extraordinary increase and essentially an unmetable demand. UM. There were

0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:36.760
<v Speaker 1>then a storm of headlines this morning that he had

0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:40.120
<v Speaker 1>threatened to quote go his own way, which is an implicit,

0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.520
<v Speaker 1>if not explicit, threat to the US participation in NATO,

0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:46.280
<v Speaker 1>and then has a press conference where he more or

0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:48.920
<v Speaker 1>less walked back and says, well, now I think more

0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:52.880
<v Speaker 1>money has been coming in. UM. I deserve credit for this. UM.

0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.120
<v Speaker 1>So it's it's it's this, this incredible storm of confusion,

0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.920
<v Speaker 1>which I think has drowned out any prospect of any

0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.880
<v Speaker 1>other foreign progress. The summit. Well, I'm just wondering, why

0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:05.400
<v Speaker 1>do you believe that it is an unmidable demand. I mean,

0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:10.840
<v Speaker 1>the United States the defense budget nearly you know, seven

0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:17.240
<v Speaker 1>billion dollars. The next largest spender in dollar terms is

0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:22.120
<v Speaker 1>the United Kingdom at fifty five billion, France at forty five,

0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:27.160
<v Speaker 1>Germany at forty five and based on fiscal year twenty nine,

0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:33.280
<v Speaker 1>forty billion is what we just spend on the Marine Corps. Well,

0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.880
<v Speaker 1>it's important to remember that the US has a completely

0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.640
<v Speaker 1>different conception and a completely different and vastly larger set

0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:44.080
<v Speaker 1>of global roles for its military than any European country.

0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:48.000
<v Speaker 1>What we're talking about NATO defense. Actually most of the

0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:51.920
<v Speaker 1>U s military is not engaged in the European theater.

0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.000
<v Speaker 1>It's a relatively small portion, so it's a little bit

0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.360
<v Speaker 1>I mean, you know, measuring military strength and military spending

0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.840
<v Speaker 1>is incredibly tricky. The two percent goal, I think is

0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:07.040
<v Speaker 1>not a particularly effective one. It's it's agreed upon because

0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:09.800
<v Speaker 1>it's a nice, easy sort of tagline. It. It goes

0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.400
<v Speaker 1>some way towards demonstrating commitment, but some capabilities are very expensive.

0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:18.120
<v Speaker 1>Others are perhaps more niche but incredibly effective and come

0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:20.559
<v Speaker 1>much more cheaply. Um, I think there needs to be

0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:22.319
<v Speaker 1>a better way of measuring it. But you have to

0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:25.560
<v Speaker 1>remember that the the US is a global military actor,

0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:28.200
<v Speaker 1>and no European country is or aspires to be. So

0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.520
<v Speaker 1>there's not really a political appetite in any European country

0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:35.120
<v Speaker 1>to have the kind even at a sort of the

0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:39.120
<v Speaker 1>same population based scale, the same kind of global role

0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:42.679
<v Speaker 1>of the U stuff. Did you hear the president's press conference,

0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:47.200
<v Speaker 1>Dr Parr, I I heard, I heard some of it.

0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:48.960
<v Speaker 1>I wasn't able to listen to the entire thing. But

0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:53.400
<v Speaker 1>I think the American media, whatever their persuasion, conservative, liberal, whatever,

0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.560
<v Speaker 1>well fact check this thing to death. For you. As

0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:02.440
<v Speaker 1>a grizzled military slash internet sational politics pro does that

0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:09.040
<v Speaker 1>press conference need fact checking? I think to some degree

0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:13.920
<v Speaker 1>the fact checking kind of misses the point because at

0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.680
<v Speaker 1>this point is pretty well established that the president plays

0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:19.520
<v Speaker 1>fast and loose with numbers. He talks about numbers which

0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:23.640
<v Speaker 1>are either exaggerated or not really the mass that anybody

0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:27.120
<v Speaker 1>else is using. Um, that's that's kind of established at

0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:31.160
<v Speaker 1>this point. Um. He didn't really say anything in that

0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:34.600
<v Speaker 1>press conference that we haven't heard him say many times before.

0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.080
<v Speaker 1>NATO was not meeting its obligations. They're beginning to meet

0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:40.920
<v Speaker 1>their obligations now thanks to me. Uh. They need to

0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:43.800
<v Speaker 1>do more. They need to do even more in the future. Uh.

0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.040
<v Speaker 1>Europe has been unfair to the US on trade. It's

0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:49.800
<v Speaker 1>sort of the greatest hits parade of Trump's complaints about

0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.480
<v Speaker 1>American allies in Europe um So in the sense that

0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.080
<v Speaker 1>a lot of that's either misleading or untrue. Yes, it

0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:58.640
<v Speaker 1>needs fact checking. But in terms of you know, did

0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:01.520
<v Speaker 1>he say, are there new claims that need fact checking,

0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:07.720
<v Speaker 1>they're not not, particularly Jacob. As far as defense spending

0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:11.440
<v Speaker 1>goes in Europe, do you believe that there will see

0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:19.240
<v Speaker 1>more defense contracts for US arms from European partners. Well,

0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.720
<v Speaker 1>here's the problem with Trump's negotiating strategy. I think it's

0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:26.880
<v Speaker 1>not unreasonable to expect that European companies on your European

0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:31.200
<v Speaker 1>countries rather are looking at areas where they could procure

0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:34.800
<v Speaker 1>from American companies by way of demonstrating commitment in the

0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.280
<v Speaker 1>way that Trump likes to see. The problem with making

0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:41.680
<v Speaker 1>a an unprecedented ask like a four percent defense spend

0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.680
<v Speaker 1>is it's going to convince those coun countries that there's

0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:46.920
<v Speaker 1>no point in trying to play at him, that no

0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:52.720
<v Speaker 1>amount of buying Rocky planes or uh Cult rifles or

0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:57.720
<v Speaker 1>any other American product is going to fundamentally change the

0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:02.040
<v Speaker 1>nature of the President's belief and essentially, either an alternative

0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.040
<v Speaker 1>arrangement has to be made or they have to figure

0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:09.320
<v Speaker 1>out of back up plans. Um So I think if

0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.400
<v Speaker 1>you'd made if he touched his demands a little bit

0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.960
<v Speaker 1>more reasonable, there might be more uh more there there.

0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.080
<v Speaker 1>But I think there's a sense in which he's kind

0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:21.600
<v Speaker 1>of pushed too far and actually harmed the negotiating position. Well,

0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:23.360
<v Speaker 1>we have run out of time, but we will do

0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.000
<v Speaker 1>this again. Thank you so much. Jacob Pericles is with

0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:31.080
<v Speaker 1>Chadow Mouse out of the London School of Economics and

0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:48.080
<v Speaker 1>wonderful to speak to him today on these many issues. Um,

0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.680
<v Speaker 1>let's pay attention now to Brexit, and I want to

0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:56.440
<v Speaker 1>bring in Victoria Houston, who is International Senior Council for

0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.040
<v Speaker 1>International Trade in the Competition Unit for the Institute of

0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:05.520
<v Speaker 1>Economic Affairs. Victoria, I'm just wondering, based on what you

0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:10.639
<v Speaker 1>know about the plan for Brexit, what exactly do you

0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:15.720
<v Speaker 1>believe Britain is prepared to do right now other than

0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:18.880
<v Speaker 1>put out a white paper? Are they prepared to leave

0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:25.199
<v Speaker 1>the European Union. Well, this has been one of the

0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:29.879
<v Speaker 1>great bones of contention that the Brexit supporting members of

0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.360
<v Speaker 1>the government have had, which is that effectively there's been

0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:39.600
<v Speaker 1>very little to no preparation for leaving the Customs Union

0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:43.199
<v Speaker 1>and the Single Market actually done in operational terms and

0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.080
<v Speaker 1>the concern is that that had left us in a

0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:49.399
<v Speaker 1>very weak position in terms of negotiations with the European Union,

0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:52.719
<v Speaker 1>because they know that we're not really in a position

0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.200
<v Speaker 1>to be able to walk away with no deal. Therefore

0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.000
<v Speaker 1>we will have to accept whatever it is they're willing

0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.600
<v Speaker 1>to give us. That's a UM certainly not something that

0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:05.520
<v Speaker 1>UM the Prime Minister and the Treasury would accept. That.

0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:07.480
<v Speaker 1>They would probably argue that there's been a lot of

0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.240
<v Speaker 1>preparation going on behind the scenes. It's not all visible.

0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.320
<v Speaker 1>But unfortunately that seems to be the perception that UM,

0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.320
<v Speaker 1>that a lot of people have in this country. Well, Victoria,

0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.080
<v Speaker 1>I wonder if you could just offer one example of

0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.440
<v Speaker 1>let's say the ferry business, you know, the shipping companies,

0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.440
<v Speaker 1>and what steps they are taking, if any, in order

0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:32.480
<v Speaker 1>to prepare for what might happen after March that's the

0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:37.240
<v Speaker 1>Brexit deadline. Yeah, that's a great example actually, because there's

0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:41.280
<v Speaker 1>there's a bit of a split here between the ferry

0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.760
<v Speaker 1>operators and ports who operate on the short crossing between

0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:49.040
<v Speaker 1>England and France, the DOVIDs Calais route, and that's actually

0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:53.679
<v Speaker 1>where the vast majority of UK to EU trade routes

0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:58.960
<v Speaker 1>through and that's really a very friction list. Lori's drive

0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:03.440
<v Speaker 1>onto the ferry at Dover, or drive onto the Eurotunnel

0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.080
<v Speaker 1>and then drive off the other side, and and that's

0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:09.760
<v Speaker 1>the that's the transit. It's finished now. For them, it's

0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.880
<v Speaker 1>a very it's a very big deal if you're introducing

0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:15.840
<v Speaker 1>new frictions to that process, so they're very worried. On

0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.320
<v Speaker 1>the other hand, the other ports, for example on the

0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:24.240
<v Speaker 1>east coast of England Um, which are much bigger ports

0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:27.439
<v Speaker 1>that deal with containerized shipping, they're quite excited about this

0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.040
<v Speaker 1>because this is a huge opportunity for them to win

0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.120
<v Speaker 1>back some of that business from the short crossing. However,

0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:36.199
<v Speaker 1>both sets of businesses need to know what exactly it

0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:38.000
<v Speaker 1>is they're preparing for in order to be able to

0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:40.720
<v Speaker 1>make the investments, to to really make the most of

0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:43.920
<v Speaker 1>it in the one case, or to to mistigate the

0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:49.520
<v Speaker 1>difficulties on the other hand. Victoria's you brilliantly describe just

0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:54.439
<v Speaker 1>one example of the micro analysis of how logistics and

0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:59.160
<v Speaker 1>all will work. I'm sorry it reeks. Richard Neville, sixteenth

0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:03.000
<v Speaker 1>Earl of war Work Warwick rather and the Wars of

0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.640
<v Speaker 1>the Roses. I mean, it's like history is just still there.

0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:10.359
<v Speaker 1>There's this island, there's a channel, and there's Europe and

0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:14.480
<v Speaker 1>they have these there's tensions that are always out there

0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.800
<v Speaker 1>in the modern age. Bring you know the Earl of Work,

0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:23.679
<v Speaker 1>the Earl of Salisbury over the Heathrow. How does Heathrow operate?

0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:32.159
<v Speaker 1>Is you see the new Brexit? So again the realities

0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.520
<v Speaker 1>of international trade in in in the modern era um

0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:37.760
<v Speaker 1>fast forwarding a little bit from the from the Wars

0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:40.159
<v Speaker 1>of the Roses um is that as long as you

0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:42.600
<v Speaker 1>have the systems and processes in place, it can be

0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:46.440
<v Speaker 1>very low friction. So the vast majority of trade coming

0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:50.000
<v Speaker 1>into the United Kingdom from outside the Customers Union is

0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:54.360
<v Speaker 1>cleared within minutes or hours wrong win days, and it's

0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:58.000
<v Speaker 1>all then the vast vast majority isn't subject to any

0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:01.320
<v Speaker 1>physical inspection at all. It's all then by means of

0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:05.840
<v Speaker 1>electronic pre clearance and risk assessment. So as long as

0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.359
<v Speaker 1>you have the systems and protos in place to do it,

0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:14.199
<v Speaker 1>you can actually have very fact effective blue friction trade

0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:17.000
<v Speaker 1>from outside Customs Union. In fact, I think you can

0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:21.040
<v Speaker 1>probably recognize that in the case of the acting Canada,

0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:26.320
<v Speaker 1>you have a very effective fast border where automotive pie

0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:29.960
<v Speaker 1>chains on the side of that border. But even Victoria,

0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:31.800
<v Speaker 1>we've got to leave it there. We're out of time.

0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:36.399
<v Speaker 1>Victoria Houston, thank you so much, Senior Council UH International

0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:39.440
<v Speaker 1>Trading Competition Unit for i EA. This was really really

0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.480
<v Speaker 1>if my love how, thank you so much. Victoria here,

0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:45.680
<v Speaker 1>my love how we try once in a while to

0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:49.120
<v Speaker 1>talk to people that are like worried about Okay, when

0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:52.040
<v Speaker 1>this is all done, can the cows go from point

0:21:52.040 --> 0:22:00.200
<v Speaker 1>A to point be in Ireland? Thanks for listening to

0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:04.800
<v Speaker 1>the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast. Subscribe and listen to interviews on

0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:10.720
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or whichever podcast platform you prefer. I'm

0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:14.040
<v Speaker 1>on Twitter at Tom Keane before the podcast. You can

0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.240
<v Speaker 1>always catch us worldwide. I'm Bloomberg Radio.