Hello and welcome to the programme. More countries closed their borders to travellers from britain on monday, butjust as we go on air the french government says it will announce measures today that would allow transport links with britain to resume and trade to flow across the channel again. The channel is a vital trade route for the uk, with about 10,000 lorries a day travelling between dover and calais in peak periods such as christmas, largely bringing in the freshest produce. Supermarkets here insist they are well stocked for christmas, and the Prime Minister stressed in a press conference that the majority of goods are still able to get through. In a moment well be looking at the impact on our wider exports and supply chains. But first food. Joining me now is ian wright cbe, ceo of the food and drink federation. Welcome to you. Thanks very much for being with us. How has this banani much for being with us. How has this ba nani stacked much for being with us. How has this banani st
Today mps will vote on the restrictions imposed in englands Third National lockdown. Prime minister Boris Johnson is expected to make a statement to the commons after the house is recalled. Meanwhile, Business Leaders are pleading for more help. Despite a further £4. 6 billon pounds thats 6. 25 billion funding package announced by the chancellor, independent retailers say the funds dont go far enough to help Small Businesses in crisis. Andrew goodacre is chief executive of the british independent retailers association. Good morning to you. What do you estimate is required for the independent retailers to stay afloat . I think we have to put it into the context that we have experience for the past ten months, so in the past a0 weeks, many non essential businesses have been closed for half of that time, and when they have been open the football has been lower than normal so this sales have been between ten and 20 lower, so we enter into an open lockdown, not sure when the end will be, a
Joe biden will today be inaugurated as the president of the United States. Hes expected to start making waves the minute he takes office. Top of his agenda will be passing the 1. 9 trillion stimulus plan to help the country recover from the Economic Impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The theme for the inauguration will be America United and it will mark the start of a 10 day marathon of executive action on what he calls the four crises the country is facing covid 19, the economic downturn, Racial Injustice and climate change. So what are his main plans for the economy . Heres Michelle Fleury from new york. Four years of the outgoing president have been good for wall street, and so, apparently, is his departure. The s p 500 has surged nearly 10 since election day and joe biden s victory. But wall Street Investors should not be confused with everyone else. The economic landscape is grim. 10 millionjobs remain lost because of the pandemic. Consumers and businesses are struggling to sta
To a trade deal. And this is how the Financial Markets are trading now in asia. Japan seeing a more than 3 fall. More detail then on the huge sell off on global stock markets, which over the past 2a hours have seen their heaviest losses in years, as investors become more nervous about the growing spread of the deadly coronavirus. In the uk, the ftse 100 fell by 3. 3 by mondays close, which is its biggest daily drop since january 2016. In italy, which has seen europes worst outbreak of the virus, milans stock market plunged by almost 6 . On wall street the falls continued, with the dow, s p 500 and nasdaq all sinking by more than 3 . Thats their sharpest declines since 2018. More now from our north American Business correspondent, samira hussain. Thats their sharpest declines since 2018. More now from our north American Business wall street is spooked clearly. The massive falls on us Financial Markets makes that point. Investors are scared the impact of coronavirus could mean a prolonge
To try to be kind after a twitter row broke out after uk chancellor rishi sunak posted a picture of him using yorkshire teabags to make cuppas for other treasury staff. The image led to calls by some twitter users to boycott the brand. The company said it had been pretty shocked by the outcry, reminding people that labour Leaderjeremy Corbyn had also posed with its products in 2017. So lets begin with Fiona Cincotta whos Senior Market analyst at city index. Welcome back. We pick bbc news online because this is a story that has not made the physical papers today, that being the whos papers today, that being the whos conclusion about whether this is a pandemic or not. They are hedging their bets, arent they . Thats right, at the moment they are saying it is not a pandemic, they looking at the number of countries with an outbreak, the severity and impact on society is not at pandemic level, and just to clarify, pandemic here is when it is Infectious Disease that spreads easily from person