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Hello and welcome to World Business Report from the BBC World Service. I'm Rahul Tandon. On this edition, how easy is it to be patriotic and only buy goods made in your country? Quite difficult, it seems. And I said, well, if I'm going to be working with manufacturers, the least I can do is support them by buying things made in USA. So I said, I'm going to buy everything made in the US. And I had to quickly backtrack on that one. And why playing the car radio is set to become much more expensive.
in Zimbabwe. But let's start the programme by talking about steel and a possible merger that looks like it is about to go ahead. We're talking about Japan's largest steelmaker, Nippon Steel, and its $15 billion plans to take over US steel. They were, of course, put on hold by President Biden, but President Trump in the last few days has now given the plans a green light.
It'll be controlled by the United States. Otherwise, I wouldn't make the deal. I went to the unions, to all of the local unions. They all wanted it. And I'm doing it because all of the congressmen came in, about five of them. And the others, I understand, are in concurrence. And they asked that I do it. Everybody seems to want it.
And we'll see. I mean, you know, we'll see what the final is. But they're going to invest millions of dollars in steel. And it's a good company. Details of the deal have been sketchy. But a short while ago, the Republican senator, Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania, gave more details of the deal to the U.S. network CNBC.
Nippon has agreed to invest $14 billion into a new investment into U.S. Steel. And then the control structure is going to be somewhat unique. It's a national security agreement that will be signed with U.S. government. It'll be a U.S. CEO, a U.S. majority board. And then there'll be a golden share, which will essentially require U.S. government approval of a number of the board members. And that will allow the United States to ensure production levels aren't cut and things like that.
Let's hear from Chris Kelly now. He's the mayor of West Mifflin, a steel town in Pennsylvania. Chris, thanks so much for joining us on the programme. Thank you for having me. Give our listeners across the world a sense of how important steel is to your town, because you have the Irwin works there, don't you?
Yes, I was born and raised in a steel town, Homestead, which is right down the road. And the entire Pittsburgh region was based on the steel industry. So thousands and thousands of jobs were created. And we lost a lot. We lost 200,000 jobs.
during the recession area. And this is a resurgence that's going to create generational jobs. These jobs are well-paying jobs. It's going to create 7,000 jobs just to do the modifications to the steel plant that Nippon's agreeing to do. So it's huge. Yeah.
So the president said this deal is going to go ahead. We heard that, didn't we, from the Republican Senator Dave McCormack. A bit more details of the deal. Are you confident it's going to happen? And are you happy with the sort of details that the senator was talking about?
It has been a roller coaster for the last two years. You feel good, and then all of a sudden something else has happened. But when President Trump ordered another CFIUS review, and that is the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, we thought, wow, that's the best way to go. Because the first CFIUS report indicated there is no national security threat.
So we were confident that the second CFIUS report would be exactly the same. So we are elated. I have met numerous times with the individuals from Nippon Steel, Mr. Mori, Mr. Ono, wonderful people. They have a track record of helping communities and doing exactly what they said. And it's unbelievable.
You know, they offer – there's going to be 10 years of guaranteed work. Nobody does that in the corporate world right now. No plant layoffs, no plant closings, 10 years of guaranteed work. And when they do this – well, go ahead. Sorry. No, no, no. What I was going to say is that is what – you know, that's what people say. But, you know, there are the union –
The Steel Workers Union, they don't believe that, do they? And also many people, well, one minute, and you'll remember this. If you go back to the 70s when all that Japanese steel was dumped in the US, that caused problems in towns like yours. Some worry that could happen again. Well, it won't be Japanese steel. It's going to be mined in America, made in America by American workers. So it's not going to be dumping of the steel.
And the union workers that were against it was the international president who had a side agenda of
of trying to destroy United States steel. The actual union people that are the local unions were overwhelmingly in favor of this. That is true. That is true. But listen, here's a statement from the Steelworkers Union. OK, we spoke to the U.S. Steel is a critical producer in a critical domestic industry and our concerns about Nippon, a foreign corporation with a long track record of violating U.S. trade laws,
remain and diminish. And a lot of your steel workers initially were against this, even the local ones. They've changed their minds, haven't they? Over the last two years, it's because they've met with them. We've travelled to different plants that they have, and they've seen the commitment. When we went to a plant in Follansby, West Virginia, and the
met with the union down there. He said, we've had one grievance in 12 years. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Nippon. They're just honorable people and they put up the money and they make a cleaner steel, a better product.
And they have the money for modifications that we need. Chris, stay with us. I want to bring in George Conboy, chairman of Brighton Securities in upstate New York. This is an extremely important case, isn't it? Not just for the steel industry, but it has other ramifications in terms of foreign companies coming into the U.S. in what are seen as sensitive areas.
Sure. A lot, a lot, Rahul, of foreign policy and economic policy implications here. The question is, can we have a foreign owner come in and buy this asset? But as the mayor just said, those people in Pennsylvania are going to go to work every day and make steel in Pennsylvania.
And whether Nippon owns the shares or the current shareholders own the shares or you, Rahul, or I go buy the shares, those people are still rolling steel every day in Pennsylvania. And I think that's what the administration is coming down on the side of. Yeah, because Donald Trump changed his policy on this. Initially, didn't he, in the campaign, he talked about opposing the deal. He has now changed his mind on this. Chris, if Nippon Steel, if this deal...
didn't go through, wouldn't go through. What would that mean for your town? How many jobs would go in the steel industry? And it's not just the steel industry. That affects the whole economy, doesn't it? Oh, absolutely. For every steel worker's job, there's seven cursory jobs that are affected. Our community, we would have survived because we're much bigger. But some of the other communities...
like Clareton, 70% of their municipal budget relies on U.S. Steel. And that's where the coke is produced. And that goes to Edgar Thompson, which is in Braddock. 80% of their budget comes from that U.S. Steel plant. They would have lost that. All those taxes to provide services, basic services, police, fire, ambulance, would have been passed on to the public. And that wasn't right. So we have a lifeline here, and we're ecstatic.
Chris, we're going to keep in touch with you if you don't mind. Let's see what happens over the next few weeks with this story. But thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Not at all. It's been a real pleasure. George, it looks like this deal is going to go through. What's going to be important are the details of it. Right. How much capital gets invested, how quickly it gets invested, whether it really turns out to be a good deal remains to be seen. But it seems likely to me. Jack?
Japanese automakers have had plants in the U.S. for decades now. Those seem to go on just fine. Manufacturing Hondas and Toyotas and Subarus here, and everyone seems to be happy. So I think there's cause for optimism on this deal. Okay, we were talking about Japan. Let's talk about China now, one of its best-known companies, Xin, which has perhaps become the dominant player in that most lucrative of markets, young people shopping.
But it's facing challenges, challenged by regulators around the world over its supply chains, how it treats its workers and, of course, its environmental credentials. But it is very popular. Rehab Le Trash in Paris spoke to these sheen shoppers about why that is the case. The prices are very low. There are many, many, many clothes. So if you want this, you have this. If you want this, you have this. And they copy the clothes of others in the social media.
For example, TikTok. So if you want something, you have it. Do you shop at Shein? Yes. Well, it's very cheap, so it's good. I see that they try to copy certain brands. And this is why I think a lot of people like this Shein. For people, I guess...
because it's cheap and it's easy and it comes in two seconds. So I'd say that's the attraction. What do you think of the website? Well, the website is brilliant because you find everything in one minute. So I think the website is made for people to buy more.
Further problems now for SHEIN. The European Union has accused it of offering fake discounts, pressure selling and other practices. It says breach European law. The bloc has given the company one month to respond to its findings or face fines based on sales in the EU countries where it has breached those laws. Let's get the thoughts from the European Consumer Organization, the BEUC, the umbrella group for 44 independent consumer organizations from 31 countries who wanted action taken today.
Augustine Renier is their Director General and he's been speaking to my colleague, Wilbur.
So while on one hand it's extremely easy to use, as we hear from the different testimonies, we also have identified practices that lead to overconsumption and even to mislead consumers as to, for example, their rights under European law. For example, if a product is defective, whether you can return it, receive a refund, and also being able to contact the company if something goes wrong. Just explain how that's different, though, to say, I mean, all...
apps now, Instagram, any of the meta products, all American products, of course, most apps are literally designed, aren't they, to keep people on there. And most shopping experiences are designed to keep you shopping there. Almost every retailer on the planet is doing this. Why is it a particular problem with this one? Indeed, I think this one is one of many. This is a widespread phenomenon, what we call dark patterns. So these platforms, they design the user interface and
to keep consumers hooked. I think what makes Shane special is the scale. They are basically getting in every single phone of consumers and on top of deploying this type of practices, they are also exposing consumers to dangerous products. For example, many of the testing conducted
over the clothes and garments bought through Shane contains illegal chemicals, and consumers are simply not aware of this. At the same time, Shane, together with Temu, became one of the largest platforms to ship products into the EU. But it's extremely difficult to police all these products because they enter via tiny parcels. Just in terms of those, I hear exactly what you're saying, Mr. Rayner, in terms of standards, and you want to keep people safe as well. But
The other side of it, just the fact that it's successful and it sells a lot of stuff. I mean, would you be doing this if this was a European company? Is this just because it's a Chinese company? No.
No, I don't think it's because SB is a Chinese company. We have legislation that we expect everybody to comply with these rules. And for example, when the National Consumer Organization, they test products, they also compare to what is available in the domestic markets. And something that we have identified is that many of the products bought through these Chinese online marketplaces are non-compliant. While the same products or the same type of products that we find, let's say, in brick and mortar shops,
are compliant. So here we have a clear... So you're kind of saying it's an unfair advantage, basically. It is an unfair advantage for the European companies or those, not only European companies, those companies are trying to comply with the rules here in Europe and in the UK.
Augustine Rayner there and Shane have told us they are going to demonstrate or trying to demonstrate to the EU Commission their commitment to complying with EU laws and regulations. But the simple fact is, George, that we do now, because of the world, look at this through the prism of it's a Chinese company, don't we? And say, is that the reason for this? Well, it sounds like that's part of the reason. You approached it yourself when you said, listen, just because they designed an interface that's really good, that consumers like,
Being successful is not a reason just to regulate. If they're misleading consumers and they don't follow the rules, by all means, crack down. But your guest did say early in his comment that it leads to overconsumption. Well, I don't think most consumers want a government watchdog to decide whether you buy one more blouse or one more appliance for your home.
And that seems to be a little bit of overreach on the part of the EU. George, thank you very much for that. Your With Will business report from the BBC World Service. Now, this is a story that did catch our attention because Zimbabwe signed into law a bill that requires all drivers to buy a car radio licence before a vehicle can legally be on the road. There's been quite an outcry over the fee. Happy Zengeni Maniere is a businesswoman based in Harare in Zimbabwe.
They've been talking about it for the longest time. I think it's been a couple of years now. The problem is, is mainly compliance. Compliance has been so poor that they sometimes do roadblocks. They sometimes just come and knock on people's doors. So this is one way of pushing for compliance. It's not an optional law. People have to comply. What have Zimbabweans made of this?
New law coming in because people are struggling anyway financially. This is another burden on them, isn't it? Well, it's not a burden because it was a law that exists. So people were, it was not an optional law. It's now harder for people to evade because they are now compelled to actually renew your license every time you renew your car vehicle license.
So that's going to push up compliance, which is a good thing for government. But for people who were evading this law, there might be an additional burden, but they were supposed to comply anyway. I'm looking here and it says exemptions are available for motorists without a radio receiver. So basically, won't a lot of people just say, I'll take the radio out of my car and I don't have to pay this then?
That will also be very difficult. You've got to prove that the car was made without a radio, not to take it out and then to say you don't have a radio in the car. So you can't just throw it away and say, yeah, you can't just... No, you can't. No, that's not going to work. Yeah, it's a bizarre thing, yes, that they have to push for compliance this way when there were other avenues where people would comply to...
It will be a burden to people who normally wait, but the law was in existence. This is just an amendment to the law. Annual licence costs $92. A lot of people that I've been reading who've been making comments about this say they don't even listen to the state broadcaster, you know, the ZBC anymore, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. So they say, why should we pay for it?
That's how it's made, that you've got to fund the public broadcaster. There's a current push at the moment for them to just say all radio stations have to benefit from that. If they push through another amendment, I know it's going to come soon because a lot of the radio players, private radio stations are pushing for it, that the money is used to fund all broadcasters in the country.
then everyone has to be compelled to pay for that license. The reason people are getting annoyed about it is because probably the state of the economy means that some people feel they're going to struggle to pay. You run a business. Give us an idea of what it is like running a business in Zimbabwe at the moment.
Well, yes, it's an additional fee. So here in Zim, there are just a lot of fees, a lot of licenses. The tax burden is a lot on this country, corporate tax, income tax. Everything is high and liquidity is very tight. And generally for you as a business in an economy that has struggled so much with high inflation, how is it? What we are having now, there's a bit of price stability. So inflation is coming off a bit higher.
but there is tight liquidity. We are in a multi-currency environment and US dollar inflation here is very high. It's 13.9%. So,
So we've got very high inflation and very tight liquidity because government isn't, well, it's a good thing. They're not printing more money. They're actually following hawkish policies where they don't add to money supply. So there's tight liquidity. Banks are not lending out because of the high statutory reserves. We also have a multi-currency that's limiting the tenure of loans because
which ends in 2030. This is 2025. So you can't get a 20-year mortgage, for instance. Happy there's Zimbabwean businesswoman who's fairly happy about the state of the economy. Some of her compatriots in Zimbabwe are not so happy about that new policy that is coming.
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NASDAQ up 2.5%, all seemingly as a result of the Trump administration saying, well, we're going to work with the EU, we'll talk, we'll make a deal. We're going back and forth from day to day and week to week. Today it's a big tariff, tomorrow it's a delay or a reduction. I think we're happy the market was up today, but I'd rather not live in such interesting times.
OK, another company that's had interesting times is Tesla, closely associated, of course, with Elon Musk. Sales fell across Europe, but pretty good day for its share price.
Yeah, yeah. Tesla's an interesting case, of course. They've relied a lot on government subsidies, both here and abroad. And as far as I'm concerned, I'd love to see them roll back the subsidies. I don't care whether you drive a gas car or electric car, but in terms of traditional valuation metrics, Tesla is valued way above its traditional manufacturing competitors. But that's because it's a tech company, a lot of people would say, not a car company.
It's true, but it's both. They still have to put rubber tires on there. You still have to make a lot of components out of steel. Those folks in Pennsylvania maybe hope to sell more. Yeah. Elon Musk has said, hasn't he, he's going to spend a bit more time on the company, maybe less time in government, which is why that share price went up. Here's an interesting story that's coming while we came on. The U.S. state of Texas has passed a new law requiring Apple and Google to verify the age of their users on their app stores. They don't want to do this. Is that going to be bad for their share prices? Yes.
It might be a little bad for the share price just because verifying age won't be terribly complicated, but it'll do two things.
It will require more protocol and therefore more cost for Apple, but it will also potentially discourage some usage, not just because it'll screen out the 13-year-olds. Nobody wants that. But it may mean that you or I might go to a site and we just don't want the hassle, so we use a different site or we move on or we just don't do that. And both of those things, the
cost and the utilization component will be a mild negative for Apple. But it's a giant, giant company. And each one of these things is just a small part of a very big company. So not a huge impact in the long run. Yeah. Let us see what happens there. Right. We're going to talk about this now. We've talked a lot lately about the global trade war and the new tariffs that are expected to drive up the cost of a lot of foreign made goods. And it's leading some shoppers to lean local. Yeah. But how easy is that really to buy?
Yeah, how easy is it? There's lots of headlines like this in the U.S. Diana Huff is the publisher of the Keep It Made USA blog. She interviews company bosses and does research about products and tries to buy products which are entirely made in America.
I changed my business. I was a freelance copywriter working for Business to Business and very busy. And I changed over to Puff Industrial Marketing so that I could focus on working with smaller U.S. manufacturers. And I read this book. It was a compilation of articles about how manufacturing in the United States had just been devastated by the offshoring. You know, we lost whole industries. You
I know I was. And so I read these books, I was horrified. And I said, well, if I'm going to be working with manufacturers, the least I can do is support them by buying things made in USA. So I said, I'm going to buy everything made in the US. And I had to quickly backtrack on that one. Okay, let's go through that process. How easy is it to find out if something is completely made in the US? Or do you say if it's 70% made in the US, that's good enough for me?
Basically, I just start reading labels. This was back in 2015. I hadn't changed my shopping habits. So I'd go to Home Depot. I have a house that I've been renovating and I'd read all these labels. And oh, my God, the whole rack of whatever I was looking at was made in China. And the more I read labels, the more I learned. So it could say made in USA of imported components or assembled in the USA of imported and domestic products or...
designed, you know, Apple's famous for this, designed in Cupertino, but made, you know, in China. And, you know, I would type in something like Weed Whacker, made in USA.
And so I started finding, you know, oh, there are all these companies that I didn't even know about that are selling direct to consumer. So that's a journey you go down. And you've had instances where you've bought something, haven't you? I was looking at a story about a weighing scale that you thought was made in America. But it was. But I mean, how did you find out it wasn't?
Well, I went to Bed Bath & Beyond, which is now out of business, just to see what's available, you know, just to get an idea. I need a bathroom scale. And they were all those smart scales, you know, you plug them into the Internet. My God, no, no, no, no. So then I went online and I'm like, oh, my God, you can't find an analog scale anymore.
anymore. And I finally found this company that said, yep, we make analog scales. But now I've learned, I learned this the hard way. It didn't say made in USA. It just said our manufacturing facilities are in the US and we also are, you know, different countries. And I thought, okay, all right, that sounds good. So I ordered it. It came, I opened the box and on the back, big fat label made in China.
So back you went. When you've been through this process and you've been doing it for a significant period of time now, do you think you end up paying more because you're trying to find those made in the U.S. products?
Yes, some things do cost more. But I have found that because now I no longer do impulse shopping, I've actually saved money. Have you found over this period of time it's got easier or more difficult to buy made-in-the-US products? It's become easier because now more companies are putting the labels on their products.
You can usually find what you're looking for, with the exception of electronics, made in USA online through direct-to-consumer. Is that the hardest bit, electronics? I imagine...
Much as you want to. You can't get a phone that's completely made in America, can you? Yeah, I don't think you can get any phone made in America. Not yet. Donald Trump wants to change that. Yeah, integrated circuits, you know, are made in China. There's a movement to buy made in USA, but it's not getting as much airplay. I had someone apologize to me for not buying something made in US. I said, I'm not here to judge anybody. I'm just here to help people understand
change how they shop slowly. I mean, that's how I did it. It didn't happen overnight. Diana Huff there has been trying to do this for quite a long time, George. And do you see more people trying to do that? When I was looking at this story, lots of videos were popping up of people in the US saying, hey, we're trying to buy a bit more made in USA products.
Absolutely. We see and hear about it a lot. Now, a lot might be 5% of consumers, but compared to just a couple of years ago, much different. It's a classic demand pull situation, demand pull where demand has risen saying, we'd like to buy things in the U.S. And manufacturers and retailers trying to supply that, for example, labeling their products better so that the demand gets satisfied when you see that product that says USA, you buy it.
George, thank you for guiding us through a whole host of stories here on the programme. Go and rest that neck of yours who knows what's going to happen with the markets. On Wednesday, we will be back with Business Matters in a couple of hours' time, picking up on that story regarding Apple and Google.
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Jewel Osco. Now through June 24th, score hot summer savings and earn four times the points. Look for in-store tags on items like Pringles, Ritz crackers and chips, sliced soda, Wonder Buns and bread, and natural choice lunch meat. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event-long savings. Shop in-store or online for easy drive-up and go-pick-up or delivery. Subject to availability. Restrictions apply. Visit JewelOsco.com for more details. ♪