BUSINESS-01
Economy Wartime Losses Discussed; New Poll Says Half Consider Economy
Nation's Most Important Issue; Sanders Campaign Pushing Hard on Trade and
Economic Equality; Miami Beach Mayor Predicts Clinton Win in Florida;
British Voters to Decide on Brexit in 100 Days; Eurostar CEO Against
Brexit; Petrovic Says Eurostar Is Increasing Capacity on Trains; Eurostar
CEO Said the Paris Attacks Hurt Business; Quest's Low-Cost World Tour
Continues - Part 1>
David Milibrand>
important issue. Most Democratic voters want to continue with President
Obama's economic policies. Miami Beach Mayor, Philip Levine, Says Hillary
Clinton will win in Florida and her trade policies are the best for the
nation. Britain voters have 100 days to decide on whether or not they stay
in the European Union. Paul Drechsler of CBI says 80 percent their
business membership is for staying in the European Union. Eurostar CEO
wants to remain in the EU because it make doing business in Europe much
easier.>
Republicans; Democrats; Florida; Syria; War; Mexico; Donald Trump>
[17:00:00]
ELENI GIOKOS, HOST: It's not been a Super Tuesday for the stock markets, the Dow closed just a few points higher about an hour ago on Wall Street. It's Tuesday the 15th of March.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Tonight, decision day for the Republican Party. The first exit polls from the Presidential primaries are due out any moment.
Housing the cost of a catastrophic conflict, Syria marks five years of bloodshed. And a lesson Valeant effort shares in the drug maker plunge 50%.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: I'm Eleni Giokos and this is "Quest Means Business."
A very good evening to you. Tonight it's the Republicans day of reckoning. Marco Rubio and John Kasich are making their last stands in their home states of Florida and Ohio. Now if Trump wins there it would drastically raise the chances of a contested convention.
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GIOKOS: Marco Rubio has long pinned his hopes on winning in the sunshine state. But polls show Donald Trump holds a commanding lead there. The race in Ohio is much tighter. Governor John Kasich, leads the polls by just a few points.
And on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders is looking to build on last week's surprise win in Michigan. He's hoping his record on trade will help him in the manufacturing heavy states of Ohio, Illinois, as well as Missouri.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Timothy Naftali is a Presidential historian and author, he served as director of the Nixon Presidential Library. He's now the Director of New York's University Tamiment Library, and he joins me now in studio. Sir, thank you very much for your time.
TIMOTHY NAFTALI, DIRECTOR, TAMIMENT LIBRARY, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: My pleasure.
GIOKOS: We are seeing so many dynamics playing out on this Super Tuesday but what's interesting to note is the stance on trade. It's the stance on protectionist policies. Have you seen this before?
NAFTALI: No, in fact what you're seeing now is a challenge to a 30 year orthodoxy about free trade among the leading candidates in both political parties.
Hillary Clinton -- Hillary Rhoda Clinton does support free trade but she's on the defensive because Bernie Sanders has made real inroads by attacking her on free trade.
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NAFTALI: On the Republican side, the leading candidate, if you look at what he's promising to do in foreign economic policy, he's going to start trade wars with China and Mexico, at least his rhetoric suggests that he would.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NAFTALI: So what we have for the first time is a very, very strong protectionist streak in the American political dialogue.
GIOKOS: Of course the likes of Bernie Sanders of course speaking to the Blue Collar workers. The issues in the manufacturing sector are very real.
NAFTALI: Very - of course they're very real because when you have globalization it affects some parts of the country differently from others.
But here's the key for a lot of folks watching this. This is a rust belt. The campaign right now is in Ohio, it's in Illinois, parts of Missouri. This part of the country is not necessarily pro-free trade anyway. Will this rhetoric continue after Super Tuesday number three and that's what we're looking to see.
The other thing that's really important I believe is the extent to which whatever happens tonight Trump will win more delegates. The question is will other people drop out. If Rubio loses in Florida he's already indicated he might not drop out but his chances decline drastically.
GIOKOS: And this is home state essentially.
NAFTALI: Well if he can't be a favorite son in his home state it's hard to argue that he should even be a vice-presidential candidate.
The case for Kasich gets better this day if he wins Ohio and he might. So Trump will emerge with more delegates but not necessarily the triumph -- he will not necessarily triumph today. The question is to what extent will the anti-Trump movement continue. And that anti-Trump movement is not protectionist.
GIOKOS: Well Tim, you know I mean the world is watching us. And this is what we heard from President Barack Obama a little earlier, and he was saying that what are we portraying to the rest of the world. We actually have one of those clips, let's take a listen.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is also about the American brand. Who are we? How are we perceived around the world? There's a reason that America has always attracted the greatest talent from every corner of the globe. There's a reason that "Made in America" means something. It's because we're dynamic and diverse and inclusive and open. Why would we want to see that brand tarnished?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[17:05:00]
GIOKOS: But it's happening. And this is the thing. What message is the U.S. sending to the rest of the world, to the investor community?
NAFTALI: Well, it's reminder that democracy is messy. But last weekend, the Trump rallies crossed an important threshold. It was the most dangerous moment in American political history since 1968. And fortunately, some of the candidates called him on it. Some of them talked about the importance of using first amendment rights peacefully. But not enough people have stood up and said violence has no place in the American political arena.
GIOKOS: Tim, we're running out of time, very quickly what are your expectations, what do you think we're going to see later on today?
NAFTALI: So I'm a historian by training, so I'm careful. But let me put it this way. I believe that the polling on the Sanders side may have underestimated his support, he may actually surprise people in Ohio and Illinois. On the Republican side, it looks like Kasich will win.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAFTALI: In which case Trump has a hard time getting a majority of delegates before Cleveland.
GIOKOS: Timothy, thank you very much for your time, much appreciated. Timothy Naftali.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: All right, so economy is the top issue for voters across the country. And trade is particularly crucial in many of the states voting today. Donald Trump is hoping to capitalize on that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: In an opinion piece he wrote, "American's politicians have enabled jobs theft in every imaginable way. They have tolerated foreign trade cheating, while enacting trade deals that encourage companies to shift production overseas."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Now Donald Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. is losing manufacturing jobs to Mexico and of course the republican frontrunner kicked off his campaign referring to some Mexican immigrants as rapists.
Now, that prompted Mexico's richest man, Carlos Slim, to drop a planned T.V. project with Trump. Slim's right-hand man warns if Trump reaches the White House, there could be a storm on the global stock market. Arturo Elias Ayub is CEO of Strategic Alliances for America Mobile, Samuel Burke asked him how it felt as a Mexican businessman to hear a Presidential candidate call his countrymen rapists.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARTURO ELIAS AYUB, CEO STRATEGIC ALLIANCES AMERICA MOBILE: Obviously we feel hurt.
SAMUEL BURKE, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Hurt?
AYUB: And obviously we don't like the leader of the free world talking like that about Mexico or about anyone else.
BURKE: You see how well Donald Trump is doing in the primaries in the United States. And as a Mexican, specifically a Mexican businessman, what do you feel?
AYUB: Honestly, I think not only as a Mexican but as a citizen of this world, that the U.S. is the strongest country in the world. That you guys have a very strong leadership. I will say stronger now with President Obama. And i think the U.S. needs a very professional, a very smart, responsible leader. And I don't think Mr. Trump has any of those.
BURKE: Do you think that a President Donald Trump might have a negative effect on your business?
AYUB: I think it will have a very negative effect on business all over the world, including the U.S. I think if he wins the presidency, he will -- we will see a storm on the markets everywhere. As a citizen of the world, I will be very concerned if America doesn't have a very responsible leader.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: As Syria marks five years of civil war -
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: --David Miliband says Europe's leaders have an opportunity to act and show that globalization has a conscience when it comes to refugees. Mr. Miliband will join us next. Stay with us.
[17:10:30]
GIOKOS: The United Nations called Syria the biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time. The brutal conflict has now raged on for five years and the grim milestone comes as Russian forces begin their withdrawal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Still, even with Russia out and talks under way in Geneva, a path to peace is by no means clear. A half a decade of war has so far claimed 270,000 lives and left more than a million wounded. Around 11 million people have been displaced and that's around half of Syria's pre-war population.
According to an estimate by the group Frontier Economics, Syria has lost out on $275 billion worth of growth. Should the war carry on into the next decade, that figure will balloon into the trillions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Now joining me in the "C" Suite is David Miliband, he's President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee. David, thank you very much for joining us.
DAVID MILIBAND, PRESIDENT AND CEO INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE: Thank you, good to be with you.
GIOKOS: We're looking at staggering economic numbers, we're looking at massive refugee figures as well on the doorstep of Europe. What do you think needs to be done going forward? Because we're dealing with a symptom of war, essentially.
MILIBAND: I think the problem has to be tackled at source as well as at symptom. So the source is that countries in the region, notably Jordan, and Lebanon, but also Turkey, aren't able to cope with the flow of 4 or 5 million refugees that they've got. And Europe needs to be a far better job first of all registering and welcoming the refugees, secondly checking whether they are in fact refugees because only those who qualify should be allowed to stay. And thirdly sharing out the refugees around Europe. Because Germany and Sweden can't be expected to deal with that alone.
GIOKOS: And you know refugees stuck at the border of Greece and Macedonia.
MILIBAND: Well unilateral measures by different European countries or candidate members for the European Union in the case of Macedonia are never going to address the roots of a problem that requires a concerted European response. And the figures you gave show that Syria was a middle class country. $275 billion worth of growth, they had to have some wealth to start with. And we are finding, we're a humanitarian charity, we run operations inside Syria, in the neighborhoods states, in Europe. The refugees have run out of money. After five years of war, those who came have run out of the money that they had. Those who are coming now have run out of their savings inside Syria.
GIOKOS: So the E.U. Commissioner of Migration is talking about getting 6,000 people to be assimilated within Europe every single week. Is that doable? Because we haven't actually seen these kind of figures coming through.
MILIBAND: It's certainly practical. I mean if you think about the U.S. as an example, that was - the U.S. was accepting about 160,000 Vietnamese every year in the early 1980s. The E.U. is now a continent of 500 million people, it's a practical scheme as long as you're willing to first of all put the resources into quick screening so you get the right people. And secondly that you do the basics of refugee integration right, which means teaching people English, getting them into work, getting them on the path to citizenship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: We're in the middle of Super Tuesday, right. We know what the --
MILIBAND: You noticed, even on this program you noticed.
GIOKOS: Even on this program.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: It's important because some of the rhetoric coming through from the candidates are very much against immigration, against assimilating the likes of refugees. And in fact we've seen very low numbers being pushed into the U.S. What should the U.S. be doing right now?
MILIBAND: I think the U.S. has had its leadership role supplanted frankly as a - as a home for refugees. Just a few miles down the water from here, the Statue of Liberty says bring me your poor and huddled masses. And the U.S. has taken 2,500 refugees from Syria since the war began.
So the U.S. is blessed by its geography and is able, frankly, to choose the refugees it has. The security fears are addressed by an 18 to 24-month vetting process of all agencies of U.S. government. And really the U.S. needs to step up in the way that Canada has, frankly. The new Canadian government, 25,000 refugees. It puts into the shade the kind of effort that the U.S. is making. And this is a country that's shown how to make refugee resettlement work.
Albert Einstein founded the International Rescue Committee 80 years ago, he's a refugee, Madeleine Albright, a refugee. We all know the story now that Steve Job's biological father a Syrian refugee. This is a country that's made refugee resettlement work and it really needs to show how it can continue to do so in the future.
GIOKOS: Peace talks current underway in Geneva. Russia pulling out. What is your prognosis going forward because if you look at the economic impact, even if we are able to find a conclusion on the peace talks, you're talking about a country that economically has been destroyed. It's not as if you can say, well refugees go back home.
MILIBAND: No, the phrase "ravaged by war" applies in spades in Syria. 85% of the lights are out on the satellite footage across Syria.
[17:15:07]
Anyone who's seen the situation there can't afford to come here and say complacently, yes, I'm optimistic.
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MILIBAND: But there's been a pause in the fighting. And the Russian withdrawal is a reminder that they had a marriage of convenience with Assad.
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MILIBAND: Their concern is the stability of the state. And it seems to me essential that the opportunity that's being created is somehow consolidated. And that's going to take some real leadership, not just globally but also in the region from countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran as well.
GIOKOS: David, thank you for your time. Sir, much appreciated.
MILIBAND: Thank you.
GIOKOS: All right, so now this week on CNN we are investigating the human rights abuses that permeate one of the world's biggest industries: tea. It's part of our Freedom Project, shining a light on modern day slavery. In the second part of the series, Muhammad Lila has been embedded with police in New Delhi on a mission to rescue a 14-year-old girl being held for more than a year by an alleged trafficker.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUHAMMAD LILA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (Manju Gore) lives on a tea plantation, in a life of poverty. A few years ago she was tricked by a human trafficker with promises of more money and a better life in the city. She managed to escape. But she tells us her sister is still in the hands of a trafficker. For help she's come here, the headquarters of a Save the Childhood Movement. A charity that rescues children from captivity.
As they plan the raid, time is critical. They have to move fast, making call after call. Desperately trying to find out where the trafficker is hiding. But every call, every desperate tap on the phone, everything leads to a dead end.
So there's a problem right now. We thought we knew where the traffickers were keeping (Manju's) sister. But it looks like right now we don't.
As the minutes turn into hours and all hope looks lost --
LILA: Suddenly, out of the blue, a big break.
[ speaking foreign language ]
LILA: A lucky phone call leads to the trafficker's address.
So we just got confirmation of where the trafficker is right now and we're going to go and see him.
Nobody -- what's going to happen is we climb the narrow staircase in this decrepit apartment building. Police are hoping to make an arrest and (Manju) moves quickly room to room, desperate to find her sister. As police move to the rooftop downstairs, we turn a corner and find this. It looks like we've found a couple of other girls that are also victims of trafficking. And there's somebody hiding in the room right here.
Huddled against the wall, three young girls, terrified, all from villages in a state of Assam. This is the man police trot out for the cameras, accusing him of trafficking girls from tea plantations, promising them a better life, but then abusing them and selling them off as domestic labor. For (Manju,) this rescue is bittersweet. Hoping to find her sister, but finding other girls instead.
(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE) We rescued three girls and two boys from this agency.
LILA: (Dolly Joshi) has rescued hundreds of girls from modern day slavery. As police take the suspect, she drives with us to the police station. What was your reaction when you saw these girls? How did you feel?
(DOLLY JOSHI): I feel fair about them. Every time I do this, (inaudible) because they come all the way from Assam or different states (inaudible). But you can see the conditions there.
LILA: Sir, Sir, we're with CNN, can we ask you a question? This is what happens when we confront the man they accuse. Answer my question, Sir. Were you taking advantage of them?
[speaking foreign language ]
LILA: Police take him inside for questioning and charge him with bonded labor and cruelty to a child. As the sun sets, the suspect agrees to tell them where (Manju's) sister has been working. Two long hours later, (Manju's) sister (Arki) emerges, met with a smile and a hug that means the world.
[speaking foreign language ]
LILA: And just like that, with police by their side, the two sisters are together again, walking arm in arm, taking their steps together in freedom. For the CNN Freedom Project Muhammad Lila, in Delhi.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[17:20:05]
GIOKOS: Incredible story there. And coming up, Valeant Pharmaceuticals are not operating on all cylinders, and that's according to the company's CEO, as it suffers a dramatic day in the markets. That coming up next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Some news just into CNN. Washington, D.C's Metro will be shut for an emergency investigation. Investigators will examine power cables serving the third rail. It follows a tunnel fire earlier on Monday and officials say conditions appear seem similar to an last year when fire and smoke left one person dead and scores unwell.
Rene Marsh is in Washington with the latest. Renee this doesn't come at a very good time does it?
RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: No absolutely not. I can tell you that many, many people will be impacted here in Washington, D.C.
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MARSH: And so we're awaiting word to find out if as a result of this shutdown, whether the federal government in turn would be shut down, because a lot of federal workers depend on the D.C. Metro to get to work on a daily basis. And as you mentioned, we just got word from officials here that the Metro, starting midnight, will be shut down. It will remain closed for 24 hours. You mentioned that incident on Monday, a cable fire. We cannot forget that other incident, January 2015, where one person died, dozens were taken to the hospital because of another smoke event inside of one of the tunnels there involving the D.C Metro.
So what officials are saying today is they don't want to risk passenger safety. So by shutting down the Metro it will allow them to get their people in the Metro so that they can inspect some 600 what they call jumper cables, to make sure that they are in good condition.
Again, the focus is going to be doing the safety inspection focusing on jumper cables, similar to that cable that caught fire on Monday. But I can tell you, as soon as word got out, there's been a lot of chatter because the metro connects all different parts of the nation's capital.
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MARSH: Again, so many federal workers depend on this to get to work. We have not received word yet as to whether because of this shutdown if the federal government will be delayed in opening or closed. We're awaiting that. But needless to say, it will be very disruptive.
GIOKOS: I mean not only disruptive, but some are saying that this is also quite embarrassing.
MARSH: It is quite embarrassing in the sense that I can't think of any other time in which a major city or the district here has ever been forced to shut down an entire Metro system for any other reason beyond weather.
I mean, when we see weather events, of course that is the protocol. But this is something different, these are safety inspections and the Metro people will be stranded not able to travel their usual way, simply because there is concern about these potentially faulty cables running throughout the Metro system. So what they want to make sure is that all 600 of these cables are operating properly.
Again, they're saying that this is a procedure that they're doing to just make sure that none of the passengers' lives are at risk, because that's their number one priority.
[17:25:05]
GIOKOS: Absolutely. Well Rene, thank you very much for that update, much appreciated.
All right, let's head now to check how the markets fared today. Now the Dow saw a slight gain on Tuesday after spending much of the day lower.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: As you can see, up basically 1/10th of a percent. And that's thanks to weak U.S. retail sales data and following a grim outlook from the Bank of Japan as well which didn't add to its stimulus program.
Oil prices also extended losses as well which of course always has quite a -- a big negative impact on the overall market.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals has had its worst day ever. Its stock lost over 50% after it warned it might default. They plummeted to little more than $33, it's a dramatic fall from an all-time high of 264 last august.
CNN money correspondent Cristina Alesci joins me now live. Cristina thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: I mean dumping the stock essentially and if you haven't exited now, there's very little one can do. What is behind this massive drop?
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the biggest investors in the company said it best today, there is a massive loss of confidence here. And three things happened -
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALESCI: Not only did the company warn it did not meet the criteria in its credit agreements, sparking this discussion about a possible default. But it also revised estimates both for revenue and for profit in 2016 down, because it cannot raise the price of drugs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALESCI: And it's not going to make acquisitions to make up for the loss of those sales. So two big shocks for investors there. Then, if that wasn't bad enough, they put out a press release only to have to correct it later with lower guidance numbers going forward. So that created an element of confusion that just sent people crazy today.
GIOKOS: I mean you're not willing to embark on acquisitions, not operating at full capacity essentially, unprofitable business, I mean where to from here? What is the solution going forward? Because there's even some talk of Ford-like activity as well.
ALESCI: There are a number of problems. The first is that this company has had a tremendous difficulty communicating with investors. I mean one analyst on the phone today said, look, you told us back in December everything was going to be fine, here we are today, why should we trust you now? That was essentially the tone of the questions. So big question around investor confidence.
Not to mention the fact that several investigations going on with the company. The company announced in last fall that it had received federal subpoenas over its drug pricing, a highly political issue here in the United States. The Democratic candidates for President, especially both Clinton and Sanders, have said they want to lower the cost of drugs. So that's putting Valeant's model at risk here.
Not only that, but you had a short seller come out and say that the company was operating an enron-like fraud. So they've got an investigation going on because of that, not just from the SEC, an internal investigation as well. A lot of question marks over the company.
GIOKOS: I mean who's holding on to stock at the moment, and I mean what do we expect over the next couple of days? What are investors telling you at this stage?
ALESCI: Well, from what we know, actually some big name investors like Bill Ackman seem to be holding on to the stock. He said today that he's going to get more involved with the company, that he's going to make sure that the board of directors really holds management accountable, and that they start to answer some of these questions for investors. But we're really going to have to see because like you said, it's been a dramatic ride for the company, and it's just been a downward spiral.
GIOKOS: Absolutely. Well thank you very much for that update, Cristina, much appreciated.
And we've just had the first set of exit polls in the Super Tuesday races. We'll bring you the details and go live to the campaign trail, next. Stay with us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:31:29] ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN MONEY AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm Eleni Giokos. Coming up in the next half hour of QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. The CEO of Eurostar tells me how the Paris attacks hurt his business.
And 100 days before Britain votes on Brexit, I'll be speaking to head of its biggest business lobby. Before that these are the top news headlines we're following for you this hour.
Belgian police say they fear two people are on the run. It follows police raids earlier on Tuesday in connection to last year's Paris attacks. Four officers were injured in a firefight with suspects. One suspect was killed by a police sniper. The French Interior Minister said, Belgian and French authorities had worked together on the raid.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERNARD CAZENEUVE, FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER: (through translator) It took place during a police raid, a team made of Belgian and French police officers intervened and got shot at. Shots from heavy weaponry, apparently. But I am extremely cautious on the circumstances and cautious as well, because the operation is still ongoing. I will the no make any further comments. But to confirm that indeed it took place. I may eventually make further comments this evening depending on whatever complementary information I may get.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Police in Germany say there's no evidence that a car bomb in Berlin Tuesday was an act of terrorism. Officials are describing it as a murder. A Turkish man was killed but it isn't clear if he was the intended target.
