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Quest Means Business
U.N. to Vote on New Sanctions for North Korea; U.K. Parliament Votes on EU Withdrawal Bill/ Aired 4:30-4:40p ET
Aired September 11, 2017 - ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(SIMULCAST OF CNN DOMESTIC)
[16:30:00] ZAIN ASHER, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Zain Asher in New York. Our coverage of Hurricane Irma continues in just a moment. But
first, an update on some other stories we are following her on CNN at this hour.
U.N. Security Council is getting set to vote on a new sanctions measure against North Korea. The U.S. is leading the charge and had been calling
for an oil embargo and an asset freeze and travel ban on Kim Jong-un. But a new draft actually removed one of those penalties. It's believed that
North Korea's most powerful ally, China, will support the Security Council's latest ban to take, quote, necessary actions. North Korea is
warning it will inflict the greatest pain and suffering on the United States if the new sanctions are passed.
I want to bring in Richard Roth who's following this story from the United Nations. So, Richard, about a week ago as you know, Nikki Haley called for
the strongest possible sanctions on North Korea. Now we are pretty much left with this watered-down version. Will this version have the intended
effect do you think?
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR UN CORRESPONDENT: One Security Council ambassador said, no. But that's to be expected here. The U.S. aggressively
negotiating and public through everything in. This will be the ninth round of sanctions. But to get China and Russia, badly needed on board without a
veto, you have to compromise. And once again, that's what were seen. So, it's step-by-step approach is regarding oil -- there's no embargo on oil.
There are limitations on foreign North Korean workers. There is a ban on textile exports. Second-biggest export for North Korea. A lot of legal
language. What does it add up to? The Security Council will feel it's united in sending a message -- not a missile but a message -- back to
Pyongyang, as the French ambassador told reporters a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCOIS DELATTRE, FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Our deep belief is that only a firm reaction of the Council then open the path
towards a political solution to this crisis. Make no mistake about it, our firmness today is our best antidote to the risk of war, to the risk of
confrontation. And our firmness today is our best tool for a political solution tomorrow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: I think it's the third resolution in a few weeks, which is quite rare by UN standards, Zain. Nikki Haley at one-point last month said, I'm
tired of words. And now we've had all these resolutions. It will be interesting to see how she frames this. I think this resolution will pass
unless there's some last-minute Moscow surprise. Diplomats on the U.S. side will tell you and others will tell you there some teeth and it still.
But once again, there is room for more sanctions should North Korea's still misbehave -- Zain.
ASHER: Yes, I mean, the fact is North Korea knows that the fact that China and Russia are permanent members of the Security Council means that they
continue their quote, unquote, bad behavior, or missile testing with limited consequences. I mean, are there any sort of real incentives in
this particular sanction package that will sort of force North Korea to come to the table do you think?
ROTH: Well, I can't read their minds there. Nothing has changed their minds. They would love to put a hole in any unity on the Security Council,
a break -- South Korea and the United States apart. The presidential Trump tweet about South Korea appeasing North Korea. They love that in North
Korea. So, there always looking to test, to probe, but once again, this is been going on -- as Nikki Haley said -- for 20 years. And nobody likes or
prefers a military option. So, you're left with restrictions and squeezing the North Korean regime. There's more to go if they need to do that.
ASHER: All right. Richard Roth lie first there. Thank you so much, appreciate that.
President Donald Trump issued a warning to enemies of the United States during his first 9/11 commemoration in office. Speaking at a ceremony to
mark the 16th anniversary of the terrorist attack. The president commemorated those who lost their lives. And said the U.S. would ensure
that enemies had nowhere to hide.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're ensuring that they never again have a safe haven to launch attacks against our country. We
are making plain to the savage killers that there is no dark corner beyond our reach. No sanctuary beyond our grasp. And nowhere to hide, anywhere
on this very large earth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: All right. Donald Trump speaking there.
Now let's get a quick check at the markets. The Dow closed above 22,000. Once again, the markets are boosted after hurricane Irma hit Florida with
less impact, less force than had been anticipated. And a weekend of calm in North Korea eased investors' fears as well. The Dow's sword 260 odd
points, its biggest rally in about six months. The S&P 500 hit a record high and the Nasdaq closed firmly in the green as well.
Shares in Equifax dropped for the second straight session. Now the FBI says it's investigating the cyber-attack on the U.S. credit monitoring
agency. Hackers got their hands on Social Security numbers, birthdays, addresses, and even driver's license numbers. Nearly 143 million Americans
are at risk for identity theft. With all that data, the cyber criminals could in fact technically open new bank accounts, run up credit card debts,
and even take out loans as well. Experts are urging people to take steps. For example, checking their credit reports and setting up fraud alerts.
I want to take you to London now where British lawmakers are burning the midnight oil as they vote on a pretty contentious Brexit bill. The vote is
Prime Minister Theresa May's first big test since she lost her majority in June's elections. If she loses it could spell political disaster for her
leadership. Pro-Brexit politicians are warning of an extreme backlash if the bill fails.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[16:35:00] ZAC GOLDSMITH, BRITISH CONSERVATIVE MEMBER PARLIAMENT: if that promises broken I believe the resulting anger will give rise to extreme
political movements right across the U.K. that will change our politics forever. So, improve this Bill in the next stage, report stage, committee
stage. But to stop this bill on principle is in my view, playing with fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Nina dos Santos is outside Westminster tonight. So, Nina, basically the conservatives -- just to sum up for our audience -- the conservatives are
basically saying the bill must pass to avoid chaos. But Labor MPs are saying this is nothing more than just a power grab. Just walk us through
both sides of the argument.
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, and there's also some members of the Tory Party that are feeling a little bit rebellious and
they're concerned about the potential for the setting of dangerous legal precedent. And as you quite rightfully outlined there, Zain, essentially
the Conservative Party say that in order to make sure that the U.K.'s legislation run smoothly. There's no holes and gaps in the protection of
things like workers' rights and the environment and so on and so forth. They will need to absorb tens of thousands of EU legislative acts that have
made their way into the statute books of this country during the European Union's Communities Act, all the way back in the 1970s. And for that
reason, essentially, they have to open up the Constitution and copy and paste large sways of laws into it. And then eventually they'll be looked
at by various parliamentary committees to try and edit those laws to make sure they're pertinent to the U.K.
But in order to do this, to fast-track this in enormous herculean task, the government has to use powers that were used by Henry VIII -- a monarch who
wasn't famous for his love of democracy, by the way -- to make sure that they can fast track this in the timeframe that we need. Remember that
Brexit is going to happen in less than two years from now. And this is a very big legal exercise. Now for various reasons including the concern
about there not being enough parliamentary scrutiny, the Labour Party has said it's going to be voting against this this evening. So is the Scottish
National Party, they're very concerned about the prospect of laws coming back Westminster away from some of the regions. And also, the Liberal
Democrats, who remember, would like to see another referendum on the issue of Brexit.
And as I was saying before there are some rebellious members of the Conservative Party too. Although, it's expected that Theresa May will
managed to scrape this vote through with the help of the DUP. Remember, she's relying on that Northern Irish party to beef up her House of Commons
majority. So even if we may see one or two rebellious members of the Conservative Party, it's likely that what her government is going to be
able to do is to coax them into some kind of vote for it now, and we will make concessions later, the committee stage sort of agreement. So, she may
well scrape it through. But it won't be the only test she's going to face this year. There are several more big votes like these that are set to
happen before the years out -- Zain.
ASHER: And Nina, just in terms of, you know, the business angle. If this bill passes -- which many anticipate that it will -- what degree of
certainty will that give businesses in the U.K.? Can they essentially breathe a sigh of relief do you think?
DOS SANTOS: Well, it will give them a sense of legal continuity for the time being. But obviously, what this does is this obviously highlights
large riffs that we already knew were there. Riffs that have been crystallize between hard and soft proponents of Brexit within the
conservative, ruling Conservative Party. And also, differences between other parties on the strategy going forward for Brexit. And that includes
the very contentious issue of whether or not the U.K. should stay inside the single market, or at least have some kind of transition period to stay
inside the single market for as long as it can to smooth the passage for this country's economy after 2019.
Now many businesses have been saying that they urgently need as much information from the government about the so-called Brexit roadmap before
2019 comes around. In fact, there was a survey of large companies that was out over the weekend that said, almost all of them say to the government,
we need to know what to plan for within the next nine months. And in fact, it doesn't bode well for the government. But over the last couple of weeks
they try to get the CEOs of FTSE 100 companies to sign a letter saying that they had confidence in the governments Brexit strategy. And a number of
those large listed company bosses balked at the suggestion of putting their pen to paper on that.
All of this will come to a head domestically when the Conservative Party has its party conference in the next few weeks. And then Theresa May will
also be heading to Brussels. She hopes, probably with this bill passed, in October.
[16:40:00] And so, you can expect more showdowns with the EU as obviously, she bargains for the type of Brexit that she feels that Britain should get
-- Zain.
ASHER: All right, Nina dos Santos life for us there. Thank you so much.
And those are some of the top stories we are following at the moment. A short break and then it's back to "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper.
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