this is the business briefing with me, sally bundock. borderline disorder — how this 500km strip of ireland threatens to derail the brexit process. plus, charged up to overtake. mercedes and audi take on tesla at the paris motor show. and on financial markets, asian stocks are not so attractive today. the japanese yen is stronger. return on us bonds is going up, so investors see that as more attractive as chinese markets are closed today. attention is on brussels, where the irish prime minister leo varadkar will hold talks later with the eu's brexit negotiator, michel barnier. he'll be pressing his case for no change to the irish border

when britain leaves the european union — a day after uk prime minister theresa may defended her so—called chequers plan at her party conference. after brexit, the 499 kilometre border between the republic of ireland and northern ireland will effectively become the uk's land border with the eu. total cross—border trade in goods amounted to $3.5 billion in 2016. much of that is made up of food and agricultural products, which face some of the strictest eu rules. under mrs may's chequers plan, the uk would leave the eu's single market and customs union. but there would be, quote, "continued harmonisation" with eu rules on goods and agriculture. and that would mean no new physical infrastructure on the irish border and no new customs checks or controls. the eu's proposed backstop to avoid the return to a hard border in case

talks fail would see northern ireland continue to follow eu rules, unlike the rest of the uk. that would effectively create a customs border in the irish sea between northern ireland and the uk mainland — an idea fiercely opposed by the democratic unionist party, which props up theresa may's minority government. but in the irish parliament on tuesday, prime minister leo varadkar stood firmly behind the 1998 good friday agreement, which ended direct uk rule over northern ireland and brought to an end decades of violence. while it may be factually correct to say that the good friday agreement, just like any other international treaty or agreement could be changed, could only be changed with

the agreement of the british and irish governments, and could only be changed with the consent of the people of the republic of ireland. it is not something that could be changed by any one political party oi’ changed by any one political party or by any one government, and certainly as far as this government is concerned, the good friday agreement is not up for negotiation in these talks over brexit. jonathan portes is professor of economics and public policy at king's college london. good morning. that comment from leo varadkar reminding us all how complicated this is, it is notjust about trade, it is about the history of northern ireland and the irish republic. that is right, and the conflict here is that from the uk and especially the democratic unionist party, the eu is saying effectively northern ireland has, to a very large extent, stay within the eu for customs and regulatory purposes. and regarding the talks today between michel barnier and leo

varadkar, they are pretty much on the same page. the question is will the same page. the question is will the uk change its position? that's writes, michel barnier will be explaining to leo varadkar his latest proposal, which is as he said the de— dramatised the issue by moving some of the checks that the eu want away from the irish sea, away from this new border between great britain and northern ireland, but still legally it is pretty much the same. there will be a border on the same. there will be a border on the irish sea and the democratic unionist is to not want that, so the ball is really in the uk's court. the uk is trying to come up with a counterproposal that it would like to bring forward in the next few days, but that has been blocked because in order to bring a counterproposal forward, mrs may would have to get the dup to support it, and the dup have made clear that at the moment they are not prepared

to a cce pt at the moment they are not prepared to accept any compromise on this. how do you think this will play at? i know it is extremely complex to predict that this has to be solved if there is to be any deal. this is by far the biggest obstacle to any deal. the chequers plan, as controversial as it is, it does not have to be sorted now, it can be fudged with the political declaration. the irish border issue needs to be written down in the legal text and it needs to be written down now, which of course is why the eu is so impatient, they have been waiting since march effectively for a proper uk proposal. it has not come forward, the uk has only about ten days to come up with something. no one knows what is going to happen, the diskettes is that the uk will somehow find a way to signup to most, if not all of what he was asking for, but that is by no means certain. thank you very much indeed. i will talk to again about this in the very near future. we'll keep you

up—to—date all of the developments as they happen. let's head to paris now, where the global car industry is gathered for the motor show. tesla has been showing off its mass—market model 3, the car it hopes will enable it to take on the world's biggest car makers. but the big names are fighting back with their own electric vehicles. theo leggett has been taking a look. well, why not start here at the tesla stand because electric cars is what they do, and this is the new model three making its european debut here at the paris show, and if you come inside it is quite clearly a tesla, it is very clean, very tidy, very high—tech but it is also minimalist. so there is no dashboard, there is just minimalist. so there is no dashboard, there isjust this minimalist. so there is no dashboard, there is just this tablet computer here which has everything you need to know on it. the idea of this car is that it is affordable, so even this car is that it is affordable, so even though it is quite high performance, it is at a pretty good price. 0k, well, if it is luxury you

are looking for, how about something are looking for, how about something a bit more like this? this is the mercedes eqc, it is very powerful, 300 kilowatts, or will drive, and could be on the market next year. as you can see, the upside is beautiful, the inside is much the same but it does come at a price. well, if you want understated engineering, how about taking one big rear electric motor, another electric motor for the funds, that is li—wheel—drive, and a really big high—powered battery pack that can ta ke high—powered battery pack that can take you for 250 miles on a single charge? 0ver take you for 250 miles on a single charge? over here, at you have got the audi, a direct competitor to the mercedes and it is what the german manufacturers sees as a pivot for its future. as you can see, it doesn't come cheap. not cheap at all. let's go to australia now,

where the government has scrapped sales tax on womens‘ sanitary products. dropping the so—called ‘tampon tax‘ is being seen as a bid to win support from female voters. australia's the latest country to take this step. rico hizon is following the story. this is something that has been campaigned for in the uk as well. do tell us more about australia's decision. well, it has been an 18 yearcampaign by decision. well, it has been an 18 year campaign by opponents to end this tax, or though as you mentioned it will appeal to female voters, it also comes at a cost. scrapping the tax is likely to set back the country 21 billion us dollars a year in lost revenues, opponents argue that these products should be classified as necessities and therefore not have the tax applied. -- 21 therefore not have the tax applied. —— 21 billion us dollars. this will mean —— 21 billion us dollars. this will m ea n cost —— 21 billion us dollars. this will mean cost savings for many australian women. so australian

women could actually save around 40 of the grocery bill every year and that will kick in from january next year, so that will kick in from january next year, so a that will kick in from january next year, so a very positive outcome here for australian women and also the gender equality, i think, here for australian women and also the gender equality, ithink, moving forward. but it is quite possible the debate will not actually. as unfortunately, there are a lot of women that still live in poverty and cannot actually afford sanitary items, whether they are tax free or not. and australia is not the only country to abolish this tax. you have canada following in 2015. this year, india scrap the 12% tax on feminine hygiene products by 12%. good to know. good to see progress on that. thank you so much. now let's brief you on some other business stories. rbs chief executive ross mcewan has warned a no deal brexit could tip the uk economy into recession. he told the bbc a "bad brexit" could result in "zero or negative" economic growth, which would hit rbs's share price. he also said the bank was becoming

careful about lending to certain sectors of the economy, particularly retail and construction. uber eat ciders and a small number of other retail workers are striking over pay today. protests will be holding several cities around the uk, along with a rally in london. industrial action has been taken in tandem with strikes by fast food workers on four continents. and now, what's trending in the business news this morning. from business insider, the legendary economist who predicted the housing crisis says the us will win the trade war. dr gary shilling says that when it comes to trade, if there's plenty of supply in the world, the buyer has the upper hand. the wall streetjournal looks at the landmark fintech ipo funding circle floatation,

which flopped on wednesday, highlighting a gloomy day for london's ipo market. and from quartz, a new chinese game show is promoting the communist party's agenda. we are trying to bring you the animation, as it were. a local tv station in hunan province is airing a game show about xi jinping, including questions about how china has benefitted from xi's policies. interesting. markets, as i have mentioned, the money is flowing to the united states. we have bond yields going up in time, so this is our shares are doing in asia. it falls again. today it. it has been a big theme of the week. we had a strong japanese yen hitting exporters in tokyo. —— big falls again today. the paris auto show opens its doors

to the public on thursday. it's one of the biggest car exhibitions on the calendar and attracts automobile enthusiasts from around the world. the latest models will be on display, including one very unusual vehicle that's not as fast as it looks. the bbc‘s tim allman explains. this is a car show, this is a car. so far, nothing out of the ordinary. but look closely, this car is not quite what it seems. it may appear to be a bugatti, the high—powered favourite of petrolheads the world over, but it's actually an exact replica made out of little plastic bricks. more than one million pieces of lego technic put together to achieve this model. it's 1.5 tonnes, so 1,500kg of lego plastic put together. assembled the same way

as we would do a lego model, a traditional lego model. but this isn't any old replica, it's a fully—functional working automobile. the engineers at lego technic wanted to create a plastic card you can actually drive. not very fast, mind you. with a top speed of 30kph, it's not quite as quick as the original, which can hit 400kph. i think everything was a challenge, but mainly the development of the motor, because it's lego motors, plastic motors and electrics. so hard to drive 1,500 kilograms. it was a challenge. no plans for mass production, as chances are, the lego version would melt. tim allman, bbc news. breakfast is coming up at six o'clock with charlie stayt and naga munchetty. they'll have all the day's news,

business and sport. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: the fbi report into supreme court nominee, brett kavanaugh, is to be handed over to the us senate. authorities in indonesia set a deadline of friday to find any more survivors following the earthquake and tsunami. footballer cristiano ronaldo firmly denies raping a woman in a us hotel room nine years ago. his alleged victim speaks out through her lawyer. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the telegraph, who has a sequence of photos uk prime minister theresa may dancing on the stage before addressing the conservatice party conference. during her speech she promised

an end to austerity as the prize for a good brexit deal. we have lost our graphics by the looks of things. we have other stories. instead of talking about them, let's introducejeremy. 0h, we have got the animate back! the wonders of live television. the irish times reports the irish government expects the uk government to table new proposals on brexit shortly, which it's hoped