Now its being re negotiated. And markets pretty non plussed by the latest white house chaos, which could be the most telling thing of all, investors growing immune to the ups and downs of washington. And well get the inside track on the batteries that could power the future. Well find out how batteries will not only power our cars, but our homes too. And anything else youd care to mention. And as students in the uk get their exam results today, we want to know, do qualifications still matter . Did you flunk school or college but still do 0k . Where did your grades get you . Let us know, use the hashtag, bbcbizlive. Hello and welcome to Business Live. Failing migrate five piano exam is what has got me here today. failing my grade five piano exam. Welcome to the programme. We begin in the United States where pressure from the Business Community has become too much for President Trump, and hes been forced to disband hiS Manufacturing council. The announcement came via a tweet, after several more Business Leaders quit the group, distancing themselves from the president s response to deadly protests in virginia this week. Mr trump had condemned the white supremacist and neo nazi groups in a statement but then on tuesday he appeared to defend the rallys organisers. Samira hussain reports from new york. Voiceover it was the tweet that said it all, on wednesday, donald trump disbanded two white house Business Councils, created to bring jobs to america. But the move by the president to scrap the two groups was more about saving face then leavening the burden on Business Leaders. I especially want to thank kent fraser. The first to quit the president S Manufacturing council, ceo of age pharmaceutical giant, in a statement he said he felt a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism. Ken fraser. Against intolerance and extremism. Ken fraser. By monday evening, the ceos of under armour and intel, president of the alliance for american manufacturing, and the iaf ceo, all left the council. Underarmor. They are not taking theirjobs underarmor. They are not taking their jobs seriously as underarmor. They are not taking theirjobs seriously as it pertains to this country. After commenting on the corporate resignations in a press c0 nfe re nce the corporate resignations in a Press Conference on tuesday, the president blamed both sides on the deadly violence in charlottesville. A group on one side that was bad and a group on the other side that was also very violent, nobody wants to say that, but i will say it right now after those comments, the exodus from the Business Councils was fast and furious, its rare for Corporate America to publicly distanced themselves from a president of the United States but this is a different type of administration and many believe donald trump crossed the line. These defections show that Corporate America is no longer waiting for donald trump to deliver on any of his pro business policies. Studio with us is Marianne Schneider petsinger. She is the geoeconomics fellow for the us and the Americas Programme at chatham house, a think tank in london. How important were the Business Councils . Just set up in january, fairly new, donald trump set them up, but they have a mostly symbolic so up, but they have a mostly symbolic so far, in the beginning, a lot of press c0 nfe re nce so far, in the beginning, a lot of Press Conference and readings, but in terms of policy, they have not been able to make much progress because they have not been called uponin because they have not been called upon in the sense of providing advice, it is really about nice photo opportunities. And those photo ops are interesting, President Trump has made such a big deal of having friends around him and a group of friends around him and a group of friends that he can call on, it is impressively has his finger on the buttons, but he does not seem to deliver it. For the Business Community, they also wanted to be able to shape the administration from inside, particularly with the president a very much business mogul, they seem to be alignment on that front but as we have seen, development have stalled, Policy Developments, we have not seen anything in terms of tax reform, deregulation, infrastructure plan, supposedly in the pipeline but concrete, we have not seen any thing. What i would suggest. Very little reaction from a market point of view, which suggests that if you think the markets were excited and did very well over the first half of the year on the back of his relationship with business and everything he promised business, surely they should be going back down as soon as they hear that there is no relationship there is a yellow there is still the potential that on there is still the potential that on the policy front, there could be more progress further on down the line, especially on tax reform, congressional leaders taking the summer congressional leaders taking the summer break, to nail that out, flesh it out. When they come back in september they can push it forward, for the Business Community, now the Business Council has been dismantled, they are losing opportunities to influence that. Where does it leave his relations with the Business Community, canny rebuild bridges . Itll be very difficult, if there is room to bring him on board Policy Developments down the line, there would be opportunity, but because that has stalled. Does it matter, how important is that, in terms of his agenda, generally, renegotiating nafta, we will talk about it more later, how important is this relationship with business to his administration. It is symbolic mother president says that he is a business leader, to have good relationships, for all of the ceos to be distancing themselves. It is symbolic, for a president that says he is a business leader. People in the republican party, from the establishment, will they also start distancing themselves from him . We spoke briefly about nafta, its day 2 of talks to renegotiate the 23 year old north American Free trade agreement, or nafta, between the United States, canada and mexico. Talks to overhaul nafta, which President Trump had once vowed to tear up, will be watched closely by americas Trading Partners around the world. Currently trade between these three countries is worth about one trillion dollars a year. But the us buys more goods and services from its neighbours than it sells to them, so has a big trade deficit, more than 12 billion with canada and more than 55 billion with mexico. Trump wants a deal that helps us firms sell more to these nations, and his Trade Representative began the meeting by talking tough. For cou ntless for countless americans, this agreement has failed, we cannot ignore the huge trade deficits, the lost manufacturing jobs, the businesses that have closed or moved, because of incentives, intended or not, in the current agreement. Canada does not view trade surpluses deficits as a primary measure of whether its own relationship works, nonetheless, it is probable in worth pointing out today that our trade with the us is balanced and mutually beneficial. Lets take a look at some of the other stories making the news. The economy of the philippines grew by 6. 5 in the Second Quarter of the year, boosted by higher Government Spending and a Strong Performance in the agriculture sector. The performance is though, lower than the 7. 1 growth in the same period a year ago, when election related spending boosted the economy. Japan has recorded a i7 fall in its Trade Surplus Last month to 3. 8 billion, as the cost of Energy Imports rose because of the weaker yen. But imports and exports are still rising sharply indicating an economy thats both consuming more and exporting more. Earlier this week, the country reported Economic Growth of 4. 0. expectations are high for alibabas Quarterly Earnings report due out later. Chinese consumers demand for shopping online has made alibaba the dominant player in that sector with Companies Like alibaba, taobao and aliexpress. But its notjust online anymore, alibaba is also now building physical stores. At the start of the programme we asked you to get in touch with exam results, whether not getting the grades you needed have affected you in the world of work, do qualification still matter, shane says, i left school with nothing, now i get a comfortable wage. Jason says, they matter to a point but they are not the be all or end all, keep your comments coming in. Chinese tech firm tencent saw shares rise as much as 5. 5 after posting record profits for the Second Quarter. The news comes ahead of results from another chinese Giant Alibaba later today. Christine hah is in singapore. Tell us what are these Companies Going to do. Look into your crystal ball. It has been a really exciting week for chinese tech companies, as you say, a record estimate leading result, for tencent and it is expected that alibaba will beat estimates. Revenues are 7. 1 billion. A lot of that is because of the Core Business of chinese online sales, retail sales grew a0 , just came from china, that is a big chunk of where ali baba makes its money. Purchases growing even faster, and as was said, they are going into other areas, Cloud Computing is another big growth area, digital media, entertainment division, and the only great spot in this report is questions are now being asked, our share prices of tech stocks like allen barbre, tencent, are they to fat high for their real value full. Alibaba. Given that there are some risks in the chinese economy, and certainly a lot of new business that has not proven their weight in monetisation so far for these businesses. And give very much, we will keep a close eye on what that does to shares over the course of the session when we get the update from alibaba. The session when we get the update from aliba ba. To the session when we get the update from alibaba. To the markets. Tokyo stocks closed lower with big car makers seeing the biggest falls, and banks down after the Us Federal Reserve minutes hinted at a slower pace for future Interest Rate hikes. Well get results from Clothing Firm Gap and Retailgiant Walmart later today too. In europe, we get retail sales stats for the uk, giving us the familiar update on whether Consumer Spending is helping prop up the economy. But that also comes with the usual warnings about personal debt levels that are climbing once again to record levels. Joining us is trevor greetham, head of multi asset at Royal London Asset management the markets at the moment, in london, a little bit weak and feeble. Yes, looking at The Big Picture over the summer, it has been pretty steady rise in stock prices. A lot of stuff in headlines, now the World Economy is expanding. That from perfect, pushing in the opposite direction . It is and it isnt, if everyone was convinced Stock Markets were the best thing ever, but they do get rattled by things like the stand off last week with north korea, and if you do find trump withdrawing from the mystic policy because he is finding it too difficult, you may see him leaning into the International Arena and we may get more shocks like that. Big bait geopolitical effects like north korea will affect the markets but looking at the latest chaos in the white house, the disbanding of the Business Councils we have talked about, markets seem not to care, but trump wants them to care. We never know what the stock market and the currencies would be if it was not trump, we never know the counterfactual, the dollar does care, it has been weakening substantially during the latest fiasco. Americas central bank is raising rates ahead of the others, the dollar ought to be a bit stronger. Sterling, seems to be continuing its long slow decline ever since the referendum, declining before the referendum, it fell off a cliff, and then continued. What is the main impetus behind that, brexit . Yes, the World Economy is doing well, europe in particular is growing strongly, we will talk about that later, because of brexit, we are that later, because of brexit, we a re less that later, because of brexit, we are less likely to raise Interest Rates, economy slowing down, that is why the pound is down, 25 against the euro since the referendum was called two years ago. Will talk about the euro economy later on in the programme, interesting information on that. Still to come we speak to the man whose batteries could be powering your cars, and houses in the future. Youre with Business Live from bbc news. Trade confidence fell more than 2 last quarter but its still at its third highest ever level according to new figures from the british chambers of commerce. The figures show that the volume of exports was steady but companies are worried about the future. Anastassia beliakova is head of trade policy at the bcc. A very warm welcome to Business Live. You might say no surprise that business is worried about the future, because, frankly, theres a lot for them to be contending with right now . Yes, there are many factors that businesses need to take into account. One of them is Skill Shortages in the uk, another is inflation, and of course stirling. Despite all of this, businesses are still putting in a Strong Performance. We have seen a slight rise in their over the last quarter, but there are many factors that could put some pressure in coming quarters. Tell me, anastassia, what do businesses need in order to be a bit to get over the problems of uncertainty, or is itjust certainty that they need . Businesses always wa nt that they need . Businesses always want certainty, but the uk government must commit to giving more direct face to face support to businesses. They need to ensure that future Immigration System is response of the economic needs, and also take into consideration the fa ct also take into consideration the fact that we are now party the Trade Agreements with a number of countries, south korea, south africa, mexico. We currently import from them at preferential rates. Now, the survey shows that particularly from manufacturers the price of Raw Materials is a considerable concern and they are considering increasing their prices over the next few quarters. If you think about import costs increasing due to us not being able to potentially make use of these preferential rates in future, it will put a lot of pressure on Business Margins and osemele be passed down to consumers. Thank you. If you have been doing any diy over the past few weeks, it has not helped sales at b q. I think i have spent all that money there. I need a new drill. Revenues down by nearly 296 new drill. Revenues down by nearly 2 of the three months. Sales in france doing particularly well, of course it owns a business there. They own the screwfix, dont they . They own the screwfix, dont they . They do. They have two branches in my town. Youre watching Business Live our top story another string of top bosses quit Donald TrumpsBusiness Groups so he scraps them both. But can he stay friends with businesses who are distancing themselves from him . We have also been asking you about qualifications in the uk, exam results june. We qualifications in the uk, exam resultsjune. We have been asking whether you got where you got example whether you got where you got Exa M Ple Results Whether you got where you got example results are ten one. Annabel says the hard work does pay off in the long run, must be stressful. Ollie says i got three a is from college. Projected from jobs. Available is been nothing. A quick look at how markets are faring. As we touched on earlier, the pound weakening, the ftse 100 as we touched on earlier, the pound weakening, the ftse100 barely changed. It is still august. Earlier this week, you might remember we spoke to the man behind the uks largest provider of Charging Points for Electric Cars. But what about the batteries . Ho