■ TRADE
HKTDC to open local branch
The Ministry of Economic Affairs approved an application by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC, 香港貿易發展局) to set up a branch in Taiwan, a government statement said on Friday. HKTDC officially applied to set up its branch in Taiwan on Aug. 8, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會), the HKTDC’s Taiwanese counterpart, said in the statement. Custom statistics show that bilateral trade between Taiwan and Hong Kong reached US$39.8 billion last year, accounting for 8.54 percent of Taiwan’s trade.
■ CONSTRUCTION
Israel agrees to pay wages
Ending a tense standoff, an Israeli company said on Friday it had agreed to pay wages to Chinese laborers who were working on a luxury resort project that was suddenly halted by the global financial crisis. Ashtrom Group Ltd said it would pay the 60 workers who had prevented employees of the Israeli company from leaving the work site on the tiny island of West Caicos, said Ygal Yancovitz, a Miami-based regional manager of the Israeli company. Yancovitz denied the Chinese laborers had taken Ashtrom’s employees hostage, as some had described.
■ FOOD
Fonterra could drop Sanlu
Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd could sell its stake in a Chinese dairy venture at the center of the milk scandal that killed four babies and sickened 53,000 children. Fonterra, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, said talks were under way on a third-party acquisition of Sanlu Group Co (三鹿). The Auckland, New Zealand-based group owns 43 percent of Sanlu. “Discussions are continuing around a number of facets of Sanlu’s future,” Fonterra chief executive officer Andrew Ferrier said in a statement. “These include the possibility of Sanlu being acquired by a third party.” Feihe Dairy, a subsidiary of American Dairy Inc, was invited by the Chinese government yesterday to a meeting to discuss the future of Sanlu, Xinhua news agency said.
■ MOTORCYCLES
Production cuts announced
Japanese motorcycle makers are cutting production as demand in the US and Europe shrinks because of the global economic crisis, a report said yesterday. Top motorcycle maker Honda Motor Co intends to slash production by 10 percent for the year to March from 12 months earlier to 400,000 bikes, the Nikkei Shimbun said. Second-ranked Yamaha Motor Co has lowered its production forecasts by 20 percent for 250cc or larger bikes at its main factory in Iwata in central Japan to 350,000 to 360,000 units. Suzuki Motor Corp will reduce domestic output of motorcycles and buggy carts for the year to March by 7 percent from a year earlier to 509,000 units, the daily reported.
■ ENERGY
Bolivia to buy Ashmore shares
The Bolivian government announced late on Friday an agreement to buy all shares owned by the British company Ashmore Energy International in the local gas pipeline company Transredes. The deal followed President Evo Morales’ decision in June to nationalize the pipeline, which had led Ashmore to file for international arbitration in a Swedish court. A local media report said Ashmore wanted US$500 million in compensation for its share in the pipeline. The total value of the deal, under which Ashmore’s 25 percent stake in Transredes would be transferred to Bolivia’s national oil and gas company YPFB, has not been disclosed.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
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