■ TRADE
Leaders battle protectionism
Leaders of Asia-Pacific economies will issue a call against protectionism and backing free trade at an upcoming weekend summit, despite the global financial crisis, an official from host Peru said on Monday. “The main theme we followed in this ... meeting is that we should avoid at any cost protectionism,” Peruvian Deputy Foreign Minister Gonzalo Gutierrez told a news conference. Gutierrez said that the 21-nation group should stick to its goal to achieve a free trade system in the region, echoing a call from world leaders at a G20 summit last weekend in Washington on the financial crisis. The G20 leaders agreed to refrain from imposing any new trade and investment barriers for the next 12 months.
■INDIA
Finance minister optimistic
Finance Minister P. Chidamabaram asked industry yesterday to cut prices and maintain production levels and said he was confident that the economy would bounce back in a year, news reports said. “We will take steps to stimulate the domestic economy to compensate for the downside caused by the downturn in the world economy,” Chidambaram said at the Davos-based World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit in New Delhi. “The classic response to demand slowdown is to cut prices for the short term,” he told a gathering of top business leaders, officials and economists.
■TAKEOVERS
Firm wants Triumph-Adler
Japan’s Kyocera Mita Corporation announced takeover plans yesterday for the German office services company Triumph-Adler AG. The Osaka-based company said it would submit an offer of 1.90 euros (US$2.40) per share in order to secure around 60 percent to 75 percent of the German firm’s share capital. Kyocera Mita already has a 29.9 percent stake in Triumph-Adler AG, the announcement said, adding that Triumph-Adler would remain a listed company. Triumph-Adler said the move unlocks considerable opportunities for expansion for both sides in terms of operating activities in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
■ELECTRONICS
Spansion sues Samsung
Spansion Inc wants to block US sales of iPods, BlackBerry gadgets and other devices because memory chips made by Samsung Electronics Co and used in those products allegedly violate Spansion patents. Sunnyvale, California-based Spansion, the world’s No. 3 maker of flash memory chips by revenue, sued Samsung on Monday. Spansion claims more than “100 million MP3 players, cellphones, digital cameras and other consumer electronic devices” are made with Samsung flash memory chips that violate Spansion patents. Spansion claims Samsung, the world’s biggest memory-chip maker, has sold US$30 billion in products over the past five years that contain patented Spansion technologies.
■MANAGEMENT
Carrefour to replace CEO
Carrefour SA said it would replace its chief executive with a former top manager at Switzerland’s Nestle SA, the culmination of long-simmering tensions over the French retail giant’s performance and strategy. Carrefour’s board named Swede Lars Oloffson to replace outgoing CEO Jose Luis Duran, effective on Jan. 1. Speculation over Duran’s future has mounted since last year when the company’s long-standing top shareholder ceded its position to a consortium controlled by French billionaire Bernard Arnault and US private-equity firm Colony Capital.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS