TAXATION
US, India reach tax deal
The US on Wednesday said it had reached a deal to lift never-implemented levies on India in exchange for the easing of its tax targeting international tech firms. India is among countries that had imposed a tax on foreign digital services, which earned Washington’s ire since it considers such levies an unfair attack on US tech giants. The US Department of Treasury said in a statement that India would instead follow a minimum tax deal reached last month by 140 countries under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. That agreement would see the imposition of a 15 percent minimum corporate tax worldwide and is expected to come into effect in 2023.
ENVIRONMENT
China eyes methane control
China will look into methane emissions in key industries, including coal mining, agriculture and petroleum, and publish a nationwide methane emission control action plan, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment told a news briefing yesterday. China’s methane emissions were 55.29 million tonnes in 2014, accounting for 10.4 percent of total greenhouse gases emission in the nation, the latest official data showed. The energy sector contributed 45 percent of the methane discharge, while agriculture accounted for 40 percent. The ministry said it would roll out thorough research on China’s methane emission control situation and set effective emission reduction measures.
ENERGY
IEA head appeals to OPEC
International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol on Wednesday called on OPEC and its allies to take measures to help bring oil prices down to reasonable levels. “I very much hope to see in the next meeting or meetings they ... make the necessary steps in order to comfort the global oil markets and help bring the prices down at reasonable levels,” Birol told reporters. He also took aim at Russia over gas. “Russia can easily increase exports to Europe about 15 percent ... and significantly comfort the European gas markets,” Birol said.
MEXICO
Woman to head central bank
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday nominated Deputy Minister of Finance Victoria Rodriguez as the next Bank of Mexico governor, the first woman to head the central bank. The announcement came a day after former minister of finance Arturo Herrera said Lopez Obrador had withdrawn his candidacy for the post, unsettling financial markets. “For the first time, a woman will be heading the Bank of Mexico,” Lopez Obrador told reporters, saying the nomination, which requires approval by the senate, was part of efforts to promote gender equality. As deputy finance minister, Rodriguez “has acted with great responsibility so as not to spend just to spend,” he added.
AIRLINES
Cathay to slash HK flights
Cathay Pacific yesterday said it would slash passenger flights into Hong Kong next month as the territory’s strict travel curbs continue to keep international travelers away at a time when rivals are seeing their prospects improve. As the peak holiday season approaches, the airline will convert about one-third of flights bound for Hong Kong to handle cargo, the South China Morning Post reported, citing company sources.
SEMICONDUCTOR SERVICES: A company executive said that Taiwanese firms must think about how to participate in global supply chains and lift their competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it expects to launch its first multifunctional service center in Pingtung County in the middle of 2027, in a bid to foster a resilient high-tech facility construction ecosystem. TSMC broached the idea of creating a center two or three years ago when it started building new manufacturing capacity in the US and Japan, the company said. The center, dubbed an “ecosystem park,” would assist local manufacturing facility construction partners to upgrade their capabilities and secure more deals from other global chipmakers such as Intel Corp, Micron Technology Inc and Infineon Technologies AG, TSMC said. It
NO BREAKTHROUGH? More substantial ‘deliverables,’ such as tariff reductions, would likely be saved for a meeting between Trump and Xi later this year, a trade expert said China launched two probes targeting the US semiconductor sector on Saturday ahead of talks between the two nations in Spain this week on trade, national security and the ownership of social media platform TikTok. China’s Ministry of Commerce announced an anti-dumping investigation into certain analog integrated circuits (ICs) imported from the US. The investigation is to target some commodity interface ICs and gate driver ICs, which are commonly made by US companies such as Texas Instruments Inc and ON Semiconductor Corp. The ministry also announced an anti-discrimination probe into US measures against China’s chip sector. US measures such as export curbs and tariffs
The US on Friday penalized two Chinese firms that acquired US chipmaking equipment for China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), including them among 32 entities that were added to the US Department of Commerce’s restricted trade list, a US government posting showed. Twenty-three of the 32 are in China. GMC Semiconductor Technology (Wuxi) Co (吉姆西半導體科技) and Jicun Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co (吉存半導體科技) were placed on the list, formally known as the Entity List, for acquiring equipment for SMIC Northern Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Beijing) Corp (中芯北方積體電路) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corp (中芯北京), the US Federal Register posting said. The
India’s ban of online money-based games could drive addicts to unregulated apps and offshore platforms that pose new financial and social risks, fantasy-sports gaming experts say. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned real-money online games late last month, citing financial losses and addiction, leading to a shutdown of many apps offering paid fantasy cricket, rummy and poker games. “Many will move to offshore platforms, because of the addictive nature — they will find alternate means to get that dopamine hit,” said Viren Hemrajani, a Mumbai-based fantasy cricket analyst. “It [also] leads to fraud and scams, because everything is now
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