AUSTRALIA
Canberra holds WTO case
The government is to temporarily suspend its WTO case against China over tariffs on barley, while Beijing undertakes a three-month review of the restrictions, in a potential breakthrough to the long-running dispute between the nations. Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) yesterday announced the agreement alongside Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell at a news conference in Adelaide, saying they were hopeful of a similar agreement for China’s tariffs on Australian wine. “We are hopeful that at the end of that review process the impediments that currently exist will be suspended or removed and that we can get back to normal trade with China,” Farrell said.
JAPAN
Buffett eyeing Japan stocks
Warren Buffett is turning his focus back to Japan as he intends to boost his investments in the country, the Nikkei reported. Shares of major trading houses — Mitsubishi Corp, Mitsui & Co, Marubeni Corp, Sumitomo Corp and Itochu Corp — yesterday rose after Buffett said he had raised Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s holdings in them to 7.4 percent from about 5 percent in 2020 and is looking to increase his exposure to Japanese stocks, the Nikkei report said. “This may encourage foreign investors to invest in Japanese stocks, especially in value stocks,” T&D Asset Management Co chief strategist Hiroshi Namioka said.
SOUTH KOREA
Regulator fines Google
The Korea Fair Trade Commission has fined Alphabet Inc’s Google 42.1 billion won (US$31.83 million) for blocking the release of mobile video games on a competitor’s platform. The commission yesterday said that Google bolstered its market dominance, and hurt local app market One Store’s revenue and value as a platform, by requiring video game makers to exclusively release their titles on Google Play in exchange for providing in-app exposure between June 2016 and April 2018. Game makers affected by Google’s action include Netmarble Corp, Nexon Co and NCSOFT Corp, as well as other smaller companies, the antitrust regulator said.
NEW ZEALAND
House sales tumble
House sales fell to a record low in the three months through December as interest-rate hikes and plunging property prices pushed buyers to the sidelines. Sales of residential and lifestyle properties fell to 13,890 in the fourth quarter last year, which was the lowest since records began in 1990, according to CoreLogic New Zealand data published yesterday by the Reserve Bank in Wellington. The volume is below the previous low of 15,579 seen during the 2008 global financial crisis. The CoreLogic data includes all settled property sales and the third-quarter sales were revised to 15,880 from 14,996 previously.
AVIATION
Airbus deliveries down 9%
Airbus SE delivered 127 jets in the first quarter, a 9 percent drop from a year earlier, as shortages of parts such as engines spilled into the new year. Deliveries totaled 61 aircraft in March, the world’s biggest maker of commercial jetliners said yesterday in a statement. The lower first-quarter tally would make it harder for Airbus to reach its goal of increasing deliveries to 720 aircraft this year. Airbus delivered 661 aircraft last year, after lowering its initial target. It handed over 140 jetliners in the first quarter of last year.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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