Automakers yesterday said they were hopeful a free trade agreement between South Korea and the US will prove a boon to their industry, but added they were taking a cautious approach until the deal gets final approval.
"The specific details of the free trade agreement are still being analyzed by all of the auto manufacturers," Michael Grimaldi, president and CEO of GM Daewoo Auto and Technology Co, said on the sidelines of the 2007 Seoul Motor Show. "We export our products around the world. We look forward to the resolution of the agreement."
Under the deal signed on Monday, South Korea and the US agreed to phase out all tariffs on cars. The US, which imposes a 25 percent import duty on pickup trucks, also said it would drop duties on those vehicles in 10 years.
PHOTO: AP
Autos make up approximately 20 percent of South Korea's exports to the US, the world's biggest vehicle market.
Expressing optimism over the pact, Hyundai Motor Co said it would conduct a feasibility study on whether to start manufacturing pickups. The company, the world's sixth-largest automaker in conjunction with affiliate Kia Motors Corp, does not make the vehicles.
Automakers from South Korea, the US, Europe and Japan were exhibiting their cars at the Seoul Motor Show, held every two years. The exhibition opened to the media yesterday in Goyang, near Seoul, with the general public allowed in for 10 days from today.
Cho Nam-hong, president and chief executive of Kia, was mum on what strategy his company would pursue regarding the trade deal.
"Every carmaker should review [its business plan] according to the FTA," he said. "We will wait and see for now."
Wayne Chumley, president of DaimlerChrysler Korea Ltd, said more would be known once the finer points of the pact emerged.
"We're still waiting to see all the sector details," he said. "We're hopeful."
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day