WTO block could prompt crisis
Taiwan's decision to block the appointment of a Chinese judge to the WTO's top court threatens an institutional crisis, a key official warned yesterday.
Taiwan on Monday objected to the proposed appointment of Chinese lawyer Zhang Yeujiao (張月姣) to the WTO's seven-member Appellate Body, which issues rulings in key trade disputes, citing the possibility of bias.
"I'm extremely concerned that if the situation persists much longer we will have a crisis in this organization," the chairman of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) Bruce Gosper told journalists.
Taiwan's objection meant that Monday's meeting of the DSB was indefinitely postponed, leaving pending complaints on US agricultural subsidies and Chinese intellectual property restrictions in limbo.
Speaking after an informal meeting of the DSB, Gosper said that all of the 151 members of the WTO, bar Taiwan, shared his concerns.
Taiwan said in a statement on Monday that it had "deep concerns on the question of impartiality and qualification of one of the recommended candidates."
UMC buys more Epistar shares
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the nation's second-biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday said it bought an additional 3.37 million Epistar Corp (晶電) shares for almost NT$400 million (US$12.37 million).
Epistar is the nation's biggest maker of chips for light-emitting diodes (LEDs). UMC is one of Epistar's major shareholders with two representatives to the board.
After the purchase, UMC owns a 3.42 percent stake in Epistar. UMC bought its initial shares on the open market in March and subscribed to Espistar's new share sales this month at an average price of NT$118.51 a share, according to a statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp.
Cathay Financial invests
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰人壽), Taiwan's largest financial services provider, said its life insurance unit has invested US$60 million to set up a subsidiary in Vietnam.
Cathay Financial, based in Taipei, announced the investment in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange today, without giving any further details.
PxMart merger approved
The Fair Trade Commission yesterday gave the green light for the merger of Pxmart (全聯社), the nation's biggest "hard discount" chain better known as Chuan Lian Center (全聯福利中心), with supermarkets run by the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co (TAPM, 台北農產運銷公司).
The commission said it was not opposed to the merger as the deal posed "no significant impact on the overall market structure," it said in a statement posted on its Web site.
Pxmart, which has more than 300 supermarkets nationwide, had applied with the commission to acquire six TAPM supermarkets and jointly run another seven stores with TAPM.
MOEA, Novartis ink pact
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG as the two sides agreed on a five-year biomedical collaboration program, the ministry said in a statement.
The Novartis Pharmaceutical Research and Development Part-nership Program aims to enhance Taiwan's biotech industry through cooperation in preliminary clinical trials, drug research and personnel training, the statement said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) signed the MOU with Stefan Ziegler, head of Novartis in charge of Asia Pacific region, the ministry said. The MOU was the first of its kind that the ministry had signed with foreign drug makers, it said.
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