Taiwan has launched a WTO challenge to Canada over duties on steel which Ottawa claims is being dumped on its market, sources said yesterday.
Taiwan informed the WTO that it had made a formal request for consultations with Canada, which is the first step towards a full-blown legal challenge at the Geneva-based body. Under the rules of the 160-economy WTO, members have 60 days to try to resolve their differences in direct talks. Thereafter, the aggrieved party has the option of calling for the creation of a panel to rule on the dispute.
At issue are duties that Canada has slapped on imports of steel carbon welded pipes from Taiwan. The WTO polices global trade accords in an effort to offer its member economies a level playing field. Members have the right to impose extra duties when goods are being “dumped” on them or sold at below market prices to grab business.
However, hand in hand with that right, they are obliged to prove that their domestic producers are suffering as a result of dumping, and that the duties are not simply being deployed to protect them against foreign competitors.
The WTO’s disputes settlement process can last for years, due to appeals, counter-appeals and compliance assessments. Its panels of independent trade and legal experts can authorise retaliatory trade measures if they rule in favor of a plaintiff.
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