TRADE
China slams US steel tariffs
Beijing on Saturday accused Washington of protectionism and violating global trade rules, Chinese media reported, after the US imposed hefty tariffs on certain Chinese steel imports. The US Department of Commerce on Thursday imposed duties ranging from 63 to 190 percent on Chinese exporters that it accuses of selling their products at below fair value or of being unfairly subsidized. The US tariffs follow a similar move last month by the EU, which unveiled taxes of between 30.7 and 64.9 percent on certain Chinese steel products as it seeks to protect struggling steelmakers in Europe.
CHINA
WeChat ‘hong bao’ use soars
Users of WeChat (微信) sent about 46 billion electronic hong bao — digital versions of traditional red envelopes stuffed with cash — via the Chinese mobile social platform over the Lunar New Year period, China’s Xinhua new agency reported on Saturday. The number of digital red packets, sent via WeChat, rose 43 percent in the Jan. 27 to Wednesday last week period compared with a year earlier, according to Xinhua. People in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong and Hebei provinces led the mania, while South Koreans were WeChat’s most active hong bao senders outside China, Xinhua said.
RUSSIA
Interest rate unchanged
The central bank on Friday kept its key rate unchanged and suggested it would hold off cutting borrowing costs for now in face of external political and economic uncertainty. The announcement came after the Ministry of Finance said it will start buying foreign currency in a bid to rein in the rising ruble. As widely expected, the central bank kept its rate unchanged at 10 percent as part of what it describes as “moderately tight monetary policy.” Furthermore, “given the internal and external developments, the Bank of Russia’s capability to cut its key rate in the first half of 2017 has diminished,” it said in a statement.
UNITED KINGDOM
Brexit office hires hundreds
The British Department for Exiting the EU on Friday said that it has hired 328 people since its formation in July last year as it braces for two years of intensive negotiations with the EU to hammer out the terms of Britain’s departure from the bloc. Sixty-two of them came from the government’s Cabinet Office, with the Foreign Office providing 29, the department said. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy supplied 24 employees, and 23 came from the Home Office, it said.
AUTOMAKERS
Maserati to recall cars
Maserati North America Inc is recalling at least 39,381 vehicles after it discovered two separate defects that could cause fires. In certain 2014 to 2017 Quattroporte, Ghibli and Levante vehicles, the luxury automaker said that adjusting the front seat might cause the seat wiring harness to rub against metal points, which could eventually lead the seat to malfunction. In rare cases, it could result in an electrical short and risk of fire, it said. The company expects to begin the recall for the defect on March 21. In a separate case, Maserati said that certain 2014 to 2015 Quattroporte and Ghibli vehicles have fuel lines that might leak fuel. It expects to begin the recall of 10,879 vehicles for the defect on Feb. 28.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last