Mexican Minister of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo was yesterday scheduled to meet with executives from automakers Ford Motor Co and General Motors Co I(GM) n Detroit, keeping a frenetic pace of meetings to deter US President Donald Trump from punishing Mexican exports.
Guajardo would also meet with auto parts makers that have operations in Detroit and Mexico, the ministry said and would discuss the state of US-Mexico trade and the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Trump has vowed to exit NAFTA, the 1994 trade accord that also includes Canada, if he cannot get better terms for the US.
He has also drawn up plans to build a wall on the US southern border and tax Mexican-made goods heading north to pay for it.
Wary of Trump’s unpredictability, Mexico is not counting on talks with the White House to save it from a possible trade war.
Instead, it hopes to build support among companies and US states that most rely on business south of the border to pressure Trump not to resort to drastic measures.
On Tuesday, Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Videgaray said Mexico would only stay in NAFTA if it suited the nation and he rejected the imposition of any tariffs or quotas.
The countries have yet to start formal negotiations.
“Thanks to NAFTA, Mexico and Michigan have built a dynamic trade relationship,” the economics ministry said, noting that Mexico was Michigan’s second-biggest trade partner with more than US$12 billion in exports to Mexico last year.
The US sent its Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to Mexico City last week to tend to ties, but their efforts were set back when Trump described deportations as “a military operation,” forcing Kelly to make a public clarification.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six