TRADE
Chinese actions costly: US
China’s “unfair trade practices” have cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars, the US Trade Representative (USTR) and Department of the Treasury said in a statement rebuking Beijing for the stalemate in negotiations. The statement, seen Tuesday on the USTR’s Web site, did not include any new actions against Chin, but it said the US was “disappointed” by a report Beijing issued over the weekend defending its stance and accusing US officials of backsliding in the talks. The statement accused Beijing of playing a “blame game” and misconstruing the nature and background of the trade dispute.
AUTOMAKERS
Diess meets Lighthizer
Volkswagen AG (VW) chief executive Herbert Diess on Monday with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a week before new tariffs are set to hit imported Mexican vehicles, two people briefed on the matter said. Mexican made vehicles accounted for nearly half of Volkswagen’s US sales last year. “We believe that tariffs of this kind are a tax on the US consumer and will result in higher prices and also threaten job growth,” VW said in a statement on Monday. The company “has made significant long-term investments in the United States that would be impaired by restrictive changes to trade,” it added.
INVESTMENT
New funding for TrueLayer
Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) and Singapore government-owned fund Temasek said they would invest US$35 million in London-based TrueLayer. The three-year-old fintech start-up sells open-banking software, which lets people share or aggregate their financial information from different providers. Including the new money, TrueLayer has raised US$47 million to date, it said in a statement yesterday. A valuation was not disclosed.
FRANCE
IMF warns Paris over debt
The IMF on Monday warned France that its public debt is “too high for comfort,” calling on the nation to tackle the issue by stepping up spending reforms. In a report outlining preliminary findings of this year’s mission, the IMF said tax and labor market reforms had helped keep the economy resilient despite slowing growth, but it urged the government to find further ways to curb spending and to ensure the measures have public support.
INVESTMENT
GIC holds Julius Baer stake
Singapore has built up a stake of about 3 percent in Julius Baer Group AG, providing a major boost for the wealth manager in the midst of an aggressive push in Asia. The acquisition made through wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd is likely to come as a relief for chief executive officer Bernhard Hodler after Julius Baer’s stock fell the most among Switzerland’s biggest companies last year.
RETAIL
Record drop in UK sales
UK retail sales declined by the most on record last month, reinforcing a gloomy picture for the industry that’s seen a number of high-profile businesses run into trouble. Industry figures show total sales fell 2.7 percent from a year earlier, the biggest drop since at least 1995, excluding Easter distortions. While some of the drop relates to strong figures a year earlier, a royal wedding and the buildup to the football World Cup, political and economic uncertainty also played a significant role, the British Retail Consortium said.
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