China yesterday announced that it would exempt 16 categories of products from US tariffs, ahead of a fresh round of trade talks next month.
Beijing and Washington have been embroiled in a year-long trade dispute that has seen the two sides slap punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of US dollars in two-way trade.
The exemptions are to become effective on Tuesday next week and be valid for one year, according to China’s Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, which released two lists that include seafood products and anti-cancer drugs.
The lists mark the first time Beijing has announced products to be excluded from tariffs.
Other product categories that are to become exempt include alfalfa pellets, fish feed, medical linear accelerators and mold release agents.
The lists do not include big-ticket items such as soybeans and pork, but in the statement, the commission said it was also considering further exemptions.
Trade negotiators have said they are to meet in Washington early next month, raising hopes for an easing of tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.
Both sides imposed fresh tit-for-tat tariffs on Sept. 1.
In a sign of the pressure being felt by the Chinese economy, the People’s Bank of China on Friday last week said that it would cut the amount of cash lenders must keep in reserve, allowing an estimated US$126 billion in additional loans to businesses.
China’s economic growth came in at 6.2 percent in the second quarter, the lowest rate in nearly three decades.
Beijing on Tuesday removed the limits on foreign institutions wanting to invest in its equity and bond markets, as it seeks to attract overseas investment amid a slowing economy and the trade dispute with the US.
Foreign individuals are barred from investing directly in China’s financial markets, but it allows certain institutions to buy shares under the so-called Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) scheme.
China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange said that it had removed the overall ceiling of US$300 billion on total asset purchases under the scheme, offering unfettered access to the world’s second-largest capital market.
A cap on a yuan-denominated sister scheme — the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) program, which allows overseas institutions to invest in Chinese securities using the offshore yuan — was also removed on Tuesday.
“Foreign institutional investors with the relevant qualifications can remit funds to carry out investment in securities in compliance with regulations, greatly enhancing the convenience for foreign investors participating in the onshore financial market,” the regulator said in a statement.
The regulator said that it was also seeking permission from the government to scrap administrative licenses needed by foreign investors to purchase equities and bonds.
Just over one-third of the US$300 billion QFII investments quota had been used by the end of last month, data showed.
The Chinese regulator said that the RQFII program would be open to all overseas institutional investors that meet certain requirements. Earlier it was only available to investors from certain nations or regions on a pilot basis.
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],”
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
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