State-run Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖), the nation’s biggest sugar provider, reiterated yesterday it will indefinitely freeze price hikes on sugar and cooking oil products in response to the government’s policy to stabilize consumer prices.
This came after the company released a statement on its Web site on Thursday evening, denying media reports it planned to raise prices to reflect rising costs.
“Taisugar has no intention of adjusting prices on sugar and cooking oil products in the near future” despite the spike in international commodity costs, company deputy chief executive officer Chen Chi-hsiang (陳啟祥) said.
Government policy and public opinion, in addition to market and cost concerns, have guided the company’s pricing decisions, Chen said.
Chen said Taisugar briefed the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Wednesday on global trends in sugar and cooking oil products and suggested responsive measures. He refused to elaborate and dismissed reports of price hikes as media speculation.
“There is no timetable for price adjustments,” he said. “I can’t say how long the freeze will last depending on public sentiment and government policy.”
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday instructed the Executive Yuan to pay attention to a possible increase in food prices.
The government will “pay -attention” to food prices, said Ma while attending a ceremony at Chi-nan Temple.
Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said the president meets with related government bodies every week to discuss the issue of food prices and supplies of locally produced food.
Government concern over food price hikes is believed to have been the main reason behind Taisugar’s decision to announce a price freeze.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it had reached a consensus with food and beverage associations to help stabilize consumables prices.
“These companies agreed to pass on the costs ‘reasonably’ to the consumer and not to collude in hiking prices or increase inventories to artificially create supply constraints,” the ministry said in a statement after meeting with industry associations.
Manufacturers undertook to take into the account reduced government tariffs on raw materials and the strengthened New Taiwan dollar when determining the prices of consumables, the statement read.
Despite the ministry’s words of comfort, Taiwan Flour Mills Association told the Central News Agency that vendors are under extreme pressure to raise prices.
Citing wheat as an example, the association said it had risen 17 percent in price and reduced taxes would not help defray such costs by much.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying