Other European governments are pressing Switzerland to ferret out tax cheats, a move the Swiss are resisting mightily because they fear it would frighten capital out of their banks.
As an autumn deadline looms to enact a European financial disclosure agreement, the controversy is becoming public, with European ministers regularly rebuking the Swiss for not joining the deal. The accord could fail entirely without Swiss involvement because its banks control about US$27 trillion of the world's funds and handle a third of all money transferred across European borders.
At stake, the Swiss worry, is the competitiveness of its banking industry, a pillar of the economy that thrives on legendary financial privacy. The 15-country EU insists that Switzerland help fight tax evasion -- though that is not a crime in the country -- by disclosing the amount of interest paid to nonresidents so they can be taxed accordingly.
Adding to the turmoil over potential economic disruption, the Swiss government raised an outcry this week after it acted to defend another Swiss pillar, its insurance companies. The seven ministers who govern Switzerland, meeting just before a vacation break, took a full percentage point off the legal return for the country's pensions.
That drew a furious response from trade unions, which said the ministers were caving to insurers' pressure. By reducing the pension return rate, the government helped shore up the insurance companies' bottom line, but at a cost to future pensioners.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique