■Marketing
Thailand to ban liquor ads
Thailand may ban liquor and energy drink commercials on television for most of the day to reduce road accidents, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said. The cabinet today will consider a proposal to block advertisements of alcoholic and energy beverages daily between 5am and 10pm, Thaksin told reporters before a meeting that started in Bangkok at 10am. "We want to cut cases of drunk driving," he said. "Television should not promote drinking." The ban may hurt sales at BEC World Pcl, the nation's biggest publicly traded television operator, and ITV Pcl because makers of beer, whiskey and energy drinks are their largest customers, some analysts said. The government raised the penalty for drunk driving after road accidents claimed the lives of 569 people and injured 37,151 others during the five days of the nation's biggest holiday in April.
■ Telecom
Vodafone adds customers
Vodafone Group Plc, the world's biggest mobile phone company, added customers in Australia and New Zealand last quarter by introducing new service such as photo messaging and games. Vodafone, which competes with Telecom Corp in New Zealand, had 1.349 million subscribers in the nation as of June 30, an increase of 4.7 percent in the quarter and 20 percent from a year ago, according to figures on Vodafone's Web site. In Australia, where it competes with Telstra Corp and Singapore Telecom Ltd, Vodafone said it had 2.593 million customers, a 1.1 percent increase on the previous quarter, and a 20 percent gain on the year. Newbury, England-based Vodafone Group said Monday that it added a total 3 million customers in the quarter, increasing total subscribers to 122.7 million.
■ Macroeconomics
Japan's jobless rate falls
Japan's jobless rate fell to 5.3 percent last month and household spending had its biggest gain in almost two decades, prompting Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to say he sees "positive signs" for an economic recovery. The jobless rate fell from 5.4 percent in May, the first drop in four months, as the economy added 470,000 jobs. Spending by households headed by a salaried worker rose 4.8 percent last month from May, seasonally adjusted, the most since February 1984, the government's statistics bureau said in Tokyo. Meanwhile, sales at large Japanese retail stores last month declined 2.9 percent year-on-year after falling 3.6 percent in May, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said yesterday.
■ Trade
Japan imposes beef tariffs
Japan will raise tariffs on chilled beef to 50 percent from 38.5 percent beginning Friday, ignoring protests from its trading partners and favoring domestic farmers because meat imports rose fast enough to trigger safeguards. Chilled beef imports from the US, Australia and other countries rose 34 percent in the three months to June 30, the Ministry of Finance said. Under WTO rules, Japan can impose the higher tariffs if imports rise more than 17 percent from the same period a year ago. Tariffs will also increase on pork. Retail prices will rise about 2.5 percent, he added. Food companies in Japan and beef farmers in Australia and other countries argue that the increase in customs charges is unfair because the rise in imports reflects an overall recovery in beef demand after an outbreak of mad cow disease, or BSE, hurt consumption last year.
Agencies
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
CALL FOR DIALOGUE: The president-elect urged Beijing to engage with Taiwan’s ‘democratically elected and legitimate government’ to promote peace President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of foreign affairs. While Koo is to head the Ministry of National Defense and presidential aide Lin is to take over as minister of foreign affairs, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) would be retained as the nation’s intelligence chief, continuing to serve as director-general of the National Security Bureau, Lai told a news conference in Taipei. Koo,
MANAGING DIFFERENCES: In a meeting days after the US president signed a massive foreign aid bill, Antony Blinken raised concerns with the Chinese president about Taiwan US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the US and China as the two sides butt heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Talks between the two sides have increased over the past few months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about Taiwan and the South China Sea, along with China’s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues