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World Business Quick Take

■ Trade
US turns down appeal
The US has turned down a Bangladeshi appeal to waive a US$50 million penalty for exporting garments beyond its quota, officials said yesterday. A commerce ministry official said the US decision would be a "big blow for the country's garment sector," which is cash-strapped Bangladesh's key earner of foreign exchange. The US imposed the US$50 million penalty after Bangladesh last year shipped 175,000 items of cotton trousers beyond its quota allowance. In a letter to Bangladesh's Commerce Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury released here, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said Washington "cannot waive the penalty that was imposed."

■ Petroleum
Manila to subsidize oil
President Gloria Arroyo's government is considering a limited oil subsidy to help consumers of diesel, the fuel of choice for the Philippines' mass transport system, her office said yesterday. The government is concerned over the possible inflationary effect of rising prices of refined oil products. "I have ordered the Department of Transportation and Communication and the Department of Energy to conduct a thorough study on the capability of the government to subsidize petroleum prices so that the price of diesel can be kept low," Arroyo said in a statement. The government is observing austerity measures to keep the national budget deficit within the target ceiling of 202 billion pesos (US$3.69 billion) this year.

■ Real estate
Japan to raise airport rents
Japan will raise rents for companies operating Narita, Haneda and 24 regional state-owned airports because current charges, which are indexed to land prices, have fallen, inflating operator margins, the Nikkei English News reported. Fees will be levied on parking and store sales in order to collect an additional several billion yen from the closely held operators of the airports, the report said, citing people in the Japanese government that it did not identify. Rents at the Tokyo International Airport at Haneda declined by 60 percent between 1994 and last year, while sales at the airport rose, the report said. Operators' pretax profit margins stand at 7.9 percent compared with 5 percent for publicly traded retail and real estate companies, the report said, citing the government.

■ Software
MS settles with Be Inc
Microsoft Corp has agreed to pay US$23.25 million in an out-of-court settlement to resolve an antitrust lawsuit that had been brought against the company by defunct software maker Be Inc. Microsoft announced the settlement with California-based Be Inc late Friday. The two groups did not divulge further details of their settlement, which is related to a lawsuit Be Inc filed against the world's largest software maker in February last year. In a short statement Microsoft simply confirmed that, in light of the payment, Be Inc had agreed to end its federal lawsuit against Microsoft. The settlement comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft had tried to pressure computer makers to boycott a program being marketed by Be Inc. In May, Microsoft agreed to pay US$750 million to AOL Time Warner for AOL to abandon an antitrust suit concerning Internet browsers that enable computer users to surf the Web.

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